Microsoft Measurement Converter Smart Tag

 

Measurement Converter Smart Tag recognizes commonly used metric and imperial measurement units in a Word document. You can then convert units from one system to the other, for example convert miles to kilometers or pints to liters. You can also add new recognized units and edit conversion rules. The smart tag works with Word 2007 and in Outlook 2007 when you use Word as your email editor.

 

Syntax of measurement units The smart tag will recognize measurement units with the following syntax: <float number><space (optional)><unit name>, for example “1,234.678 km”. The smart tag recognizes numbers consisting of 12 digits or less, including decimal places.

 

Supported conversions Most conversions are simple multiplications by a coefficient. By default, the Measurement Converter Smart Tag supports the following conversions:

 

Length

Area

Volume

miles to kilometers

square feet to m2

U.K. pints to liters

kilometers to miles

m2 to square feet

U.S. pints to liters

inches to centimeters

square yards to m2

liters to U.K. pints

centimeters to inches

m2 to square yards

liters to U.S. pints

millimeters to inches

acres to ha (hectare)

liters to gallons

feet to centimeters

ha to acres

gallons to liters

centimeters to feet

acre to m2

oz to deciliters

meters to feet

m2 to acre

deciliters to oz

feet to meters

 

quarts to liters

yards to meters

 

liters to quarts

meters to yards

 

cubic feet to m3

 

 

m3 to cubic feet

 

Temperature

Weight

Speed

Celsius to Fahrenheit

pounds to kg

mph to km/h

Fahrenheit to Celsius

kg to pounds

km/h to mph

 

grams to ounces

 

 

ounces to grams

 

 

stones to kg

 

 

kg to stones and pounds

 

 

Conversion precision The Measurement Converter Smart Tag rounds results of all conversions. Rounding precision differs between conversion rules. Rounding precision is defined for each conversion rule as the number of decimal places in the conversion result. Precision is set to 2 decimal places for most conversions. Precision is adjusted accordingly for conversions where the target value is much larger or much smaller than the source value.

 

Use Excel for more conversions You can use Microsoft Excel for more conversion features. The CONVERT() formula supports a wide range of measurement conversions in an Excel worksheet. See Excel online help for information how to enable the CONVERT() formula.

 

Editing the list of conversions You can add, remove or modify measurement units that shall be recognized in Word documents. Measurement Converter Smart Tag reads conversion rules from a Unicode text file (metconv.txt) when Word is launched. You can open metconv.txt in Notepad and edit the contents. Each line in the metconv.txt represents a conversion rule. Each rule is defined by 10 fields, delimited by commas:

 

#

Field Description

Field Value

Example

Note

1

Locale for which the unit is recognized

a) LCID

b) “All” if recognized in all languages

All

The LCID is an identification number used by Windows to uniquely identify locales and languages. See Microsoft Word 2007 Help or the MSDN Library at http://msdn.microsoft.com for a listing of LCIDs.

2

Source unit name

Text

km

 

3

Source description

Text

kilometer

You can use the “&” character to define hot keys in the description text. E.g. “kilo&meter” will set “m” as the hot key for this conversion rule.

4

Space between source unit and number

“Yes” or “No”

Yes

 

5

Is the source unit name case sensitive?

“Yes” or “No”

No

 

6

Destination unit name

Text

mi

 

7

Destination description

Text

mile

You can use the “&” character to define hot keys in the description text. E.g. “mi&le” will set “l” as the hot key for this conversion rule.

8

Space between destination unit and number

“Yes” or “No”

Yes

 

9

Rounding precision (number of decimal places in the target)

Integer value ranging from 0 to 9

3

 

10

Conversion ratio or formula reference

a) Float value ranging from 0.00000000000001 to 1000000. The value must not include a comma.

b) “CTOF” (Celsius to Fahrenheit)

c) “FTOC” (Fahrenheit to Celsius)

d) “KTOSP” (kilograms to stones and pounds). If the formula reference is KTOSP, then the Destination Unit Name contains two strings delimited by “|”: “stones|pounds”.

0.6213712

 

 

The Measurement Converter smart tag always supports conversion rules which have “All” in Field #1. In addition to these rules, the smart tag also supports rules with an LCID value matching the user locale of your Windows regional settings. For example, if the user locale on your system is set to Russian, Measurement Converter will load conversion rules marked “All” and “1049” in Field #1.

 

Field #2 (“Source unit name”) of the list contains the recognizable strings, i.e. strings that the smart tag will detect and tag in a Word document. You can add comments in the metconv.txt on a new line as long as they are preceded by the “//” delimiter.

 

Note: New rules can be added anywhere in the metconv.txt file. To correct mismatched conversion actions, open the AutoCorrect dialog from the Options/Proofing menu, and click the Recheck Document button on the Smart Tags tab.

 

Number formats Measurements in international documents may use various decimal separators and grouping symbols. The Measurement Converter Smart Tag recognizes numbers that use dot or comma as the decimal separator; and dot, comma or space as the grouping symbol. If the correct format cannot be determined from the measurement value alone, the smart tag will check the current user locale in Control Panel/Regional Options, and assume that the measurement uses the format defined there. For example, if the measurement is “2,234 km” and the user locale is French, the value is interpreted as “two point two hundred thirty-four kilometers”. If the same measurement is recognized on a system with user locale set to English, it is interpreted as “two thousand two hundred thirty-four kilometers”. The smart tag only recognizes numbers where digits are grouped in groups of three.