auto correct & differences between responses

[murray-m]

I use auto correct constantly and load it with my own abbreviations to speed
up my two finger typing! In Word .doc documents it always finds a unique
set of auto corrects, no problem. But in Outlook (with Word editor enabled)
it uses that same unique set of auto corrects as Word .doc, for any "new"
e-mail mesage, but when i am replying or forwarding and e-mail message it
uses a different auto correct list! I cannot understand where the auto
corrects are stored and where the application looks for them. I JUST WANT
ONE SET OF AUTO CORRECTS TO FUNCTION FOR ANY PURPOSE.

 

[Tony Jollans]

I don't use Word in Outlook, but, at a guess this is a language issue. Is
the language (see the status bar or Tools > Language) the same in both
cases?

 

[murray-m]

Yes Tony, the language is set in both cases to English Australia. I think
the problem has to do with where the autocorrects are stored and is tied up
with the Normal.dot file functionality. I can't get my head around
Normal.dot. I think Word looks for the first Normal.dot file and it is
finding a different one in Word to what it fimds in Outlook. What can you
say about that? Regards Murray M.

 

[Tony Jollans]

If it's not language, I'm afraid I'm mystified. Perhaps an explanation will
help you understand even if it doesn't solve the immediate problem.

Every Word document is based on a template (a .dot file). If you don't
explicitly specify one, Word uses normal.dot which it makes sure it always
has (based on hardcoded defaults if necessary). Partly because it is always
available, some personalisations (including formatted autocorrects - see
below) are also held in normal.dot.

Autocorrects in Word come in two types - formatted and plain text. The
formatted ones are held in normal.dot and are language-independent. The
plain text autocorrections are held in .acl files, exactly where depending
on version. If you have a recent version of Word there is one .acl file per
language and Word switches files behind the scenes depending on the language
at the time.

If you go to the Tools > Autocorrect dialog, the title bar of the dialog
shows the language in effect at the time. If the language is the same, the
autocorrects ought to be the same.

 

[murray-m]

Hi Tony - tks yr help. Your expl'n led me to realise that there are language
diff's. Some Word files are set to English (Australian) (which comes up with
English(UK); and others are set to English (US). The same occurs in
Outlook. So i checked what happened when i changed the language on one
document and presto! ...the auto-correct dictionary changed.
So now i would like to know how to get the Auto-corrects that are held in
the (US) dictn'y moved to the (UK) one, because i want to set the default
langauge for all my documents in Word and Outlook to the English (UK)
dictionary.
Thanks again
Murray Morton

 

[Tony Jollans]

Hi Murray,

If you don't have anything you want to keep in the English (U.K.) file then
the easiest thing to do is to rename the files.

(Assuming a normal Windows XP machine) look in C:\Documents And
Settings\(userid)\Application Data\Microsoft\Office for the files.

Rename MSO2057.acl as MSO2057.old (perhaps) - this is the UK English file.

Take a copy of MSO1033.acl (the US English file) and rename the copy as
MSO2057.acl

This will make the UK file the same as the US one.

If, on the other hand, you have autocorrects in both files which you wish to
keep and merge it is a more complex process. I wonder whether there is
already something out there to do this - if not, I could write you some code
to do it.

 

[murray-m]

Hi Tony,
I have followed your insturctions and i believe my problem is almost solved,
but not quite. Now, in all Word docs the default dictionary is the right
one (happens to be English (USA)), and also replies and forwards for e-mail
messages in Outlook, but new e-mail mesaages are still hanging onto the wrong
dictionary and i can't change it no matter what i try. For example i go
Tools/langauge/set language and English (Australia) is the default; so i
change it to English (USA) and hit the default button; the window with
warning about changing the default affects all new docs based on the NORMAL
template comes up and i OK that. But it doesn't change the dictionary! I've
tried going Tools/Spelling&Grammar and hitting the Custom Dictionary button
and there i see the correct dictionary selected, so i leave it alone.
Something is stopping me from changing the default dictionary in new e-mail
messages in Outlook. In all these cases the Tools/Options/File locations
shows the same locations for User templates and Workgroup templates, so i
assume that it is not anything to do with the Normal.dot template - or is it?
Murray M.