Auto Creation of an Acronym List

Thanks for this which I find very useful to shorten labels

A Example
Excel formula names long enough to be intuitive to co-workers yet short enough to fit within one Windows Width (without scrolling to view the whole formula name)

It will also speed up my daily task if my custom Acronym List can be used same as Dictionary where a typed word automattically converts to Acronym; this will co-workers, including me, to memorize my Acronyms.
For now, I am adding my Acronym to custom Dictionary but find its maintance so labourious I don't always have the time.

A shortcut key to convert Acronym to its meaning will also be very helpful.

I appreciate other alternatives.

Hi Allen! Thanks for sharing this technique to automatically create a list of acronyms.

For people who want to save even more time or who might not be comfortable using macros, here's a free online tool that does the same pretty much instantaneously: https://listofacronyms.com

It will also attempt to fill the list of acronyms with each acronym's definition provided it was written down before the first use of the acronym (as this is a more common way of introducing acronyms as other people have pointed out below).

E.g. A central processing unit (CPU) is...

It's already helpful as is but feel free to reach out if you think it could be improved!

Another option is to use PerfectIt, which includes a tool that builds an alphabetized list of abbreviations (with their definitions). It identifies abbreviations that have not been defined. It can also check to see that an abbreviation is not used before it is defined, and used instead of the spelled-out term thereafter. Anyone who processes large documents, especially those with many contributors, should evaluate this add-in for Word.

I note that many have commented that the normal method of defining an abbreviation is to spell out the term and to follow it with the abbreviation, enclosed by parentheses. This is generally but not universally true in the United States. For example, the AP Stylebook says to spell out the name of well-known organization at first use (with no definition of its abbreviation) and use the abbreviation thereafter. Other English-speaking peoples have adopted different conventions.

I echo the request for accumulating counts of the number of times each abbreviation appears.

There are actually some terms that should be abbreviated even if they occur only once in a document, e.g., abbreviations that are more readily recognized than the spelled-out term. (This requires an assessment of the intended audience.)

I've used these macros to extract abbreviations but the real bane of my life are all the authors who define an abbreviation and then never actually use it. This is particularly true of those in the US, and often many don't provide any definition at all. It is a major problem as many authors seem to abbreviate everything in sight just for the sake of it. Drives me nuts! And of course it's a real drag to have to find each and every one. to see how many there are.
I've tried coding it myself but it's been beyond me so far.
I would basically want any abbreviations that are used three or more times to stay and the rest to be in full only. Could you please tell me how to add a count and command to the code to highlight those NOT used three or more times?

ACRONYM LIST WHEN THE DEFINITION PRECEDES THE ACRONYM

The following macro creates a list of acronyms and their definitions where the definition precedes the acronym, for example “United States of America (USA)”. It assumes that the acronym is surrounded by brackets and the definition words are capitalised except for minor words. If the macro cannot match the first character of the acronym with a preceding word then it will give as the definition all preceding words back to the start of the paragraph.

Sub AcronymsAndDefinitions()
Dim aLength As Long
Dim firstChar As String
Dim acronym As String
Dim aDescr As String
Dim strOutput As String
Dim newDoc As Document
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdStory
ActiveWindow.View.ShowHiddenText = False
strOutput = ""
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = "\([A-Z]@[A-Z]\)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindStop
.Format = False
.MatchCase = True
.MatchWildcards = True
.MatchWholeWord = True
End With

Do
Selection.Find.Execute
If Selection.Find.Found Then
aLength = Len(Selection.Text) - 2
acronym = Mid(Selection.Text, 2, aLength)
firstChar = Left(acronym, 1)
Selection.MoveStart unit:=wdWord, Count:=-aLength

Do While Left(Selection.Text, 1) <> firstChar _
And Left(Selection.Text, 1) <> Chr(13) _
And Left(Selection.Text, 1) <> ActiveDocument.Characters(1)
Selection.MoveStart unit:=wdWord, Count:=-1
Loop
aDescr = Left(Selection.Text, Len(Selection.Text) - aLength - 2)
If Left(aDescr, 1) = Chr(13) Then aDescr = Mid(aDescr, 2)
strOutput = strOutput & acronym & vbTab & aDescr & vbCrLf
End If
Selection.Start = Selection.End
Loop Until Not Selection.Find.Found
Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdStory

If Len(strOutput) = 0 Then
MsgBox "No acronyms were found"
Else
Set newDoc = Documents.Add
Selection.TypeText Text:=Left(strOutput, Len(strOutput) - 1)
newDoc.Content.Sort SortOrder:=wdSortOrderAscending
Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdStory
End If
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Hi folks,

The Table of Authorities method worked well for Word 2010, but not so well with the Word in Office 365 because the page number cannot be moved off the page (the key trick in Shauna Kelly's excellent post). In Word 2010, you could position a tab stop off the page and just have the number moved where it would not print. I tried the same thing in my new Word release and the page number wraps back onto the printed area of the page. Any suggestion on how to make the Table of Authorities work with the new Word releases?

Thanks

Only those abbreviations that form a word are correctly called acronyms. Most acronyms are initialisms, a much larger subset of abbreviations. Abbreviations take other forms (e.g., contractions and customary abbreviations ending with a period), so a clarifying statement is usually needed to explain when the abbreviations to which you refer are just initialisms and acronyms.

Since WordTips are widely regarded as authoritative, misusing the word on this site does more damage than the many bad examples readers may encounter elsewhere. Please amend the article.

how can I change the second (long) code if I have the following structure for abbreviation:

......University of Oxford (OXF) is an old style university......

thanks very much

PLEASE PLEASE post another version of the macro to work on documents where the definitions are before the acronym, such as, Austin Independent School District (AISD.

Thanks

For all asking about definition before the acronym. Turn on your "paragraph marks" and you will see the hidden text code. Once you have the code, you can put whatever you want inside it.

Our acronyms are identified in text as: Austin Independent School District (AISD). The resulting code when you mark it is { XE "Austin Independent School District (AISD)" } (with the whole thing having a dotted line beneath and surrounding the {}). Once you can see the code, simply edit the text inside the quotes to fit your standard. Since I want the list to display the acronym first, my text will change to { XE "AISD Austin Independent School District" }. I want to be able to put a tab in between the acronym and the definition, so I will most likely include an asterisk between them so I can find and replace it with a tab character after I run the Insert command.

Can you please post an edit that looks for definitions BEFORE the acronym? That's how most documents use acronyms the first time.

I agree with Alan. I would love to see how this can be done when the acronyms follow the format Term (Acronym). I am going to be editing a document that totals over 3000 pages broken into 7 volumes, with a master acronym list used in all of the volumes. My main concern is making sure that an acronym is defined on its first use in a volume and only on its first use.

Regrettably, this macro is backwards for most common acronym use in documents. Proper publishing rules of syntax require the first use definition of the acronym FOLLOWED by the acronym itself in parenthesis [e.g., "Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC)" ]. This macro has reversed the tabulation as noted in the explanation immediately preceding the macro coding.

Hi,

for Mac users (OSX 10.7 and higher), we just released a new tool on the Mac App Store (look for "acronym" on the App Store or click link below). It's called "MAX - My Acronym eXtractor."

It finds acronyms in texts (e.g., Word format), creates a list, sorts the list alphabetically, finds the most likely definition (by looking in front of the acronym), checks if the acronym is called out in the right place, and exports the table in several formats.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/max-my-acronym-extractor/id658390220?ls=1&mt=12

We have been using this tool internally for quite a while and run it on every document. Saves a lot of dull work...

Hope you find this helpful. Thanks!

Silvia

Thank you for sharing!