How can I import phrases from Microsoft Word autocorrect or from an Excel spreadsheet-or at least rapidly make up a large database of phrases?

You can import the file with common phrases from Microsoft Office 2000. This file is located here; see Autocorrect.

If you know VBA, you can write a small macro in Basic and export all your phrases from Microsoft Word to a file that has the following format:

keyword1=phrase1
keyword2=phrase2
...
keywordN=phraseN

To import this file into Type Pilot, open the main window, go to File| Import… and select INI-files (*.ini) Type.