Word Conversion - Windows to Mac

[zoonotics]

I have used every version of Windows Word from 1.0 to 2003 and have
only started to use Mac Word 2004. For a start, I want to know how I
can easily import my 10 Windows *.dic files (several thousand entries)
& autocorrect entries into the Mac version 2004.

I have used the Windows MS Office "Inside-Out" books and found them to
be extremely helpful. Are there any comparable books for Mac versions
of MS Office?

Also, am I correct in saying Word 2004 Mac doesn't have a dictation
function like Word 2003 Windows? How lame!!!!!

Thanks.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hmm, Zoonotics, very intriguing questions. Before I sail into an answer,
for this and the other one, it would be helpful if you said how much you
know about where your customizations are stored on Windows.

For instance, if you know what's going on in Windows, you could probably
read this article which explains where everything is kept on the Mac, and
then sort most of it out yourself without any help.
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/BackUpPrefs.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

If you aren't that up on the inner workings of WinWord, it's a much longer
answer with more research required. Which is not a problem, I'm just
wondering. But I'm hoping that you are savvy enough to run some experiments
for the general increase of all our knowledge.

You can easily get the custom dictionaries, macros and toolbars. The
AutoCorrect might be a problem. Will return with details later, hopefully
after getting a sense of what you already know.

 

[zoonotics]

Thanks for the reply. I know where they are located in Windows and that
at least the dic files are text files. I don't know about the file
types in Mac environment. Know next to nothing about Mac environment. I
am very Windows savy after 20 years as a USER, not knowledgeable about
any computer language or programming.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Okay, lovely. I'll assume you can handle a lot of explanation. Ask if
something doesn't make sense. I'm not totally sure about file types either,
so I'm going to offer various options, in hopes you will let us know what
worked.

**Custom Dictionaries

MacWord uses a custom dictionary text file just like WinWord does.
Certainly, you can transfer your custom entries by copying and pasting the
text from your Win text file to a dictionary file created on the Mac. But
it would obviously be a lot faster to just move the files and then tell Word
to use them as custom dictionaries. But I don't know if that works, not
sure if MacWord will read a .dic file that WinWord created.

If you want to test moving the files themselves, then you can put them
anywhere you want on the Mac. Somewhere you back up regularly would be a
good idea. Move the files with Word shut down. Then launch Word, go to
Word>Preferences>Spelling and Grammar, click on Dictionaries, click Add,
navigate to the files and load your files as Custom Dictionaries. Make sure
you check the box in the list of dictionaries to activate them. See if it
works.

If that doesn't work, then you will need to go the copy and paste text
route. In that case, you need to create a custom dictionary.
Word>Preferences>Spelling and Grammar, click on Dictionaries, click New, and
create a dictionary to copy the text into. Again, save it anywhere you
regularly back up.

(Um, there's currently a bug, you can't have an exclude dictionary in
MacWord 2004, hope you don't need to bring one of those over. Or a Spanish
custom dictionary, hope you didn't need one of those either).

**Macros and Toolbars

The macros and toolbars are stored in templates. By default, they are
stored in WinWord Normal.dot, the Normal template. You *definitely* DO NOT
want to just install your WinWord Normal.dot as the Normal template in
MacWord, cause Normal has all kinds of special properties and you don't want
to mess with it like that (and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work). But it
might be possible to take your Normal.dot from WinWord, rename it, and
install it as a global template in MacWord without problems. I know you
could do that with a MacWord-created Normal, but I don't know about a
WinWord-created Normal.dot. Actually, on second thought, I think that would
be a bad idea regardless--I'm not sure what would happen with any custom
keyboard shortcuts, I could see that getting very screwy.

So I would suggest you go the slow route, and open up the WinWord
Normal.dot, create and open a new template in MacWord, and use the Organizer
to transfer the macros and toolbars from one template to another. However,
in this case it would be better to create a global template in MacWord to
hold the macros and toolbars, rather than to copy the macros into Normal,
because Normal has a tendency to randomly corrupt.

If your Win macros and toolbars are *already* in a custom global template
instead of Normal.dot, you should be able to use that same file as a global
template in MacWord. .doc and .dot file types are the same on MacWord and
WinWord (but Normal.dot is a special file type, don't mess with it).

So basically, you can choose whether you want to experiment with the quicker
ways (moving the files themselves), or the slow routes (moving the contents
from a Win-created file to a Mac-created file).

To create a global template in MacWord, see the first part of this article:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/GlobalTemplate.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

The Organizer works the same way in MacWord and WinWord, so if you have used
it before, you're fine. It's under Tools>Macros. If you have never used
it, see the procedure here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/RestoreCustomization.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)
Ignore the first few steps re navigating to Normal--just double-click your
WinWord Normal.dot and the new GlobalTemplate you just created in the
Finder, and that will open both the files. Then use the Organizer to copy
from one to the other.

On the off chance you don't know where your Normal.dot is in WinWord, you
can see here:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Okay, see how that goes. Obviously, I skipped the part where you moved the
file from the Windows computer to the Mac computer, cause presumably you've
got that all figured out. Make sure you actually copy the files onto the
hard drive, however, and that they are not read-only.

Holding off on AutoCorrect for now because that's tricky, best to get the
other stuff sorted first.

DM

 

[zoonotics]

OOF. That's alot, but I have done some of that when tansfering between
PCs. I will read and try everything.

Thanks.

 

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

The Windows .dic files are plain text. You can simply "use" them on the Mac
by adding them as Custom Dictionaries.

I "wouldn't" do that, I would use the Procedure in the Help to EDIT your Mac
Word custom dictionary, then open the Windows file in TextEdit and paste its
contents into the Mac Word dictionary: this will ensure the Type and Creator
Codes the Mac needs are correctly written to the file.

Your Windows AutoCorrect entries are a very similar story. The Formatted
ones are stored in your Windows Normal.dot. You can simply USE the Windows
Normal.dot in Mac Word, but you need to remove the ".dot" file extension.
Due to a design bug in Word, it will not recognise Normal Template as Normal
Template unless you remove the extension.

Your Windows ACL list is also plain text, but it's a structured file. For
these, you will have to open the file in Mac Word and painstakingly ADD each
entry as an AutoText in Mac Word.

Given enough time and fiddling, you "could" import the Windows file, but
it's a lot of fiddling around and you would have to build a macro to do it.

Hope this helps

I have used every version of Windows Word from 1.0 to 2003 and have
only started to use Mac Word 2004. For a start, I want to know how I
can easily import my 10 Windows *.dic files (several thousand entries)
& autocorrect entries into the Mac version 2004.

I have used the Windows MS Office "Inside-Out" books and found them to
be extremely helpful. Are there any comparable books for Mac versions
of MS Office?

Also, am I correct in saying Word 2004 Mac doesn't have a dictation
function like Word 2003 Windows? How lame!!!!!

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 4 1209 1410

 

[wayUpNorth]

I don't think you have to “build†a macro to restore an AutoCorrect file from
PC to Mac. The AutoCorrectBackup macro in WinWord 2003’s SUPPORT.DOT seems
to work in Word 2004, although I've only used it once.
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=8842 for info on AutoCorrectBackup
Utility)

Here's how I did it. Copy SUPPORT.DOT to the Mac HDD and open it from within
Word. The button loses its link to the macro, but with SUPPORT.DOT loaded
you can run “AutoCorrectBackup†from Tools|Macro|Macros…. For me it worked
better on the Mac than on the PCs I’ve tried. See my post asking for help in
getting them to persist under “Autocorrect not working in all Word documentsâ€.

I also was able to import the autoText (auto complete) entries into Word
2004 from a WinWord template where they were saved using the Organizer under
Tools|Templates and Add-Ins...

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks very much for this, especially the specifics. I was trying it with a
different macro and that one wigged out--I think the MS one might not grab
formatted AutoCorrects, but most people probably don't have too many of
those anyhow.

Much appreciated!

DM

I don't think you have to ³build² a macro to restore an AutoCorrect file from
PC to Mac. The AutoCorrectBackup macro in WinWord 2003¹s SUPPORT.DOT seems
to work in Word 2004, although I've only used it once.
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=8842 for info on AutoCorrectBackup
Utility)

Here's how I did it. Copy SUPPORT.DOT to the Mac HDD and open it from within
Word. The button loses its link to the macro, but with SUPPORT.DOT loaded
you can run ³AutoCorrectBackup² from Tools|Macro|MacrosŠ. For me it worked
better on the Mac than on the PCs I¹ve tried. See my post asking for help in
getting them to persist under ³Autocorrect not working in all Word documents².

I also was able to import the autoText (auto complete) entries into Word
2004 from a WinWord template where they were saved using the Organizer under
Tools|Templates and Add-Ins...

Your Windows ACL list is also plain text, but it's a structured file. For
these, you will have to open the file in Mac Word and painstakingly ADD each
entry as an AutoText in Mac Word.

Given enough time and fiddling, you "could" import the Windows file, but
it's a lot of fiddling around and you would have to build a macro to do it.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Whoops, read your entire post over there and realized it did grab the
formatted ones too. Lovely.

Thanks very much for this, especially the specifics. I was trying it with a
different macro and that one wigged out--I think the MS one might not grab
formatted AutoCorrects, but most people probably don't have too many of
those anyhow.

Much appreciated!

DM

I don't think you have to ³build² a macro to restore an AutoCorrect file from
PC to Mac. The AutoCorrectBackup macro in WinWord 2003¹s SUPPORT.DOT seems
to work in Word 2004, although I've only used it once.
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=8842 for info on AutoCorrectBackup
Utility)

Here's how I did it. Copy SUPPORT.DOT to the Mac HDD and open it from within
Word. The button loses its link to the macro, but with SUPPORT.DOT loaded
you can run ³AutoCorrectBackup² from Tools|Macro|MacrosŠ. For me it worked
better on the Mac than on the PCs I¹ve tried. See my post asking for help in
getting them to persist under ³Autocorrect not working in all Word
documents².

I also was able to import the autoText (auto complete) entries into Word
2004 from a WinWord template where they were saved using the Organizer under
Tools|Templates and Add-Ins...

Your Windows ACL list is also plain text, but it's a structured file. For
these, you will have to open the file in Mac Word and painstakingly ADD each
entry as an AutoText in Mac Word.

Given enough time and fiddling, you "could" import the Windows file, but
it's a lot of fiddling around and you would have to build a macro to do it.

 

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

That's great I didn't know that you could get hold of WinWord 2003's
SUPPORT.DOT from the Internet. If you can (from the MICROSOFT site, people,
if you see it anywhere else assume it's VIRUS.DOT...) it contains a fixed
version of the macro.

The previous version would not handle autocorrects that had a paragraph mark
within them (which also produced some weird formatting problems). MVP Doug
Robbins fixed it for them and I believe the 2003 version works properly

Whoops, read your entire post over there and realized it did grab the
formatted ones too. Lovely.

--

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