AutoCorrect seemingly not working with new commands

[Tyler_Seattle]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I am running Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac on my new MacBook Pro (10.5). I want to use AutoCorrect in order to easily work with Sanskrit diacritic markings (such as "a with macron"), which I need to use frequently.

Word Mac differs from Winword in that in Winword one can go to "Symbols," find the character desired, and program a shortcut command for that character. In Word Mac, the full font palette is not available under "symbols."

Thus it seems my solution is to program in some AutoCorrect patterns. (For example, I would like to type ;a and have ;a be automatically replaced by ā. I don't want to have to go to the character palette each time I have to insert a diacritic mark.)

So here's the situation: I go into AutoCorrect and follow all the steps, but even after I set up the "replace ___ with ____" formula, I come back to the document, and nothing happens when I enter the text-to-be-replaced.

Is this a bug/issue in Mac Word 2008? Or is there something I am just missing here?

Any other suggestions on more convenient access to Sanskrit diacritic markings?

 

[etcstgo]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

So here's the situation: I go into AutoCorrect and follow all the steps, but even after I set up the "replace ___ with ____" formula, I come back tothe document, and nothing happens when I enter the text-to-be-replaced.

Well, I typed "ā" into an html document in order to see the
actual "a with macron" (â), then copied and pasted â into AutoCorrect
as a replacement for ;a. It works as advertised.

Patricio Mason
Santiago, Chile

 

[Tyler_Seattle]

Thanks, Patricio, for your reply. Are you using Word 2008? It might be that something is checked in my program that I should uncheck, because to the very, very best of my knowledge I also follow all the appropriate steps, but unfortunately it does not work as advertised.

Tyler Dewar
Seattle, WA

 

[Tyler_Seattle]

Problem solved: it turns out that, for some unadvertised and unexplained reason, Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac wants you to first program you AutoCorrect options in the context of a brand new document, not in the context of an old document that was not created in Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac. Just screwing around, I attempted to set up the patterns in a new document and it worked. Now, the AutoCorrect options I had programed also work in documents that were originally created in previous versions of Word.

 

[John McGhie]

Sounds like the ACL file and Normal template were not transferred when you
installed, or have been removed later.

That's not necessarily a bad thing! Great and inexplicable problems can
result from transferring the Normal template for an earlier version of Word


Cheers

Problem solved: it turns out that, for some unadvertised and unexplained
reason, Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac wants you to first program you AutoCorrect
options in the context of a brand new document, not in the context of an old
document that was not created in Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac. Just screwing
around, I attempted to set up the patterns in a new document and it worked.
Now, the AutoCorrect options I had programed also work in documents that were
originally created in previous versions of Word.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[etcstgo]

Thanks, Patricio, for your reply. Are you using Word 2008? It might be that something is checked in my program that I should uncheck, because to thevery, very best of my knowledge I also follow all the appropriate steps, but unfortunately it does not work as advertised.

Tyler Dewar
Seattle, WA

Yes, I am using Word 2008.

In the AutoCorrect pane you *do* have "Replace text as you type" and
"Automatically correct spelling and formatting as you type" checked,
right? If you do, and you have an AutoCorrect entry on the order of
"Replace ;a with â", there's no reason why it shouldn't work.

Patricio Mason
Santiago, Chile

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Late side note:

I don't think AutoCorrect cares about new/old documents, though RTF vs
doc/docx may matter. However, AutoCorrect *is* language-dependent. If
you look at the top of the AutoCorrect dialog, you will see a language
specified.

If this was an old document where you were using Sanskrit, and the
language was not tagged such that Word understood it, that may explain
what you describe. You may have saved the AutoCorrect into a different
language, or no language (if that's possible).