Word should not autoformat every series of tabs.

[Reofbl]

Not everyone is computer literate enough to deal with the constant
reformating of Word's tab structure. Most of us in college would perfer to
do things manaully and to make our own papers- **we do NOT want templates,
and we especially do NOT want anything interfering** with the papers we've
worked to create.
The autoformatting is an excessive novelity which comes at the cost of
customization; trying to create a paper with this default on all computers is
aggrivating and time-consuming.

 

[Genine]

Reofbl,
If you set up styles for your document before you start typing, and use
those styles then Word wouldn't reformat your text for you. The problems
start when you let Word help you out!

For starters, switch off anything that starts with "Auto" on the Tools >
AutoCorrect Autoformat and Autoformat as you type dialogs. See the Word MVP
FAQ page http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm for more
help on this.

Genine

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Also, make sure that your styles aren't automatically updating. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Are your papers normally replete with words such as "reformating",
"manaully", "novelity", and "aggrivating"?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

And "perfer"?