Use Automator to Open Batches of Word Docs, Save as Form Data in Txt

[Suzanne]

I want to use Automator to open all Word form docs in a specific
folder, choose the "Save Data Only for Forms" option in Word Prefs for
each form doc, then save a copy of each doc as a .txt file to the same
folder. I probably should have included a macro in the form doc but
it's too late for that now. Also, I don't know how to write AppleScript
so please explain it to me like I was in third grade. Thanks!

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Suzanne:

I do hope someone comes along who knows the answer to your question I'm
in OS 10.3.9, so I've never seen Automator. However, from what I can see on
the Apple website, there are no Automator Actions available for Microsoft
Word.

I assume that Automator is a front end for AppleScript, so I presume it
would not be too difficult for an AppleScript expert to create some.

So now, we shall both have to wait for our resident AppleScript experts to
weigh in with some sound knowledge on the subject

Cheers

I want to use Automator to open all Word form docs in a specific
folder, choose the "Save Data Only for Forms" option in Word Prefs for
each form doc, then save a copy of each doc as a .txt file to the same
folder. I probably should have included a macro in the form doc but
it's too late for that now. Also, I don't know how to write AppleScript
so please explain it to me like I was in third grade. Thanks!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Shawn Larson]

Suzanne,

Currently there are no Automator Actions for Mac Word. I would like to get
a better understanding of what you would like the Action to accomplish. Let
me know if I'm close to what you're after:

- You have existing Word documents that have Form Fields with values entered
in them.
- You would like the Action take these documents as input, save out the data
from the Form Fields as separate text files

Or, are you hoping to take a folder full of Word documents and have all the
data saved in a single text file?

Shawn Larson
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Shawn:

Ping the Office 2007 group. They said they were developing the Batch
Converter to do just this task (and many others...)

What we really need is the ability to process a folder full of documents.

Some users will want the output in a single file. Others will want a
one-for-one conversion to multiple output files.

Yet others will want top process the results of a query from matching
folders.

Cheers

Suzanne,

Currently there are no Automator Actions for Mac Word. I would like to get
a better understanding of what you would like the Action to accomplish. Let
me know if I'm close to what you're after:

- You have existing Word documents that have Form Fields with values entered
in them.
- You would like the Action take these documents as input, save out the data
from the Form Fields as separate text files

Or, are you hoping to take a folder full of Word documents and have all the
data saved in a single text file?

Shawn Larson
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[scottc.melendez]

Suzanne,

Yes, there are Automator actions for Office 2004.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/microsoftofficeautomatoractions.html

However, what you are trying to do would involve a some scripting,
because there is no speciifc workflow for "Save Data Only for Forms".
You would need a piece of code as part of your Automator workflow.

Scott Melendez