Is there a way to derive the abbreviation from their full words spelling?



1. I’m wondering if there is a way to derive the abbreviation of words from their full spelling.

For example, I need to have the abbreviation of “National Spatial Plan” to be followed by (NSP) and such that the full term will look like

…….National Spatial Plan (NSP)…….

2. I’m not sure whether the Word can tell the second time I’m writing the expression “National Spatial Plan” that this term has an abbreviation! Smart behavior! This enrich the document with a big deal of consistency!


Thank you

Best

Jamal

Hi Jamal
This is possible using the AutoCorrect function in Word. However you will need to ensure that if you use AutoCorrect it does not affect any other documents you create where you dont want this feature.
What you could do is create a unique template and add this feature in that template only. Then when you need to use this feature just create your document based on your new template.
Hope this helps.
Tony

Many thanks OTPM for the answer,

In this case the first time the term (National spatial plan) is typed will be also replaced by the autocorrect. Isn’t so?

Best

Jamal

Hi Jamal,

To do this properly would require a macro, plus a lookup list containing the expressions and their acronyms. Amongst other things, such a macro could ensure the first instance of 'National Spatial Plan' appears as 'National Spatial Plan (NSP)' and thereafter as 'NSP', even if the first instance in the document was incorrectly written as 'NSP' (eg because text was moved around during editing). No autocorrect function could do that.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul's quite right – it's normal to follow the term in full by the abbreviation the first time you use it, or in a lengthy document the first time in each chapter. To make the task manageable, perhaps you should write the document using just the abbreviations. When it's ready to publish, search for strings of three or more upper-case letters [or two or more, depending on your text] and put in the full terms by hand. You could also prepare for this by keeping a list of terms and abbreviations.

Hi Jamal
As these are short abbreviations, where you do not want the abbreviations you could just backspace them out and carry on typing.
Hope this helps.
Good luck.
Tony

Thank you Paul and eNGiNe for the reply.

That’s what I wanted to know Paul. No built-in function that can do this sort of work. The macro is the only solution to manage this issue in a very INTEGRATED way.

I expect it to be very tedious kind of thing! But this function might be needed frequently by so many users! We are all using abbreviation in this workflow and sense.

The macro is supposed:

1. To derive the abbreviation automatically and written next to the term between brackets

2. To replace the full term with its abbreviation automatically if it appears anywhere in the document. The first time the term appears must NOT be replaced.

Best

Jamal

Hi Jamal,

It's very easy to say what the macro 'should' do; writing one is another matter altogether.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Many thanks Tony for the contributing

In case we are working in a relatively huge document like dissertation (of more than 100,000 words) which might be full of abbreviations, we may forget the first time we write the term and we may repeat writing it again without using its abbreviation. This is not a professional manner!

Sure, we can do this manually, but what I’m looking for is an automated system that can manage this issue professionally

Best

Jamal

That’s for sure Paul. Being non-developer, this is a very challenging issue for me.


Let's see if one can share it, hopefully.


Best

Jamal

Try the attached document. It contains both an acronym/abbreviation list (that you can edit) and a macro (AcronymManager) to process any acronyms/abbreviations in whatever is the active document. The basic requirement for list management is that each entry be a separate paragraph, with the full expression listed first, followed by a tab then the acronym/abbreviation. Of course, you also can't have two entries with the same acronym/abbreviation.

The code includes comments to show how a separate document might be used for the acronym/abbreviation list instead of the one in the attachment. That might be useful if you were to add the macro to Word's Normal template.

How it works:
Basically, the macro uses a loop to call a series of Find/Replace operations to edit the text in the target document, replacing all occurrences of a given expression and its acronym/abbreviation with just the acronym/abbreviation and, for the first occurrence only, both the full expression and the acronym/abbreviation, the latter enclosed in brackets.

Attached Files

AcronymManager.doc (38.5 KB, 55 views)

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you very much Pual for sharing the code.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t know how to use it.

Appreciated

Jamal

Attached Images

	Clip_225.jpg (110.4 KB, 58 views)
	Clip_226.jpg (45.6 KB, 56 views)

Have you checked your macro security settings? That's what the message box suggests may be why you can't run the macro. If they are not the issue, then the problem has something to do with how you're trying to run the macro - which I can't tell from your images.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Many thanks for the progressive help,

I’m not sure if I’m using the code in the correct way

1. Do I need to save the doc file that contains the code (the one you have already sent) in a particular place on the hard disk to let it work (attached)?


2. What I did is that I wrote one of the expression listed on the “code file” and clicked to execute the code (attached)! But I got the security message


3. How can I give full permission and thus I never get that message?


Best

Jamal

Attached Images

	Clip_299.jpg (90.6 KB, 56 views)
	Clip_297.jpg (73.6 KB, 56 views)
	Clip_300.jpg (91.7 KB, 55 views)

Hi Jamal,

1. No.

2. Your second screenshot suggests you're trying to call the macro via a link that points to the 'ThisDocument' module in your 'Document1', not in the 'Acronym Manager'. Try activating the document you want to update, then press F11 and run the macro directly from the vbe. As you've noted, the code also provides a means of running it from a different document to the one your list is in. That means you could add it to Word's 'Normal' template and run the macro from there simply comment out the 'Set FRDoc = ThisDocument' line and un-comment the 'Set FRDoc = Documents.Open' line and update the file reference there to point to whever you want to keep your own list (just make sure that document doesn't have any macros).

3. Aside from adding the code to your 'Normal' template, you could keep the file in a 'trusted location'. See: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...010031999.aspx

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]