MS Word keeps changing x to

[TheCookie]

My mother is having a problem in Word and I'll be darned if I can figure it out.

OS X 10.4, MS Word 2004 11.5.3

Every time she types "x" as its own word (and she's a math teacher, so that's a lot), it autocorrects to an infinity symbol. You can imagine this is frustrating, as it can completely screw up a test she's writing.

Now I've done the obvious--it's not in the autocorrect. I also used the little pull-down that comes up under the infinity symbol and selected "Stop Automatically Correcting 'x.'" Hasn't changed a thing.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Raid]

Hmmm I'd check the custom dictionary... go to Tools>Options>Spelling & Grammar>Modify... A list should appear with all the user defined words that were input, it's possible that the list in there could contain the infinity symbol.

Just to be sure you're going through Tools>AutoCorrect to try and change things right?

 

[munkery]

You may have somehow accidentally created a macro of some sort? Possibly by activating a keyboard shortcut to initiate making a macro. I am probably totally off base here but I thought I would put it out there just in case.

 

[TheCookie]

Solved!

I checked the macros, but there weren't any.

I then uninstalled and reinstalled Office entirely. Didn't fix it.

Finally, I deleted all custom dictionaries. That did it!

Thanks for the help!

 

[Raid]

Ah ha, I knew it! Those custom dictionaries in office have been buggy for a while. I thought it would have shown up in the custom dictionary list (and therefore avoided a delete or reinstall), but hey it worked and now your mom can get back to work!

 

[DPA]

A typical MS application. Piece of crap

 

[TheCookie]

Problem Recurred

Although I previously fixed this problem, it has occurred again.

I'm 95% certain that she is not actively doing anything to cause this issue.

Does anyone have an idea of how or why her custom dictionary might be deciding to change "x" to "∞"?

I'd really like to stop this from happening again.

Thanks!

ADDITIONAL UPDATE: It is now happening with Roman Numerals as well. WORSE: The custom dictionaries are deleted, but the problem continues.

HELP!

 

[xraydoc]

To solve the problem:

1) Uninstall MS Office

2) Install something else (iWork, NeoOffice, OpenOffice, Nisus Writer, etc)

Sorry, I know that's not helpful.

 

[TheCookie]

To solve the problem:

1) Uninstall MS Office

2) Install something else (iWork, NeoOffice, OpenOffice, Nisus Writer, etc)

Sorry, I know that's not helpful.

Nope. Not helpful in the slightest.

Very funny, however.

 

[nadyne]

Wow, this is really weird. I've never heard of anything like that before, and if you've already removed your custom dictionary, I'm out of ideas. Have you tried to call tech support? You get two or three free calls to tech support with your purchase of Office 2008. Alternately, you can try the [url="http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Word/]Word public forums[/url] to see if one of the experts there knows anything. (Or, if you're at Macworld, you can come by our booth and see if a member of the Word team is able to figure out what's going on!)

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[TheCookie]

Update!

The problem appears to have been resolved once again.

It seems my mom isn't interested in learning native mac shortcuts, and so had created an autocorrect to change "iii" into "∞." Somehow, this seems to have triggered some sort of bug in the system that was then changing "i" and "x" into "∞." That last part is unclear to me.

But deleting the "iii" entry in the autocorrect fixed the problem.

Thanks, everyone, for your help.