Microsoft Word includes a massive library of typographical rules designed to make text look more professional. One of the most aggressive rules involves “ordinals”—numbers indicating a position in a series (e.g., 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Whenever you type an ordinal and press the spacebar, Word automatically intercepts the text and shrinks the letters, converting them into tiny, floating superscript characters.
While superscript ordinals look excellent on wedding invitations or formal certificates, they are generally frowned upon in technical writing, legal documents, and strict academic formatting styles (like APA format, which explicitly forbids superscripting ordinals). Furthermore, the tiny superscript letters can disrupt line spacing and make the text difficult to read at smaller font sizes.
You can easily disable this specific typographical conversion to keep your ordinals formatted as standard, full-sized text.
How to Disable Automatic Ordinal Formatting
This setting is managed within the AutoCorrect configuration menu.
- Open your document in Microsoft Word.
- Click on File in the top-left corner of the ribbon.
- Click on Options at the bottom of the left sidebar.
- In the Word Options window, select Proofing from the left-hand navigation pane.
- Click the AutoCorrect Options… button in the main pane.
- A new dialog box will open. Click on the tab labeled AutoFormat As You Type.
- Look under the “Replace as you type” section.
- Uncheck the box labeled Ordinals (1st) with superscript.
- Click OK twice to close both windows and save your changes.
Microsoft Word will instantly stop altering your numbers. The next time you type “1st” or “2nd”, the letters will remain exactly on the baseline, matching the font size and styling of the rest of your paragraph.