Need to transfer Word "autocorrects" fromWord 2003/2007 to Word 2008

[johnfkitchen]

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

Over the years, I have accumulated over 5,000 autocorrect entries when using Word 2007 and earlier versions. Yes, I'm a lousy typist!

I obviously don't want to retype all of these. If I could do that accurately, I wouldn't need Autocorrect!

How do I import these entries into Word 2008?

Thanks in advance

 

[John McGhie]

Errrk!! This is not easy...

There are two AutoCorrect stores: one in the Normal template and one in the
"ACL" list. The ACL list stores the plain text entries, the Normal template
stores the formatted ones.

Read this article carefully, and make sure you understand it all:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/ExportAutocorrect.htm

Don't DO any of that! You can't use Macros on the Mac. Dave's macro will
work in Word 2007, but no macros will work in Word 2008.

Now read this article with equal care:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926927

Now:

1) I suspect the format of the ACL files is different between Office
2008/Mac OS X and Office 2007/Windows.

2) Copy your Windows ACL (the one described in the second article) file to
your Mac.

2) Re-name ~:Libraryreferences:Microsoft:Office 2008:Microsoft Office ACL
[English] to something else.

3) Rename your Windows ACL file to Microsoft Office ACL [English]

4) Rename your Mac Normal.dotm file to something else

5) Copy your Windows Normal.dotm file to your Mac computer and put it where
your renamed Mac Normal.dotm is

Reboot the Mac.

It will either work, or it won't. If it doesn't, "sorry", re-name
everything back and forget I said anything.

Hope this helps

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

Over the years, I have accumulated over 5,000 autocorrect entries when using
Word 2007 and earlier versions. Yes, I'm a lousy typist!

I obviously don't want to retype all of these. If I could do that accurately,
I wouldn't need Autocorrect!

How do I import these entries into Word 2008?

Thanks in advance

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[johnfkitchen]

John McG, I thank you for your reply.

Sadly, it doesn't seem to work, but that may be because of user error.

Please check the rest of this post.

I copied the ACL file over from 2007, where it had an extension of "acl" of course. Copied the name of the 2008 ACL file, renamed the 2008 file and pasted the name into the 2007 ACL file.

Neither file now has a dot extension, but the file kind is different.

The 2008 file kind is "Microsoft Graph preferences", and the 2007 file kind is "Unix Executable File". I'm kind of new to Mac, so I'm guessing this is due to different creator IDs - is that likely?

Do you think the file kind is causing a problem?

Since all of my autocorrects are unformatted, I only played around with the ACL file.

BTW, good to hear from a fellow Australian, although I live in Massachusetts.

 

[John McGhie]

No, it's not "User Error", I suspect the internal structure of the file is
different and it's just not going to work.

Make sure the file name is exactly correct (remember: you are on Unix now,
the file names are case-sensitive!!).

Make sure that the file location is correct, and the name is exactly as I
have it here:
Mac HD:Users:~:Libraryreferences:Microsoft:Office 2008:Microsoft Office
ACL [English]

(Where ~ is shorthand for "Your user home folder")

Right-click the file in Finder, choose Get Info, and set the "Opens With" to
"Microsoft Entourage". That will update the file kind: but I suspect it's
already as correct as it is going to get.

As a last resort, you could open the old one in a hex editor, grab the
binary from the first line, and paste it carefully as the first line of the
PC one.

I still suspect we're outta luck here.

Sorry...

Cheers

John McG, I thank you for your reply.

Sadly, it doesn't seem to work, but that may be because of user error.

Please check the rest of this post.

I copied the ACL file over from 2007, where it had an extension of "acl" of
course. Copied the name of the 2008 ACL file, renamed the 2008 file and pasted
the name into the 2007 ACL file.

Neither file now has a dot extension, but the file kind is different.

The 2008 file kind is "Microsoft Graph preferences", and the 2007 file kind is
"Unix Executable File". I'm kind of new to Mac, so I'm guessing this is due to
different creator IDs - is that likely?

Do you think the file kind is causing a problem?

Since all of my autocorrects are unformatted, I only played around with the
ACL file.

BTW, good to hear from a fellow Australian, although I live in Massachusetts.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[johnfkitchen]

Uh oh! This is like a blast from the past!!

The names were copied and pasted, so it's not a case problem, it's back to HEXEDIT. It has been a long time since I spoke hex, but it's like riding a bike, I guess.

Thanks very much for the help. I had hoped that this was not yet another 2007/2008 compatibility issue, but I'm out of luck.

 

[johnfkitchen]

In the wake of the 12.2.0 update for Office 2008 (July 20, 2009), I got a dose of common sense and decided that the path of least resistance was to give up on Office 2008 and use Office 2007 via a virtual Windows system.

If it was just Autocorrect that I was looking for in Office 2008, then I might try the hex edit path, but there are too many other areas of incompatibility between 2007 and 2008.

This week's update doesn't fix the incompatibility issue, so I'm closing the door on this.

Thanks for the help!

 

[John McGhie]

Hi John:

Thanks for getting back to us.

Yes, I must admit th at I bought a MacPro recently, and the "excuse" was so
I could run virtual windoze. (Three of them: I need Office 2003 and Office
2007 and Office 2010).

The beauty of a MacPRO is that it will run all three concurrently {blush!}

Cheers

In the wake of the 12.2.0 update for Office 2008 (July 20, 2009), I got a dose
of common sense and decided that the path of least resistance was to give up
on Office 2008 and use Office 2007 via a virtual Windows system.

If it was just Autocorrect that I was looking for in Office 2008, then I might
try the hex edit path, but there are too many other areas of incompatibility
between 2007 and 2008.

This week's update doesn't fix the incompatibility issue, so I'm closing the
door on this.

Thanks for the help!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]