importing autocorrect / autotext entries

[salismil]

hello,

i have two huge lists of autocorrect entries that are formatted as
tables, with the "abbreviation" in the first column and the expanded
text in the second column. the first list has about 7500 entries, the
second list 27000 entires, and each list is a separate word document.
in word 04 i was able to import both lists as autocorrect entries via
a macro...

anyone know of a similar way to do this in word 08, either through
autocorrect or autotext? or is there some easy applesript that someone
could whip up that would do the trick?

i could save each list as a plain text tab- or comma-delimited file,
if that makes things any easier...

thanks!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Since these autocorrect entries worked in Word 2004, the easiest thing
to do is to move the Word 2004 AutoCorrect List to where Word 2008 will
use it. See the necessary locations here, and just copy the file over.
http://word.mvps.org/mac/BackUpPrefs.html

 

[CyberTaz]

Hopefully Daiya interpreted your message correctly, but I'm seeing it from a
different perspective...

As I'm reading it, these are not actually Word ACL files, but are some other
file type and are accessed via an independent macro rather than as a part of
Word's AutoCorrect feature. If that's the case, just moving them into the
Office folder along side the legitimate ACLs will not enable them to work as
though they were part of the family, nor will the macro work in Word 2008.

There's definitely no built-in feature of Word that provides for importing
the lists to the existing ACLs. What it would take to "convert" them I have
no idea - I'm not even sure there is any realistic way - ACLs aren't regular
text files or simple lists of words.

If you can supply complete details of what type of files these are, how they
were created, etc. someone may have some ideas. They'll most likely also
request a copy of the macro if there are any possibilities.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

No, we read the question the same way--I'm just saying forget about
these original files and using a macro to convert them. That work has
already been done to use them in Word 2004 (OP said). Instead of
*re*-converting the original files for Word 2008, move the already
converted files from Word 2004 into Word 2008.

This does presume that the Office 2004 preferences were backed up, but I
thought even if you Removed Office 2004, it didn't trash the preferences.

 

[CyberTaz]

You're probably right in your interpretation, in which case the macro would
have most likely looped through each of the table documents & added each
entry to the ACL. Based on that assumption it might not be a bad idea to
hold on to the original docs as a backup (that's a *lot* of stuff) but like
you say they don't factor in to the current situation.

In that case it's the Default ACL [(Language)] that needs to be salvaged. In
both versions they're in the Office folder, so if that hasn't been deleted I
don't see any reason why the swap won't work.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

In that case it's the Default ACL [(Language)] that needs to be salvaged. In
both versions they're in the Office folder, so if that hasn't been deleted I
don't see any reason why the swap won't work.

It's [user]/Library/Preference/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English],
rather than in the app folder. The swap works, or we'd hear a lot more
anger about getting Word 2004 autocorrect entries into Word 2008,
starting with me.

Daiya

 

[CyberTaz]

I really shouldn't try to reply while eating a late lunch I'm staring at
the User ACL & sitting there typing Default ACL... Thinking that there might
be a need to have both (which is not the case). Typing with my left hand
only, no less. The path you cite is obviously correct.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

In that case it's the Default ACL [(Language)] that needs to be salvaged. In
both versions they're in the Office folder, so if that hasn't been deleted I
don't see any reason why the swap won't work.

It's [user]/Library/Preference/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English],
rather than in the app folder. The swap works, or we'd hear a lot more
anger about getting Word 2004 autocorrect entries into Word 2008,
starting with me.

Daiya

 

[salismil]

In that case it's the Default ACL [(Language)] that needs to be salvaged. In
both versions they're in the Office folder, so if that hasn't been deleted I
don't see any reason why the swap won't work.

It's [user]/Library/Preference/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English],
rather than in the app folder. The swap works, or we'd hear a lot more
anger about getting Word 2004autocorrectentries into Word 2008,
starting with me.

Daiya

hi guys,

sorry that i wasn't so clear; i actually do not have the ACL files,
but rather, i have two simple word documents with my abbreviations and
expansions in table format. i also have each document formatted as a
plain text tab-delimited file. what i *also* have is a separate
document containing a macro that takes care of converting each of
those lists into autocorrect entries on word 2004; unfortunately, i
recently formatted my hard drive and lost those actual ACL files, and
for me it's not worth the trouble of uninstalling word 2008, re-
installing word 2004, running the macro, extracting the ACLs, then re-
installing word 2008.

to reiterate, what i have are two simple word documents, each of which
contains a three column table: abbreviation, expansion, and the word
"FALSE" under a column labeled "RTF" (i'm assuming related to the
macro conversion of each list into autocorrect entries).

i've discovered wonderful system-wide "expansion" tools such as
textexpander, typeit4me, and typinator, which handled my tab-delimited
plain text files with varying degrees of success, but why pay for a
feature that is built into word?

on the flip side, if anybody is still running word 2004, maybe i could
send my files can get someone to generate an ACL for me?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

<grin> I back my ACL up every week or so. Moving the ACL from 2004 to
2008 might have been the very first thing I tested after first launching
2008. It's my favorite feature in Word.

I really shouldn't try to reply while eating a late lunch I'm staring at
the User ACL & sitting there typing Default ACL... Thinking that there might
be a need to have both (which is not the case). Typing with my left hand
only, no less. The path you cite is obviously correct.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

In that case it's the Default ACL [(Language)] that needs to be salvaged. In
both versions they're in the Office folder, so if that hasn't been deleted I
don't see any reason why the swap won't work.

It's [user]/Library/Preference/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English],
rather than in the app folder. The swap works, or we'd hear a lot more
anger about getting Word 2004 autocorrect entries into Word 2008,
starting with me.

Daiya

in word 04 i was able to import both lists as autocorrect entries via
a macro...

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

sorry that i wasn't so clear; i actually do not have the ACL files,
but rather, i have two simple word documents with my abbreviations and
expansions in table format. i also have each document formatted as a
plain text tab-delimited file. what i *also* have is a separate
document containing a macro that takes care of converting each of
those lists into autocorrect entries on word 2004; unfortunately, i
recently formatted my hard drive and lost those actual ACL files, and
for me it's not worth the trouble of uninstalling word 2008, re-
installing word 2004, running the macro, extracting the ACLs, then re-
installing word 2008.

Next time I suggest you back the ACL files up--they are precious data,
and backing up is easier than re-converting. And reinstalling 2004
would be less trouble than someone rewriting the macro to work in Word
2008 (no need to uninstall 2008, by the way---the two programs can live
on the same hard drive side by side with no problem).

Anyhow, I'd be willing to experiment with running the macro in Word 2004
and sending you the ACL files. daiya at mvps period org. Use this
Subject line: AUTOCORRECT import macro and files

Especially if I can then share the macro with someone else who might
someday need it.

i've discovered wonderful system-wide "expansion" tools such as
textexpander, typeit4me, and typinator, which handled my tab-delimited
plain text files with varying degrees of success, but why pay for a
feature that is built into word?

Because it would work system-wide, instead of limited to
Word/PPT/XL/Entourage. Not something I wanted until I started spending
more time composing webpages in Dreamweaver, but important to some people.

Daiya

 

[Clive Huggan]

I've told you before, Bob: you shouldn't eat those duckling a la bigarade
bagels with only one hand while the keyboard is directly underneath...

CH
===

I really shouldn't try to reply while eating a late lunch I'm staring at
the User ACL & sitting there typing Default ACL... Thinking that there might
be a need to have both (which is not the case). Typing with my left hand
only, no less. The path you cite is obviously correct.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

In that case it's the Default ACL [(Language)] that needs to be salvaged. In
both versions they're in the Office folder, so if that hasn't been deleted I
don't see any reason why the swap won't work.

It's [user]/Library/Preference/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English],
rather than in the app folder. The swap works, or we'd hear a lot more
anger about getting Word 2004 autocorrect entries into Word 2008,
starting with me.

Daiya

in word 04 i was able to import both lists as autocorrect entries via
a macro...

 

[salismil]

hi daiya,

just sent you an e-mail.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

got it, thanks. Give me a bit to try it out and get back to you.

 

[CyberTaz]

I guess we crude colonists simply lack the innate genes required for such
epicurean refinement;-)

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Mitrokhin]

i microsoft.public.mac.office.word skrev salismil
tirsdag 10. juni 2008 22:53:45, i en artikel med
ID <bf6e4d8b-c366-4526-93a7-2a7f48a7e54f@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
og titlen "Re: importing autocorrect / autotext entries", følgende:

:
: hi guys,
:
: sorry that i wasn't so clear; i actually do not have the ACL files,
: but rather, i have two simple word documents with my abbreviations and
: expansions in table format. i also have each document formatted as a
: plain text tab-delimited file. what i *also* have is a separate
: document containing a macro that takes care of converting each of
: those lists into autocorrect entries on word 2004; unfortunately, i
: recently formatted my hard drive and lost those actual ACL files, and
: for me it's not worth the trouble of uninstalling word 2008, re-
: installing word 2004, running the macro, extracting the ACLs, then re-
: installing word 2008.
:
: to reiterate, what i have are two simple word documents, each of which
: contains a three column table: abbreviation, expansion, and the word
: "FALSE" under a column labeled "RTF" (i'm assuming related to the
: macro conversion of each list into autocorrect entries).
:
: i've discovered wonderful system-wide "expansion" tools such as
: textexpander, typeit4me, and typinator, which handled my tab-delimited
: plain text files with varying degrees of success, but why pay for a
: feature that is built into word?
:
: on the flip side, if anybody is still running word 2004, maybe i could
: send my files can get someone to generate an ACL for me?
:

Not really nescessary now that Daiya is helping you I suppose and it
does rely on a slightly different source format - a table with two
columns the first of which is the abbreviation, the second the
expansion, but should the need arise to do this sort of thing again it
should be possible to customize it to suit ones needs. I used it when
migrating to Office 2008 because I wanted to build on top on the
supplied AC's (I didn't have any formatted AC entries so the script
doesn't deal with those). Anyway for what it's worth here it is:


tell application "Microsoft Word"

display dialog "Denne makro opererer på \"Vis autokorrektur
elementers\" output" & " og tilføjer automatisk ikke eksisterende
elementer til autokorrektur." buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 1
with icon note with title "Tilføj til autokorrektur"

if (count of tables of active document) = 0 then return
if number of columns of table 1 of active document > 2 then return
set tbObject to table 1 of active document
set acObject to autocorrect object
set numRows to number of rows of tbObject

repeat with i from 1 to numRows
set temp to content of text object of cell 1 of row i of tbObject
set fejl to my chopOfEnd(temp)

if not (exists autocorrect entry fejl of acObject) then
set temp to content of text object of cell 2 of row i of
tbObject
set ret to my chopOfEnd(temp)
set newAuto to make new autocorrect entry with properties ¬
{name:fejl, autocorrect value:ret} at acObject
end if
end repeat
end tell

on chopOfEnd(temp)
return characters 1 thru ((offset of return in temp) - 1) of temp as
Unicode text
end chopOfEnd

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Mitrokhin, this looks like a superb and really useful script (most
people don't have formatted AutoCorrect entries anyhow). I'm looking
forward to playing with it.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

For the record, the macro is also available here, along with some
variations--it will both create the backup file and then re-import it.
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/ExportAutocorrect.htm

Also, thanks for bringing up this issue, because the same macro is the
path to bringing AutoCorrect entries from WinWord to MacWord, and I've
been thinking I should try to sort out a standard answer for that, but
never got around to messing with it.

Okay, results, for the archives. I got Salismil's files, ran the macro.
These particular AutoCorrects, however, are formatted (they have a lot
of superscript numbers in them), and so the macro stores them in the
Normal template instead of the ACL file. That's a bit of a problem,
because Word 2004 and 2008 don't use the same Normal, so you can't just
replace the file.

So, how to get Word 2008 to absorb these formatted AutoCorrect entries
from a Word 2004 Normal?

--The Organizer lets you move AutoText from template to template, but
not formatted AutoCorrect entries.
--Loading it as a global template did not work (though I think that
works with keyboard shortcuts).
--Putting Normal [2004] in place of Normal.dotm [2008] in Application
Support did not work.
--Although importing stuff from Normal [2004] caused all sorts of
problems during Office 2008 installation, Word 2008 (12.0.1) now appears
to ignore a 2004 Normal stored in the MS User Data folder, so that
didn't work (good to know, in other contexts).
--Opening Normal [2004] and saving it as Normal.dotm did not seem to
work (and probably isn't a good idea anyhow--always let Word create Normal).

Okay, this worked:

Create a new user in the computer. Put Normal in the Users/Shared folder.

Switch to the new user. DO NOT launch Office yet. In user Documents,
create a folder named Microsoft User Data. Put Normal in there.

Now launch Word. Go through Office Setup, whatever. Re-launch Word.
Since it is Word's First Run, Word should find the Normal in the MUD
folder and import the autocorrect entries into the new Normal. Test one
to make sure.

Quit Word--slowly, as it is saving 30,000 entries into the
user/library/application support/microsoft/office/user
templates/Normal.dotm.

Copy that fresh Normal.dotm into users/Shared. Go back to the original
user account.

Quit all Office apps. Save the current Normal.dotm on the desktop. Copy
the Normal.dotm from Shared to replace it. Launch Word--it looks to me
like Word is also launching pretty slowly with 30,000 AutoCorrect
entries in Normal. Test an AutoCorrect entry.

Okay, if you now have your custom AutoCorrects, there are probably
things you want to save from your previous Normal.dotm. If you rename
the previous Normal.dotm and turn it into a Global Template, that should
get you your keyboard shortcuts, and also custom toolbars. If you've
created styles or AutoText, I'm not sure that will cover it, or if you
have to use the Organizer to move them over. I believe you will need to
return to Format | Document, Format | Font, Tools | Language and reset
the Defaults there, maybe some other places.

I've emailed Andrew separately with the converted Normal.dotm, but as of
Thursday morning (USA), I'm off for the weekend, so if questions arise,
feel free to handle them or I'll catch them next week.

Daiya

 

[Mitrokhin]

i microsoft.public.mac.office.word skrev Daiya Mitchell
onsdag 11. juni 2008 15:45:11 (0400), i en artikel med
ID <#[email protected]>
og titlen "Re: importing autocorrect / autotext entries", følgende:

: Mitrokhin, this looks like a superb and really useful script (most

For a change huh ?!

: people don't have formatted AutoCorrect entries anyhow). I'm looking
: forward to playing with it.
:

Great. Perhaps the script below fall in the samme category:
I used it to get the AutoCorrect entries in the first place (for some
reason I did choose to handle formatted entries in this one)

caution: could take a long time depending on the number of AC's

tell application "Microsoft Word"

make new document
set AKEmner to (get every autocorrect entry of autocorrect object)
repeat with etEmne in AKEmner
if rich text of etEmne is true then
type text selection text (name of etEmne) & tab
set rStart to selection end of selection
type text selection text (name of etEmne)
set rSlut to selection end of selection
set r to create range active document start rStart end rSlut
apply correction autocorrect entry (entry index of etEmne) of
autocorrect object to range ¬
r
type paragraph selection
else
type text selection text (name of etEmne) & tab & (autocorrect
value of etEmne) & return
end if
end repeat

convert to table (get text object of active document) with separator
home key selection move unit a story
end tell

 

[salismil]

For the record, the macro is also available here, along with some
variations--it will both create the backup file and then re-import it.http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/ExportAutocorrect.htm

Also, thanks for bringing up this issue, because the same macro is the
path to bringingAutoCorrectentries from WinWord to MacWord, and I've
been thinking I should try to sort out a standard answer for that, but
never got around to messing with it.

Okay, results, for the archives. I got Salismil's files, ran the macro.
These particular AutoCorrects, however, are formatted (they have a lot
of superscript numbers in them), and so the macro stores them in the
Normal template instead of the ACL file. That's a bit of a problem,
because Word 2004 and 2008 don't use the same Normal, so you can't just
replace the file.

So, how to get Word 2008 to absorb these formattedAutoCorrectentries
from a Word 2004 Normal?

--The Organizer lets you move AutoText from template to template, but
not formattedAutoCorrectentries.
--Loading it as a global template did not work (though I think that
works with keyboard shortcuts).
--Putting Normal [2004] in place of Normal.dotm [2008] in Application
Support did not work.
--Althoughimportingstuff from Normal [2004] caused all sorts of
problems during Office 2008 installation, Word 2008 (12.0.1) now appears
to ignore a 2004 Normal stored in the MS User Data folder, so that
didn't work (good to know, in other contexts).
--Opening Normal [2004] and saving it as Normal.dotm did not seem to
work (and probably isn't a good idea anyhow--always let Word create Normal).

Okay, this worked:

Create a new user in the computer. Put Normal in the Users/Shared folder.

Switch to the new user. DO NOT launch Office yet. In user Documents,
create a folder named Microsoft User Data. Put Normal in there.

Now launch Word. Go through Office Setup, whatever. Re-launch Word.
Since it is Word's First Run, Word should find the Normal in the MUD
folder and import theautocorrectentries into the new Normal. Test one
to make sure.

Quit Word--slowly, as it is saving 30,000 entries into the
user/library/application support/microsoft/office/user
templates/Normal.dotm.

Copy that fresh Normal.dotm into users/Shared.  Go back to the original
user account.

Quit all Office apps.  Save the current Normal.dotm on the desktop. Copy
the Normal.dotm from Shared to replace it. Launch Word--it looks to me
like Word is also launching pretty slowly with 30,000AutoCorrect
entries in Normal. Test anAutoCorrectentry.

Okay, if you now have your custom AutoCorrects, there are probably
things you want to save from your previous Normal.dotm. If you rename
the previous Normal.dotm and turn it into a Global Template, that should
get you your keyboard shortcuts, and also custom toolbars. If you've
created styles or AutoText, I'm not sure that will cover it, or if you
have to use the Organizer to move them over. I believe you will need to
return to Format | Document, Format | Font, Tools | Language and reset
the Defaults there, maybe some other places.

I've emailed Andrew separately with the converted Normal.dotm, but as of
Thursday morning (USA), I'm off for the weekend, so if questions arise,
feel free to handle them or I'll catch them next week.

Daiya

hi daiya,

wow, sounded like a lot of work! thank you so much. i forgot to
mention the superscript-type numbers/letters (they're actually NOT
superscript, though they appear to be), and how i didn't actually need
them, but i appreciate your workaround nonetheless.

also, i actually did not receive an e-mail response from you! it
sounded like i was supposed to have...

thanks again!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Not so much work, didn't take any longer to test than to type it out.
And I was just investigating stuff for the hell of it.

Resent attachment and receipt confirmed.