Dear Andy & others,

Below is a message which might interest you. Charles Muller has built
up a "autocorrect" file which can be used within MS Word. It *might*
save you some time!

best,
Tim Cahill

----------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 13:51:18 +0900
From: Charles Muller <acmuller@...>
Reply-To: H-NET Buddhist Scholars Information Network
<H-BUDDHISM@...>
To: H-BUDDHISM@...
Subject: TECHNICAL>Adding Sanskrit Diacritical Function to AutoCorrect

From: Charles Muller
Subject: Adding Sanskrit Diacritical Function to AutoCorrect

For users of MS-Word:

As you may be aware, Microsoft Word includes the function of correcting
misspelled words automatically as you type. If you have not yet
experienced this, the setting may not yet be turned on. In that case
please open up Word and to the menu Tools >> AutoCorrect, and check the
box that says "Replace text as you type."

If you look at the table of words contained below in that same settings
box, you will see that you can edit, add, and delete the entries contained
for this purpose. I have been adding Sanskrit and other
diacritically-marked terms to this function for a number of years now, so
that when I am working in Word, and I type a term such as "prajna",
"samsara", etc., as soon as I hit the space bar after the word the
appropriate diacritical marks will be attached.

When one makes changes in this function, these changes are saved (for
English-US users) in a file named "mso1033.acl" (for users of other
variants of English, or other European languages, the file is named
differently, perhaps something like "mso2156.acl" etc.).

You can locate this file by searching it from the Windows desktop:
Start >> Search

Once you can locate it, you can delete it, and replace it with the ACL
file that I have created. You can find it manually as well.

For Windows 2000 users, use the desktop Explorer or My Computer to go to
c:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office

For those who don't use US-English, you can edit this file and input it to
your own language's Autocorrect file by using the Autocorrect Backup macro
that Microsoft supplies on its Office web site. But you need to have some
familiarity with Word VBA macros in order to do this.

My own mso1033.acl file can be downloaded from:
www.acmuller.net/public/mso1033.acl

Caveats:
1) Many of the diacritics contained here, such as underdot characters, are
only available in a Unicode font, such as TITUS or Arial Unicode. If you
don't have one of these fonts applied, you will see square boxes where you
should see fonts.

2) This file contains tags for automatic XML markup that I use in my work.
Thus, if you type in Lotus Sutra, you will get <title>Lotus Sutra</title>.
You can edit/eliminate the entries that contain these tags by opening up
the file while in Word >> Tools >> Autocorrect. Those who have experience
with XML and understand the purpose of such tags may want to keep them.

Enjoy!

Chuck


Charles Muller

Toyo Gakuen University
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism and CJK-English Dictionary
http://www.acmuller.net