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Auto-Save Microsoft Word with Keyboard Maestro
In Mac Power Users Episode 187, David Sparks and Katie Floyd talked about word processing apps, which meant talking a great deal about Microsoft Word, as well as Pages and others. Around the 38m40s mark, Katie mentioned that she uses Word a lot in her day job, and has a lot of issues with the app freezing up periodically. That led her to make a comment about intending to write a Keyboard Maestro macro to save every minute when using Microsoft Word. Having recently finished my D.Min. thesis in Microsoft Word[1], I already had a macro for that. As I was writing this article, it also occurred to me that I would like to save when Microsoft Word deactivates (is no longer the front-most app). However, even if you don't use Keyboard Maestro, I encourage you to read on, because I'm going to offer another suggestion at the end. Auto-Save every X minutes (or seconds) This probably is not what you want, although there is no harm in setting it. Microsoft Word does have an auto-recovery setting, but nothing beats the security of manually saving. Unlike modern apps, Microsoft Word does not support the versioning and auto-save features in OS X. Keyboard Maestro can run that save command every X seconds or minutes. The macro is designed to run only when Microsoft Word is active, and I set mine to run every minute. However, with Keyboard Maestro I don't have to just blindly save every sixty seconds, I can check specific criteria. I chose two: The front window of Microsoft Word exists (this means that there is an open document window in Word) A menu item "Save" is enabled (you'd find it under the "File" menu) Note that when the "Save As" window is open in Microsoft Word, the "Save" menu is disabled. That is not true in all apps, so if you implement this macro for another app, you may want to check that a button "Save" does not exist. Here is how those two conditions appear in Keyboard Maestro: Next we get to the actions section, and I included two here, although many people might choose to delete one of them. The first is a notification which will appear and inform the user that the macro is running. After awhile, that might get annoying, but I suggest using it until you get used to the idea, as it will help reinforce the fact that the macro is actually running. The second is the action which actually saves the document. You can do this one of two ways in Keyboard Maestro: Choose the menu item "Save" under the "File" menu, or Simulate ⌘ +S Most times I prefer to have Keyboard Maestro use the file menu, rather than keyboard shortcuts, because it's easier to understand what the macro is doing when I'm reviewing them in Keyboard Maestro. However, ⌘ +S is perfectly clear, and it should prevent the macro from causing any problems if I happen to be typing when it runs. So I recommend having Keyboard Maestro use keyboard shortcuts when it makes sense to do so. The only downside to this is that if you are navigating through Microsoft Word's menus at the same time that the macro runs, the menu will close, but the same problem will occur if we tell our macro to use the menu item File » Save. Auto-Save Microsoft Word when you switch to another app Saving your document while you are using Word is great, but what happens when you switch to another app? If you have been editing that Word document for at least a minute, it should have saved a recent copy, but wouldn't it be great if you could save every time you switched away from Word? But how? Obviously once we have switched away from Word, pressing ⌘ +S isn't going to save the current word document. Couldn't we tell Keyboard Maestro to use the menu item for Word, even after Word is no longer the front-most app? Nope. I learned this one the hard way with another app. The reason it won't work is obvious once you think about it: you switch away to another app, then Keyboard Maestro switches back to Word to save... then what happens? Well, either a) Keyboard Maestro leaves you in Word, which isn't what you wanted, or b) it switches you to away to another app... which will trigger the Keyboard Maestro macro to run again. We have now discovered something called an infinite loop, and I don't mean the address in Cupertino. So how can we do this? The answer is AppleScript: During the Mac Power Users episode, David mentioned several times that Microsoft Office has great AppleScript support, and he even mentioned Ben Waldie whose article is where I found this simple AppleScript command which tells Microsoft Word to save its current document.[2] This AppleScript command is nearly magic for three reasons: It does not require Microsoft Word to be active (front-most) in order for it to work, nor does it bring Microsoft Word to the front when it runs. If there is no active document, the AppleScript command will not cause any noticeable errors: no system beep, nothing. If you are navigating Word's menus when the AppleScript command is triggered, it will wait until the menu closes before running. Remember how I said that ⌘ +S had one downside? Well, this AppleScript command doesn't have it. Remember those conditions that we had to check for ("Does Microsoft Word have an existing front window? Is the 'Save' menu enabled?")? Now we don't need to worry about any of that. In fact, we no longer need two separate macros, all we need is one macro which will run: Every minute when Microsoft Word is active Any time that Microsoft Word deactivates Since we no longer need to check for any more conditions, all we need is one action, that AppleScript command. So now the whole thing just looks like this: Of course I added some additional comments and notifications, which you can delete if you don't want them. Installation To install this: download the macro, double-click on it, and it will be imported into Keyboard Maestro. Bonus Tips As mentioned above, Microsoft Word does not support OS X versions; however, if you save your Word documents to Dropbox it will save all of your changes for 30 days. Don't want to use Dropbox, but want locally saved versions? Take a look at ForeverSave 2 which not only gives you "versions" (even for apps that don't support OS X's implementation) but also can simulate ⌘ + S every X seconds (which means you wouldn't necessarily even need my Keyboard Maestro macro, although it's a more elegant and complete solution). There is a free demo version of ForeverSave 2 available, and a license is US$20. I have been using it and think it is quite useful. Because I had to, that's why. David went to great lengths to say that he doesn't think Word is as bad as its reputation, and a lot of it is leftover anti-Microsoft sentiments or something. I disagree. For a big project, MSWord was a giant PITA. Besides that, even with The Ribbon, by default what you get when you create a new document in Word just looks... gross. The good news is you can make it look much better. ↩ The only change I made was to add the check to see if Word is running, because if you quit Word that counts as deactivation which would trigger the AppleScript which would launch Word. ↩
Re-create the iOS 7 home screen in Microsoft Word
Vaclav Krejci is the madman behind this video. Watch as he re-creates the iOS home screen -- stock icon by stock icon -- in Microsoft Word. I don't know what's more compelling here: Krejci's thorough knowledge of Word's tools or the fact that the word processing software can be used so effectively as an image editor. In either case, it's a mesmerizing video. Watch in awe.
Gmail now searches attachment text, homework hoarders rejoice!
As Google continues to improve other areas of its broad ecosystem, it's always great to see that the company hasn't abandoned its search simplification roots. A spokesperson for the company told us, "we recently added the ability to search within Gmail attachments as part of our ongoing efforts to improve search." This potential time-saver plays nice with Word docs, PDFs, PPTs and many other file extensions. Currently in its infancy, some of your older attachments may not have been indexed yet, so you might not be able to "share" last year's term paper with your younger sibling until Google brings the feature up to speed. However, if you're just looking to locate that recently received Word doc filled with notes from your study buddy, then have at it.
Leaked video promises Office 15 on a crane, on a train, in a boat, potentially with a goat
What's this, then? It's purportedly a leaked promotional video for Office 15, the upcoming version of Microsoft's perennial favorite software suite. Not surprisingly, the animated short, which was "pulled from beta software," talks up the software's cloud functionality. "It's your Office," says the chipper voice. "It goes wherever you go." That includes a number of motor vehicles and electronic devices, all the while being stored safely online. Hop in after the break for one of the happiest office suite promotional videos ever made.
Onlive Desktop comes to Android tablets, brings Microsoft Office along for the ride
Good news today for Android tablet owners with OnLive Desktop envy: the cloud-based service, which recently hit the iPad, is coming to select tablets running Gingerbread and higher. The app uses the company's remote gaming technology to bring a number of desktop apps to the tablet, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader. It comes in a number flavor, including free, Desktop Plus ($4.99), Dekstop Pro (starting at $9.99) and an enterprise version. OnLive Desktop'll work with Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee TF101, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 and HTC Jetstream. More info after the jump.
Kodak's Document Print app means never visiting the girl from the Xerox place
Printing on the road usually leaves you at the mercy of your local Kinkos FedEx Office, but as long as you've got one of Kodak's cloud-print enabled Hero printers, you can avoid getting gouged. The company's just released an Android app that lets you print nearly everything, even webpages as long as they're accessed from the baked-in browser -- provided that you've left your home printer switched on. You can pull it down for free from the Android market from today and if you're interested, head on past the break for an unusually terse press release from the company.
Microsoft loses $290 million patent battle, begins searching couch cushions
We've diligently followed the Microsoft v. i4i Limited Partnership patent dispute as it wound its way through the courts, and now comes the day of reckoning: by a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court has upheld the patent-infringement finding against Redmond. For those of you just catching up, MS had been taken to court by Toronto-based i4i over a portfolio of XML-related patents -- patents it had already offered to license to the software behemoth. In court, Microsoft claimed it had not infringed and that the patents were invalid; a 2009 Texas court disagreed and awarded $200 million in damages. A subsequent appeal failed. Oh, and the government sided with i4i. Today's Supreme Court verdict upholds the lower courts' decisions: Microsoft Word is an infringing product, and the company now owes $290 million. The finding likely won't affect consumers, as the offending versions of Word are now obsolete. Still, $290 million isn't chump change, even for the world's largest software company. There's probably a joke in here about i4i justice, but we'll be dadblasted if we can find it.
Government says it's got i4i's back in Word patent dispute
As the US Supreme Court prepares to hear yet another appeal in the seemingly unending patent dispute between Microsoft and XML specialists i4i next month, some pretty influential folks are starting to take sides -- officially. Perhaps most notably, Acting Solicitor General Neal Kumar Katyal filed an amicus brief backing i4i and a previous US Court of Appeals decision to uphold the $290 million judgement against the software giant. Other big guns backing i4i with amicus briefs include DuPont, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and GE. Of course, Microsoft's getting a little help from its friends with official I-got-you-bro statements coming from Google, Apple, Toyota, and Walmart. The appeal is expected to hit the Supreme Court in April and has big implications for patent litigation -- specifically, it could give tech giants like Microsoft more guts to go after patents held by little guys like i4i.
US Supreme Court agrees to hear Microsoft appeal in Word patent case
It's been quite a few months since we've seen any major developments in Microsoft's patent battle with Toronto-based i4i Inc over Microsoft Word, but it looks like things are now about to change in a big way. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the US Supreme Court has today agreed to hear Mircosoft's appeal in the case that dealt it $290 million in damages and prevented it from selling versions of Word that contained the allegedly infringing technology. That could not only have some pretty big ramifications for Microsoft in this particular case, but for patent law in general, as it gets to the very heart of the legal standard for determining the validity of a patent. Needless to say, we'll be watching this one very closely -- the court is expected to hear the case sometime next year.
Word 2011 brings ribbons, clouds, and full-screen mode
TUAW dives into Microsoft Office 2011 with reviews of the apps that make up the suite. First up: the pans and praises of Word 2011. It's been a stalwart on the Mac platform since before we said things like "the Mac platform." Turning 25 this year, Microsoft Word is the anchor app for the Office 2011 suite and the one most home, student and many business users will spend the most time in. There's no upgrade pricing for the suite, and the licensing is now locked to an individual machine -- so is it worth it to the average Word user to make the leap? Let's discuss. "Holy toolbars, Batman!" was the first thing I said after launching Word 2011 for the first time. This is the fabled "ribbon" that Microsoft added to the Windows version of Office. I'm told that I'll get used to it. Some even claim to like it after a while. I'm not sure how long that is supposed to take, but it's apparently more than a few days. %Gallery-106848% These are the facts: the ribbon does show a number of different functions, including just about everything a normal person would want to do. Although it is crowded with a bunch of icons (including six different icons that prominently display the letter "A" in one close cluster), the options and settings you might want are all "right there" and easy to discover. Microsoft did a great job making it so that it dynamically resizes as you resize the window. If I made my window the full width of my 24" iMac, the toolbar expanded, reflowed, and the Styles section expanded. If I shrunk it down, it reflowed again; it did this all very naturally while showing a lot of attention to detail. Don't like the ribbon? You can change it, collapse it, tell it not to open automatically with new documents, or disable it entirely. Those settings are easy to find, too, as there's a shortcut to the Preferences window right from the ribbon itself. That's an important point: these are separate preferences. If you are familiar enough with the Mac to go into the regular Word menu to open the preferences, you'll find the Ribbon preferences right there. If you aren't, there's a gear icon on the ribbon itself that will offer to open it for you. Rather than divide up the preferences into two different places, there are two different ways to get to the same place. It's a slight (but important) difference.
TUAW TV Live today at 5 PM ET: Writing tools for Mac
Monday was the start of NaNoWriMo, the annual writing fest in which authors from around the globe attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. I've started on my third novel, and as usual I'm having a blast thinking up characters, situations, plot lines, and just how I'm going to wrap up this entire story. There are a number of wonderful writing tools for the Mac, so on today's episode of TUAW TV Live, I thought I'd introduce to you at least 10 of them. You don't need to be a budding novelist or screenwriter to benefit from the power of some of these tools, so if you do any sort of writing I think you'll enjoy this afternoon's show. We'll start at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT) sharp. Just drop by TUAW about 5 minutes before the start of the show and you'll find a post with a livestream viewer and chat box. You can also join us or watch old episodes of TUAW TV Live at ustream.tv/tuaw.
Word, Excel and OneNote for Windows Phone 7 Series revealed
We actually haven't seen any official shots of the Office apps for Windows Phone 7 Series, but now that Microsoft's emulator has been hacked and unlocked, we've got a glimpse of what creating a Word doc in OneNote looks like -- and while there's a high probability that this a super-early version of the app, it's still revealing in how drastically minimal it is. Microsoft says most people just want to make minor edits and leave comments to Office docs while on the go, not make large edits with copy and paste, so we'd expect to see track changes in the final version, but something tells us the main interface isn't going to look tremendously different than this. One more shot and the video with Word after the break -- hit the source for the second vid with Excel.
Microsoft loses second Word patent appeal, on the hook for $240 million in damages
And the intellectual property rollercoaster continues. Microsoft's second appeal of that $240m judgment banning sales of Word with features infringing on i4i's XML-related patents has been rejected, leaving the Redmond giant with a huge fine to pay atop its undoubtedly sky-high lawyer bills. The appeals court held that Microsoft was explicitly aware of i4i's patents before implementing the relevant XML code into Word -- undoubtedly because i4i had been selling an extremely popular XML plugin for years and had approached Microsoft about licensing it. Yeah, oops. Don't worry, though, there shouldn't be any consumer impact here: old versions of Word aren't affected, and current versions of Word 2007 and Office 2010 don't have the offending features. Still, Microsoft might be able to appeal yet again, depending on a panel ruling on the matter -- at this rate, we'd expect it.
Making Microsoft Office on the Mac look more PC-like
Previously, I've mentioned that, despite their similar DNA and file interoperability, Microsoft Office for the PC and Mac are different in their own little subtle ways. This is part function: for example, Microsoft Excel on the Mac uses the 1904 date system, while its PC counterpart uses the 1900 system. But it's also part form. Upon first launch, Microsoft Word and Excel on the Mac present a more palette-oriented user interface, with a "toolbox palette," when compared to their pre-ribbon Windows counterparts. For some, this difference in UI schemas may serve as an annoyance. Though I'll be using Word for this example, you can also make these changes in Excel using the same steps. To make Microsoft Office on your Mac look more Windows-like (pre-Office 2007, that is), first close the "toolbox palette." Next, click on "View," and then click on "toolbars," where you'll be presented with a host of toolbars to choose from. Despite a myriad of choices, choosing the "standard" (which is already selected by default) and "formatting" toolbars provides you with the most similar UI layout to that I've often seen in Microsoft Word on a Windows machine. While it would be reasonable to assume that wanting to get rid of the toolbox palette would be more applicable to new PC-to-Mac converts, this isn't necessarily so. Regardless of one's sentiments toward Microsoft, most offices are, well, Microsoft Offices running on Windows. A consistent looking Word and Excel on our Macs could better facilitate one's workflow.
Microsoft Word allowed to stay on sale... for now
Just as we predicted, Microsoft's request to have that ban on sales of Word put on hold pending appeal of i4i's XML patent victory has been granted. That means IT managers and excitable first-year college students can continue to happily throw down cash for the world's most popular word processor, while the rest of us twiddle our thumbs waiting for either proceedings to resume on September 23 or Stevey Ballms to write the big check and make this whole case disappear forever.
Microsoft forbidden from selling Word, will probably keep selling Word
Hey, remember that seemingly random patent case from May in which a federal jury awarded a company called i4i Ltd $200 million in patent damages against Microsoft? Things just got worse for Redmond: the judge in the case today issued a permanent injunction against sales of Word 2003, Word 2007, and any future versions of Word that can open .xml, .docx, or .docm files containing "custom XML." Yeah, no kidding -- that's pretty much all of 'em. At issue is i4i's patent on a method for reading XML, and obviously Microsoft's vowed to appeal, so expect this injunction to be stayed pending that appeal in short order -- and also expect Microsoft to eventually either find a way to win or simply pay up, since there's no way it'll let anyone kill Word. We'll see what happens. Word. Update: CNET has a quick interview with i4i Chairman Loudon Owen, who says that he himself uses Word and that i4i isn't trying to "stop Microsoft's business" or "interfere with all the users of Word out there." It's an interesting read, go check it out. Update: Not that it should come as a surprise to anyone at all, but Microsoft has confirmed that it'll be appealing the decision.
ScreenSteps Pro adds video embedding and Pages/Word export
ScreenSteps 2.6 is out, and has added two very useful features: the ability to export to Microsoft Word or Pages, and the ability to embed videos into your documents for online publication. We've covered this screen-based documentation application since its initial release, and it continues to be a personal favorite for me and an incredibly efficient way to create and maintain documentation for clients, employees and users. The video embedding is a huge deal for my workflow. I've found through years of working with clients that a PDF or online document and a video serve two very different audiences. Some folks, myself included, have a learning style that does not work with video tutorials. We require text and examples we can scan, search and bookmark. The other half are in a reverse situation; videos jibe with their learning style, but pages of text just cause a logjam in their brains. Ultimately, because I can rarely predict the learning style of a client, I end up creating both; documenting a procedure step-by-step, and then demonstrating it while I record the screen, using the manual I just created as a script. With ScreenSteps 2.6, I can now add a shorter video to each step or lesson, allowing me to serve both audiences a little more efficiently. Embedding video is as easy as copying the embed code from any video service which provides it, choosing the Step > Set Video Embed Code menu option and pasting your code. At this point, the "video embed" is a PR-speak way of introducing a feature which really has much more advanced possibilities. Quite simply, this feature allows you to embed anything you want, and -- at least in HTML exports -- have it interpreted within the documentation as Javascript/HTML. I plan to use this freedom to embed bookmarks in my videos using YouTube's Javascript API. You can also use it to insert code examples with HTML pre and code tags. The sky's the limit. On to the new export formats ... I really should say format, as it's a single option to export a Office Open XML format. This format can be read by and edited in most modern word processors, including Apple's Pages and Microsoft Word. As with ScreenSteps' other export formats, users can customize templates for their OOXML files, allowing strict adherence to standards within organizations with such requirements. It allows for some pretty darn good-looking Pages documents, too. A trial version of ScreenSteps 2.6 is available for download from Blue Mango Learning Systems. See the product page for further details. Pricing comes in two levels: $39.95US for the standard version, or $59.95US for the Pro version (which is required for the video embedding and OOXML export features). As noted by the developers in the comments, video embedding works in both Standard and Pro versions.
First Look: Documents to Go for iPhone
Documents to Go from DataViz has been known for years to the Palm and Blackberry community, and it finally comes to the iPhone -- filling in the need for a built-in Word (and soon Excel) editor that truly turns the iPhone into a mini computer. There are currently two versions of Document To Go. The $4.99USD version [App Store link] features Microsoft Word editing alone and the $9.99 version adds Microsoft Exchange support. You can also view and synchronize Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDFs, HTML pages and iWork '08 documents ('05, '06 and '09 are not supported at this time, though I do imagine that iWork '09 support will be added later). A free upgrade is part of the deai; when purchasing Documents to Go now, you net the ability to create and edit Excel documents when that feature becomes available. For an in-depth look of the app itself, click through. Please note that this review covers the $4.99US version of the app sans Microsoft Exchange. %Gallery-66042%
DataViz brings Documents To Go to the App Store
Editing documents? On a phone? We're sure most iPhone users are a little taken aback by this prospect, but we assure you it's completely safe and devoid of artificial preservatives. DataViz just launched its Documents To Go suite for the iPhone, which lets you edit and create Word documents, sync work files with a desktop over WiFi, and view other Office documents with the iPhone's existing viewer -- it's not the first app to offer some of these functions for the device, but it's the first with this level of street cred. An optional version of the app also includes a Exchange mail client with ActiveSync for accessing and editing Word documents from email, which seemingly flies in the face of Apple's vague "don't mess with Mail or any of our other built-in apps" policy. The basic Documents To Go app retails for a limited time at $4.99, while the Exchange version goes for $9.99 -- and anyone who picks up the 1.0 version will get a free update to include Excel editing once it becomes available.
TUAW Tips: Open .docx files with Office 2004
If you haven't yet upgraded to Microsoft Office 2008, you're probably intimately familiar with the problem of receiving Office 2008 .docx (Word 2008) files; they're not natively supported by Office 2004. If you have updated that older version of Office to 11.5.0 and installed the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, you'll be able to open .docx files in Word 2004.Both the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.0 Update Package and the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac are available for free. Another way that you can resolve the .docx dilemma is to use Zamzar's online file converter (see screenshot below) to downgrade the .docx file to the .doc format. Choose the .docx file, select the file format (.doc) that you wish to convert the file to, enter your email address so that Zamzar can send the converted file to you, and then click the Convert button. You'll receive the converted file shortly. This tip comes to you via Jenny Kortina over at The Apple Blog.
