As a literate user, you must already know about clicking on Tools |
AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat As You Type, and turning off everything
under "Apply as you type" and "Automatically as you type".

Jim Wood wrote:

Steven: I put Office 2000 on my new XP machine and had no problems at all.
NOW I have upgraded just Word to Office 2003/XP and am thinking of
reinstalling the old version. There are many differences, and the 2003
version seems to have been 'dumbed-down' to do a lot of things automatically,
almost insulting the intelligence of a literate user. -Jim