Real autocompletion in Microsoft Word

[alexey_r]

There seems to be no way to autocomplete words which occur in the edited document in Microsoft Word (see http://help.libreoff...mmon/Word_Completion for an explanation of what I mean). Since this is absolutely essential for quickly writing text (at least for me), I assume there are at least add-ins for it, but I didn't find any

So, do they exist? If not, I'll have to write one myself for those times when MS Word is required...

[IainB]

Looks like you are right.
In the Help for Word 2003, there is discussion of the AutoComplete funtion, which can be turned on or off.
However, in a help article for Word 2007, Create and use content Building Blocks in Word 2007 documents, it mentions that:

Former Word users may be familiar with an AutoComplete tip that displays after typing the first few characters of the AutoText entry. The increased number of built-in Building Blocks also increased the likelihood of inadvertently inserting them into your document, and this capability is now removed. However, AutoComplete is still available for the current system date, months, and days of the week.

But in another Help article for Word 2007, the AutoText functionality is described:

Keywords    AutoText; AutoText entry; replacement text

In Microsoft Office Word 2007, you can add AutoText entries in the AutoText gallery.

Or, if you want to add text automatically when you type a few characters, you add text entries in the AutoCorrect dialog box.
What do you want to do?

    Add AutoText from a gallery
    Add text automatically as you type

I have not used this functionality, but, if you follow the directions under the latter option (Add text automatically as you type), you may be able to do the sort of thing you are looking for.

[cmpm]

Auspex works in all programs including Word.
Make your own or let it build a list according to what you type.

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=25315.0

[IainB]

After making the above post, I did some more googling. I did this on your behalf and mine. I did not use the AutoComplete function in MS Word 2003, because I used AutoHotKey for that. However, I was curious to know why AutoComplete had been removed and what it could be replaced by in MS Word 2007 - I used to be a "power user" of MS Word 2003, but I don't tend to need to use Word 2007 to the same extent, nowadays.
The googling brought up this post in a Yahoo discussion forum: How to turn on Auto complete on MS Word 2007?
So this is what I did:

Click on the Office Button.
Click on Word options.
Click on Customize.
Change dropdown menu from Popular Commands to All Commands.
Scroll down till you find the Autoformat icons.
Click on the button icon called "Autoformat Dialog". (On mouse hover, this is identified as a command that does not appear in the Ribbon.)
Click on "Add" (this adds the buutton to your Quick Access Toolbar.
Use the up/down arrows to position the button in the order you want it to appear on the Quick Access Toolbar.
Click on "OK".
You should now have the "Autoformat Dialog" button in the position you wanted it in the Quick Access Toolbar.

Click on the "Autoformat Dialog" button.
Click on Options.
Click on the AutoCorrect tab.

You can then type in the part-words you want to be auto-corrected (or auto-completed) and the full string/phrase that you want it to become - e.g., "JSa" could become "John Smith" (note that putting capital letters in the part-word seems to make it case-sensitive).

Having got this far, I have to say that I shall not be using the AutoCorrect feature in MS Word 2007, as AutoHotKey enables me to have this functionality across all the applications where I might be typing text in - i.e., not just in Word.

However, it seems as though there is a lot of extra clever stuff you could do with this and other features in Word 2007, and it might be worth considering these features if you spend a lot of time writing in and using Word. For example, the Yahoo post says:

."..as one answerer has said, just start typing a couple of characters and press F3. Have you thought though of utilising some of the unused keys to put phrses etc into autocorrect so that when you tap perhaps the grave key next to number 1 key (which has 3 symbols on) it can be used to bring in a phrase, a picture, a whole document even, or consign to macros."

[IainB]

@cmpm: Thankyou for providing the link to Auspex - I had not previously been aware of that proggy.
I downloaded it and tried it out.
It looks potentially as though it could be a brilliant and useful tool for cross-application auto-text completion/replacement, but my initial trial appears to have shown a couple of minor bugs and constraints - I shall address those to the author's (@timns) page on the latest Auspex version, when I get a round tuit.

By the way, a similar proggy - Texter v0.6, an AutoHotkey proggy by Lifehacker's Adam Pash - also looked to be excellent for the purposes of auto-text completion/replacement, but it was too flaky and seems to have not been maintained or further developed since 2007. The concept was very good though.

[alexey_r]

@IainB:
I knew about Word's AutoText, but it doesn't really do what I need:

You can then type in the part-words you want to be auto-corrected (or auto-completed) and the full string/phrase that you want it to become

With most text editors, you don't need to specifically tell it to autocomplete this or that word: if you start typing "syn" and there are already words "syncronous" and "synchronicity" in the file, it should automatically propose completion to "syncron" (and possibly a way to choose between "syncronous" and "synchronicity" as well). Strangely, LibreOffice does it wrong: it will propose whichever of "syncronous" and "synchronicity" is more common instead of the common prefix.
@cmpm:
Thanks, I'll try it out!

[rjbull]

I don't use Word, but DC already has plenty of threads on autocompletion software, text expanders, completers and the like:

jgpaiva's abbreviations importer
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2598.0
link to jgpaiva's AHK tools
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3461.0

Harrie's review of Instant Text, and following posts
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2631.0


Word AutoCompleter
https://www.donation...1036.msg6713#msg6713 (mentions IntelliComplete, AutoTyping, LetMeType, AllChars, Type Pilot)

Auspex
https://www.donation....msg231091#msg231091

External links:

Productivity Talk - Harrie's own forum site for (primarily) Medical
Transcriptionists
http://www.productivitytalk.com/

Jon Knowles site on typing productivity
http://home.earthlin...net/~agjon/index.htm

Jon Knowles' ABCZ typing abbreviation system
http://home.earthlin.../~agjon/abczrule.htm


Here are some more:

TypeMate http://www.typemate.net/
TypeItIn http://www.wavget.com/typeitin.html
Direct Access  http://www.nagarsoft.com/
PhraseExpress   http://www.phraseexpress.com/
AutoText Typing Assistant  http://www.autotext-software.com/  (a freeware by the PhraseExpress people)
RoboType 4  http://www.pcmag.com...,2817,2380508,00.asp
Rocket Typing  http://www.easy-to-u...m/html/rocket-typing
Typing Buddy  http://www.supernova...oducts/speed_typing/
FastFox Typing Expander  http://www.nch.com.au/fastfox/index.html
Type Booster  http://www.typebooster.com/index.php
Smart Type Assistant  http://www.blazingtools.com/sta.html
Typing Assistant  http://www.sumitsoft.com/index.htm
Comfort Software  http://www.comfort-software.com/  (only completion from a dictionary)
Texter  http://lifehacker.co...r-windows-238306.php

[alexey_r]

@rjbull,
Wow, thanks!

[BigBadPlayer]

AUSPEX worked for me perfectly, for MS Word also.
( Auspex tutorial )