Word 2007 dictionaries on Word 2008 for Mac

[kenglade]

Perhaps this has been answered before but nothing turned up in my search. I'm a Mac convert switching from MS XP, where I was using Word 2007. Over time, I compiled several special dictionaries. If I switch to Office 2008 for Mac will I be able to transfer these from Word 2007?

I understand that Word for Mac does not ahve VBA support, therefore no macros like in Word 2007. Does office 2008 (Word) have some sort of macro capability ... or some way to handle repetitive tasks?

 

[nadyne]

Perhaps this has been answered before but nothing turned up in my search. I'm a Mac convert switching from MS XP, where I was using Word 2007. Over time, I compiled several special dictionaries. If I switch to Office 2008 for Mac will I be able to transfer these from Word 2007?

You can, and there's basically two ways to do this.

1. Copy the .dic files from Word 2007 onto your Mac. Open up Word:Mac's preferences and add the .dic files to your custom dictionaries.

2. Copy the .dic files from Word 2007 onto your Mac. Edit the Word:Mac custom dictionary. Open the .dic file using TextEdit (it's just a text file), then copy and paste the entries from there into Word:Mac's custom dictionary.

Honestly, I've never tried this myself. The Word:Mac MVPs recommend the latter approach over the former.

I understand that Word for Mac does not ahve VBA support, therefore no macros like in Word 2007. Does office 2008 (Word) have some sort of macro capability ... or some way to handle repetitive tasks?

Office 2008 has plenty of AppleScript support, which was expanded in Office 2008 to better handle the kinds of tasks that people were doing with VBA. MacTech magazine has a VBA to AppleScript transition guide which is an awesome resource if you're pretty fluent in VBA.

Additionally, if you have Office:Mac 2008 Standard Edition or Special Media Edition, we have support for Automator actions. Office:Mac 2008 Home and Student Edition doesn't include the Automator actions (nor Exchange support).

As you're diving into Office:Mac, especially if you get into AppleScript, you might find that the Office:Mac public forums are a good resource for you. Lots of Word:Mac experts hang out in the Word product forum, and they know a lot about switching between Windows and Mac, and there are some amazing AppleScript gurus too, so they're hugely useful.

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[kenglade]

You can, and there's basically two ways to do this.

1. Copy the .dic files from Word 2007 onto your Mac. Open up Word:Mac's preferences and add the .dic files to your custom dictionaries.

2. Copy the .dic files from Word 2007 onto your Mac. Edit the Word:Mac custom dictionary. Open the .dic file using TextEdit (it's just a text file), then copy and paste the entries from there into Word:Mac's custom dictionary.

Honestly, I've never tried this myself. The Word:Mac MVPs recommend the latter approach over the former.



Office 2008 has plenty of AppleScript support, which was expanded in Office 2008 to better handle the kinds of tasks that people were doing with VBA. MacTech magazine has a VBA to AppleScript transition guide which is an awesome resource if you're pretty fluent in VBA.

Additionally, if you have Office:Mac 2008 Standard Edition or Special Media Edition, we have support for Automator actions. Office:Mac 2008 Home and Student Edition doesn't include the Automator actions (nor Exchange support).

As you're diving into Office:Mac, especially if you get into AppleScript, you might find that the Office:Mac public forums are a good resource for you. Lots of Word:Mac experts hang out in the Word product forum, and they know a lot about switching between Windows and Mac, and there are some amazing AppleScript gurus too, so they're hugely useful.

Regards,
Nadyne.

Nadyne

Many thanks, applescript has been driving me nuts. It will take me awhile to work though the 150 pages but I can't wait to start.

Ken

 

[nadyne]

Many thanks, applescript has been driving me nuts. It will take me awhile to work though the 150 pages but I can't wait to start.

Glad to help! As you get more into AppleScript, do check out the Word product forums that I mentioned earlier - there's lots of people there who have created plenty of AppleScripts for Word (and the rest of the Office suite) there, and they're likely to be able to help you out.

Depending on what you're doing, you might also find some help from the folks on the Mac Enterprise mailing list. That's more geared towards IT folks, but there's plenty of AppleScript gurus there too.

I'm definitely not an AppleScript guru, but I do know where they hang out. 🙂

Regards,
Nadyne.