Helpful script to quickly extract acronyms from word documents and aid in the generation of definition tables
This script was created after the tedious task of reviewing several documents at work and having to extract and define the same acronyms in all of them.
The script extracts the acronyms from any .docx file, searching in all paragraphs and tables, including those with "Track Changes" enabled. Acronymate also provides a "database" for definitions to ensure consistency. Once a new acronym is added its definition will appear automatically the next time it is found in another document. This way no time is wasted in manually searching everytime how exactly that acronym was defined. Finally, it generates an acronym table in .docx format that eases copying it to the final document.
It also detects and process an already existing acronym table to skip these false positives (if they appear on the table but were later removed in the document body) and to import new definitions.
The script is thought to be used with colleagues keeping the database file in a shared folder. Some degree of protection is added to prevent overwriting others changes.
The current user interface is a plain console, but with plenty of options and quite user-friendly. For example, for each acronym all of its appearances are shown, including context. Then it's easy to see where it was used on the document. The interface looks like this:
The user interface is provided in english and spanish. Use the configuration menu or file to change the language. If you are processing documents that are not in the supported languages, please check if the regex in common/defines contains all the special characters your language uses.
The script does not only speed up the generation of definition tables, it also saves time when only extracting acronyms from a document to an empty table. To gauge the speed of the script, it was measured against the famous "Extract ACRONYMS to New Document" Word macro.
The following documents were used as benckmark:
| Document | Description | Word count | Pages | File size [KB] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical document | Short document, mostly text | 8.621 | 28 | 444 |
| Large document | Long, with multiple tables and images | 50.893 | 220 | 21.181 |
| Long tables | Document with several pages long tables (Requirement specification document) | 219.489 | 539 | 11.124 |
Documents are real, but work related, so they can not be shared.
For each one, their acronyms were extracted to an empty table. A timer starts as the macro is launched (Check "Word integration" below for Acronymate) and stops when the results document is open. The macro was executed both configured to detect an acronym as a word consisting of 3 or more uppercase letters and 2 or more uppercase letters. Acronymate by default is configured for 2 or more uppercase letters. The resulting time on the chart is the average of 3 runs, in seconds.
The script clearly processes the documents orders of magnitude faster than a plain word macro. The speed boost is very noticeable for long documents.
Regarding accuracy, all the acronyms detected by the macro were detected by Acronymate.
Launch acronymateCmd.py, or the precompiled executable for Windows, and follow the instructions of the user interface. Currently, all user interaction is done through the console. Use the command 'h' for help.
To facilitate its use a Word macro is available here. This macro allows for launching Acronymate directly from the document whose acronyms want to be extracted. Removing the need of looking for the executable and entering the document path saves a lot of time.
Before using the macro some variables need to be defined. Read the comments on the same file.
To run the program as a python script the modules python-docx and lxml are required. Their versions are specified in the requirements.txt file.
Currently, the script is very polished and the core works well. However, there is still some room for improvement before a v1.0.0 release. I have several improvements in my TODO list like better support for multiple users (Keeping track if the "database" is in use), upgrading the console to a GUI, etc.
If the script proves to be useful I will invest more time to it.
Acronym + mate :)