Filed under: Features, How-tos
Mac Automation: automating Microsoft Word 2008
When Microsoft released Office 2008 for Mac, they did something that I must applaud -- they joined the ranks of Mac developers creating Automator-able applications. When you do a search in Automator for "Microsoft," it will reveal all of the Automator actions that ship with Microsoft Office 2008. There is lots of great stuff included, so we'll be covering some of it in this four part Mac Automation series. I will take you through how to automate each of the Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage.First off, let's take a look at what you can automate in Word 2008. Doing a search for "Word" in Automator will display the available actions for Microsoft Word. As you can see, there are plenty of actions that you can automate. For this how-to, we'll focus on a workflow that does the following:
- Creates a new document
- Sets document properties
- Gathers text from the clipboard
- Places a watermark in the document
- Saves the document
- Prints the document
For this workflow, you'll need the following Automator actions (in the same order):
- Create New Word Document
- Set Word Document Properties
- Paste Clipboard Contents Into Word Documents
- Add Watermark to Word Documents
- Save Word Documents
- Print Word Documents
Running the workflow
First off you need something that has already been typed. The great thing about this workflow is that it allows you to copy text from any application; be it Pages, TextEdit, or your web browser. I have typed 4 simple paragraphs in TextEdit and will copy all of them by pressing Command + C on my keyboard. The text has been copied and now you can run the workflow. Just press the run button in the top right corner of Automator.
The workflow springs to life opening Microsoft Word, creating a new document, setting the page properties, pasting the text you previously copied, saving the Word document, and finally, printing it. When the workflow completes, you will see a Word document similar to the one below. A copy will also be printed on the default printer.
First off you need something that has already been typed. The great thing about this workflow is that it allows you to copy text from any application; be it Pages, TextEdit, or your web browser. I have typed 4 simple paragraphs in TextEdit and will copy all of them by pressing Command + C on my keyboard. The text has been copied and now you can run the workflow. Just press the run button in the top right corner of Automator.
You can then save your Automator workflow to your desired format. You have to commend Microsoft for making Office 2008 so seamlessly integrated into Mac OS X Leopard. I will show you how to automate more areas of Microsoft Office in the near future.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Mc said 8:16AM on 3-10-2008
You must still be running Tiger. When I fire up automator there are no Microsoft options. So I did a search for "automator" on MS Word Help and this is what it has to say for Automator Workflows and Appliscripts:
"Running Automator workflows and AppleScripts from the Office script menu is not currently supported under Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard)."
Shame, as I'd like to try this out.
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Cliff Kujala said 9:46AM on 3-10-2008
John MC,
If you have the Home and Student version then you don't have the Automater Actions. You need the full version to get them.
John Mc said 10:23AM on 3-10-2008
Ah, thanks Cliff, that's the reason. I'd forgotten about that.
Dave M. said 8:58AM on 3-11-2008
Typical Microsoft crap. Leave it to Micro$oft to make a feature that is specifically for home users (Automator) not work with the "Home" version of Office.
This is the kind of marketing that persuaded me to make the switch from Windows to OS X in the first place. Sure is a good thing that I decided to go with iWork instead of MS Office!
Unregistered said 9:08AM on 3-10-2008
I'm using Leopard and Microsoft Office 2008, and I can see the office 2008 automator actions just fine.
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Ken Cohen said 4:02PM on 3-11-2008
“Leave it to Micro$oft to make a feature that is specifically for home users (Automator) not work with the "Home" version of Office.“
I believe they added Automator (and supposedly enhanced Applescript support) to replace VBA, which has been removed. Not much of a solution, but better than nothing.
I also don“t see anything wrong with the fact that the “home“ version, with its low price, should lack some features of the commercial version. I doubt that many non-commercial users made much use of macros and VBA in Office 2004.
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Kathleen Fedouloff said 10:13AM on 4-30-2008
What a nightmare! I thought I must be doing something wrong with Automator, but the support pages are singularly unsupportive. Now I see that my software is kneecapped. I think I'll have to go back to Quickeys...
Oh, and I am just one of those users who DID make use of macros, and now can't!
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