Hello,

JA> I can't see why a similar
JA> macro program couldn't be written up for the newer and more
JA> sophisticated word programs (which I don't have).

I have written such Pali conversion macros for MS Word and the file with
them is available at

http://i.com.ua/~sangha/dharma/paali/macros.zip (31 Kb)

The instructions are in Russian, yet if the need arises they can be
translated.

As for the input of the Pali text, the simplest way to do so in MS Word
is just to assign keyboard shortcuts to the symbols via the "Insert
Symbol" option, for example:

AA - Alt+Shift+A;
aa - Alt+A;
II - Alt+Shift+I;
ii - Alt+I;
UU - Alt+Shift+U;
uu - Alt+U;
~N - Alt+Shift+G;
~n - Alt+G.

I have found the Unicode-type fonts http://zencomp.com/greatwisdom/fonts/
most useful in this regard, since they are correctly converted to any
other form including HTML, and have a nice look.

Best regards,
Dimitry