Change Word 2013 autocorrect behaviour

Question

This question involves bending Microsoft Word 2013 to one's will.

I have been asked to help fix a problem with Word 2013's autocorrect. We are working on a spell checker for my native language (Afrikaans), and many Afrikaans words contain a diacritical/umlaut (ë, ö, Ü, etc).

The spell checker consists of a .dic file which is basically just a text file that contains about 508 000 words, and an autocorrect list (.acl) file that is used to automatically replace text as you type.

The spell checker works very well for the most part. It replaces the text as you type, which is the desired effect. The problem is that autocorrect doesn't work with all words.

For example, if I want to type the Afrikaans word 'pêrels' (which means 'pearls'), I should only have to type 'perels' (without the ^ character on the 'e'), and autocorrect should automatically change it to the correct form.

Same with 'reën' (rain). If I type 'reen' (without the umlaut), it is supposed to automatically correct it.

However, in both of the above cases, the words remain unchanged. A red line appears under the words, and when you right-click, you can select the correct word from the pop-up autocorrect menu as shown in the image below.

As you can see, the correct form of the word is the first one in the context menu. I need autocorrect to automatically change the wrong word into the first word that appears in said menu. It should completely ignore the other menu items, and just go with the first word.

My initial instinct was to manually add the words to the *.acl file using a text editor, but the file is encrypted and not readable (I used Notepad++).

I then tried adding them inside Word's autocorrect options menu. However, Word 2013 has a maximum autocorrect memory of 64KB, and the size of the file is already at that maximum. Whenever I add more words, it bombs out and basically wipes the file contents. This doesn't seem like the most efficient strategy anyway, since I would need to manually enter hundreds, if not thousands of autocorrect cases. Ain't nobody got time for that!

What makes this even more complicated (ironically), is that there is no real "program". In other words, this isn't a C# program with source code that I can manipulate. I have the two files mentioned above, and Word's built-in options (which I have already explored). That's it. Nothing else.

I'm stuck. Does anyone have any ideas?

Is it perhaps possible for me to hack Word to increase the autocorrect memory to, let's say, 128 KB? Google hasn't turned up anything of use.

Or, is there a way to set Word to not give the autocorrect context menu, and instead default to the first matching word in the dictionary, as mentioned above?

I can probably write a batch script, C# program, or edit the registry if need be. I just need to know where to start.

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

In case you are still looking for a solution, you might consider using AutoHotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com). It is a very powerful free open-source utility, and can handle substitutions similar to AutoCorrect. Whenever the built-in program features of Word and others fail to handle my needs, I use AutoHotkey. It has the added benefit of not being tied to any specific program (e.g., Word), so the substitutions can occur anywhere needed. I hope it helps you. I have used and depended on AutoHotkey for years of new Windows versions, new Office versions, and highly recommend having a look. You might even get new ideas about time-saving automation with AutoHotkey. Good luck!