I was looking for a way to fix the autocorrection of (c) to © symbol in Microsoft Outlook 2011 on Mac and found an explanation
in a forum post on Microsofts website.
To summarize, these are the steps:
Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar > Click 'Automatic by Language' drop down > Select 'Open Text by Preferences', which is way at the bottom > Unselect 'Replace (c) with ©' check box
For a simple feature to be disabled, user should be allowed to do it in as few steps as possible. Moreover, the interface should be easy/intuitive for them to disable it. IMO, this is not happening with Outlook. Imagine many non-techies, older generation folks who just want to disable this. One can't expect them to Google their way to find out this info.
My recommendation, put this option and other similar formatting options in Autocorrect: Outlook > Preferences > Autocorrect
I think Outlook designers view (c) to © replacement as a spelling error or something. But still, the option to replace it should be easily accessible.
Stepping back, UI design is so integrated and crucial in our use of products, it is amazing how visionaries like Steve Jobs recognized its importance many decades ago.