One of the problems many users experience in Word, is that it can make unexpected changes in the text, e.g. you type "21 March 2017", and it becomes, "2017-03-21")
Such changes are controlled largely by Word's "Auto-Correction" and "Auto-Formatting" options.
When you select the Options dialog and choose the Proofing tab, you are presented with the following screen:
If you now select the "AutoCorrect Options…" button, a dialog displays which has multiple tabs to present different areas where "auto-correction" may be applied.
Select the "AutoFormat" tab. If you have ever wondered why things like Smart Quotes suddenly appear in your document, the "Replace" section of the following screen will explain why. In braille production, there is no advantage to replacing straight quotes with "smart" ones, but that is the default choice for ink-print. You can un-check it here.
Now select the "AutoCorrect" tab. You may wish to select or deselect certain automatic actions on this tab according to your needs, e.g., to add or remove an automatic spelling correction.
The "AutoFormat As You Type" tab holds still more options, including another action that introduces "smart quotes" (which you may wish to suppress).
Note:Please refer to your Microsoft Word documentation for full details of these functions!