Transferring AutoCorrect Entries

Lynda has many, many AutoCorrect entries in her system that she has spent years refining. She wonders if there is a way to transfer these entries from one computer system to another.

Yes, there is, and the key to doing so is to understand where Word stores AutoCorrect entries. Actually, AutoCorrect entries are stored in two places, depending on the type of AutoCorrect entries they are.

Unformatted AutoCorrect Entries

On a new install of Word, most AutoCorrect entries are of the unformatted type. These are stored in what are known as ACL files. This simply means that the file uses ".acl" as the filename extension. (It is assumed that ACL is an acronym for "AutoCorrect List.") The default folder in which these are stored is here:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office

The full filename of an ACL file will be something like MSO1033.acl. The "MSO number" that forms the main part of the filename denotes the language of the entries in the ACL file. On a default install of Word, it is very possible to have more than one ACL file in the folder. On my Microsoft 365 system, I have four of them:

MSO0127.acl (math AutoCorrect)

MSO1033.acl (United States; English)

MSO1036.acl (France; French)

MSO3082.acl (Spain; Spanish)

If you are interested in knowing what the language-specific MSO numbers mean, you can find information here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/office_standards/ms-oe376/6c085406-a698-4e12-9d4d-c3b0ee3dbc4a

If you want to move all of your unformatted AutoCorrect entries from one machine to another, you'll need to get out of Word (on both machines) and then copy the ACL files from the source system to the target system. Before copying, however, you should consider renaming the ACL files on the target system to something else. That way you can "go back" to them in case something weird happens in the transfer.

Formatted AutoCorrect Entries

Word also allows formatted AutoCorrect entries to be created. This type of entry is stored in the Normal template. In addition, Word will store longer very long AutoCorrect entries in the Normal template because there is a limit of 255 characters for unformatted AutoCorrect entries. (Longer ones must be stored as formatted entries.)

Because AutoCorrect entries can be stored in your Normal template, transferring them to another system could be problematic. This is not because locating and copying the Normal template is terribly hard, but because your target machine may have things stored in its Normal template that you don't want to lose—things like styles, AutoText entries, custom toolbars, and macros.

If you want to locate your Normal template, you can, by default, find it in this folder:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

If you have a bunch of formatted AutoCorrect entries, and you want to try copying them to a different machine, make sure you locate the Normal template on the target machine and rename it before you copy.

Easier AutoCorrect Management

In case you didn't notice, Word provides no mechanism for exporting or importing AutoCorrect entries. That is why the manual methods of locating and copying files are noted earlier in this tip. It is possible to access AutoCorrect entries—regardless of where they are stored—via macro, but it can be challenging.

Because of this, you may want to consider using a macro created by others. (There is no reason to reinvent the wheel!) For instance, Michael Schuler has created a pair of macros that work with AutoCorrect entries, and they are available for free at this website:

https://bergerplusschuler.com/macros/

Greg Maxey has created what he terms the AutoCorrect Utility Manager (AUM), which can be found here:

https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/autocorrect_utility_manager.html

The website indicates that the AUM will work with Word 2007 through Word 2013, but it should also work with later versions because the structure of AutoCorrect entries has remained stable over the past decade or so. The nice thing about the AUM is that you can both export and import entries, which should make it rather easy to move them from one system to another.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8519) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.