Recorded action (in word:mac 2008) not working

Question

Hello. Here's what I do: I create a new workflow in Automator (cmd-N) and choose 'Custom' as starting point. Then, I open a .doc (from word:mac 2008), then start recording, back to the .doc click somewhere into the open .doc window), click into a footnote, press cmd-A (selects all footnotes), choose Convert to Endnote from the contextual menu, save and close. (What I get is an action with three blank steps, namely step 1, 2, and 4. 1 would be clicking into the .doc window, 2 clicking into the footnote. 3 is: Press cmd-A. 4 is blank again, and I am clueless about what this one might be. 5 is Convert to Endnote, etc.)
I rename the action, and save it as an application. Then I drop the same file who's copy I used to record the action onto that application. In the menu bar (top of my screen), it says 'Watch me Do' for a little while (red octagon next to it), then disppears. I open this file I had dropped on the app, it's unchanged.
Appears to me I'm missing something so fundamental it's not covered by tutorials. Any advise? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

that works, thanks.
Each action consists of two parts: one that starts with ––, then names the action (blank if no name for this step appears in automator), and the second that entails the description of the action itself.
I record the sequence again, leaving out the first click into the .doc, clicking into the footnote straight. Then I highlight all actions recorded by automator, copy, and paste into Script Editor. This is what I get:
delay 1.727666
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "click UI Element \"Document Pane\" of window 2 of application process \"Word\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
delay 1.815997
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "click UI Element \"Document Pane\" of window 4 of application process \"Word\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
-- Press ⌘A
delay 0.135988
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "keystroke \"a\" using command down"
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
delay 1.657981
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "click UI Element \"Document Pane\" of window 4 of application process \"Word\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
-- Convert to Endnote
delay 5.327995
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "click menu item \"Convert to Endnote\" of menu 1 of UI element 1 of application process \"Word\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
-- Press ⌘S
delay 1.840010
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "keystroke \"s\" using command down"
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
-- Press ⌘W
delay 2.583996
set timeoutSeconds to 2.000000
set uiScript to "keystroke \"w\" using command down"
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )
on doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)
set endDate to (current date) + timeoutSeconds
repeat
try
run script "tell application \"System Events\"
" & uiScript & "
end tell"
exit repeat
on error errorMessage
if ((current date) > endDate) then
error "Can not " & uiScript
end if
end try
end repeat
end doWithTimeout
That makes me ask two questions:
First: Why does it talk of window 2 and 4, when I had only one window open, and what I did while recording was one click into the footnote section and then go straight ⌘A?
Second: Automator doesn't realize that it's a footnote I click into, and that consequently pressing ⌘A selects all footnotes (not the whole main text). Since that doesn't seem recordable, a first step might be to write it manually—if such a thing is possible. Since Microsoft has deprecated VBA Macros and recommends using Apple Script instead, I hope it might. Is it? Or how else?
Thanks