10.7: How to enable/disable Auto-Correct
Mac OS X Lion adds a new, more aggressive auto-correct function to Safari, Mail and more. While some may find this to be a godsend, others may find it rather annoying. For example, doing a search for Pat Metheny in Safari will auto-correct to Pat Methane. Not exactly what I was looking for. Fortunately, there are ways to control this behavior both as a system-wide default option and on an app by app basis. Here's what you need to do:
To set the default system-wide state for auto-correct, navigate to System Preferences/Language & Text. Click the Text tab at the top and then you can check or uncheck 'Correct spelling automatically.' In order for this to take effect, your apps must be quit and then relaunched. Upon relaunch, the correct default state for auto-correct will be set. To enable or disable auto-correct on an app by app basis, you need to be in an active text field (for example, in Safari you could go to Google and click to put the cursor in the search fiel ...
Source: http://feeds.macosxhints.com/click.phdo?i=2f28297855ea52391814222da8f66132