Has anyone figured out a way to use KM to access and work with the Word 2016 ribbon? (Probably any techniques will be the same across other parts of Office 2016, but I really only use Word.) So far I haven’t been able to figure out any way to address or manipulate most of the ribbon’s elements; I’ve kluged shortcuts to “click” the various tabs by having KM click at set distances from the top left corner of the window (sheesh, talk about a kluge), but I can’t even figure out a way for KM (or any other utility) to tell which tab of the ribbon, if any, is currently open, let alone control the functions that I currently have to click within the ribbon tabs to control.
I’d happily accept Applescript (and run scripts in KM, of course), but there are only two ribbon-related properties documented in the Word 2016 AS dictionary, and they’re useless (setting “ribbon expanded” to true or false doesn’t even change whether the ribbon is actually expanded or not!).
Basically: the ribbon stinks. Can KM help?
Oh, I should have said that I know how to assign keystroke shortcuts, KM triggers, etc., to anything that has a command listed in Word’s Tools–Customize Keyboard palette. But there are still ribbon-related things I’d like to be able to do that aren’t accessible through the built-in commands.
I don't have Word 2016, but have Word 2011 and have used Word for decades.
I've always found that everything on the ribbon has a corresponding command.
What ribbon items in Word 2016 are missing commands?
One possible workaround, is to create a VBA macro for these ribbon items, and then call that VBA macro via an AppleScript embedded in a KM Macro. But since you can assign a shortcut key to VBA macros, I'm not sure that the benefit is of going through AppleScript and KM.
(It's my understanding that 2016 is a disastrous step down from 2011; I'm upgrading from 2008, having missed my opportunity to get 2011.)
What ribbon items in Word 2016 are missing commands?
Well, opening and closing (and checking the open/closed status of) ribbon tabs themselves, for one, though at least I've partially kluged that. For another, I can't find a way to open and close, or to check the open/closed status of, the "Styles Pane" except by opening the Home tab and clicking the "Styles Pane" icon. (This isn't the only thing I might want to do! It's just the one that has cropped up this afternoon. I expect to keep stumbling across more...)
I've never really used VBA, and I don't want to exhaustively learn it, but I can certainly record macros and inspect & tweak them! And I'd be happy to bind a macro directly to a key. But a macro of me clicking the "Styles Pane" icon, or clicking a ribbon tab, records no actual VBA action, so that's no help. And I don't find anything useful at MS's VBA reference site https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee861527.aspx.
You don't need to. The combination of recording macros and google searches can often provide just what you need.
Here again, google is the answer. I almost never use ethe MS references.
Office 2011 is still available from several online stores. Google "buy office 2011"
Well, yes, but as I said, some actions (clicks on interface elements) don't produce working macros when recorded. And I haven't found much by googling, either.
Ah, it's not available from MS, but I hadn't thought to look for third-party sellers! Thanks. I need two seats, though -- desktop and laptop -- so I'll have to ponder whether it makes financial sense. (Currently I'm running a free trial of Office 365, trying to put it through some paces.)
Look for "Office 2011 Home and Office". You can install it on multiple Macs, up to 3 or 5. I've been doing that for years and it works fine.
You should find lots of hits. After doing a search, look at the hits, and use keywords in those hits for a new search. The key to using google is using the proper keywords -- often trial-and-error.
I'm not sure what you mean. It sounds intriguing - can you elaborate?
Yes. If you search for “word vba batch”, then you will find hits that have keywords like: “VBA Batch Find & Replace”.
So then I would do another search using those keywords.
Sometimes I will combine my original keywords with one or two keywords from the hits.
Oh, you're talking about the titles of the the hits, right?
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Generally, but the keywords could be in the text of the google listing.