MacOS – Workspaces not switching automatically

I've long experienced this problem, too. Haven't found any 'good' solutions, so put together some Applescripts that partially address the problem. It's very much a kludge and not a perfect solution, and deploying the scripts in a given user's workflow is a matter of individual taste.

Here's code to open an MS Word document in a space that doesn't have any Word windows without first triggering a shift to a space with a Word window open:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Microsoft Word" to tell menu bar 1 to tell menu bar item 3 to tell menu 1 to click menu item 1 --open
tell application "Microsoft Word" to activate

And this script will close an MS Word document without triggering a switch to another space (if it was the last Word window open in the current space):

--Is there another window of the app in this space? If so, don't need to shift to another app before closing
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Microsoft Word" to set _theWindows to name of every window as list
set WinNum to number of strings of _theWindows --(Office puts weird other things in the list)
if WinNum = 1 then --i.e., it is the only window in the space
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke tab using command down --switch to another app
    delay 0.1
    tell application "System Events" to set visible of application process "Microsoft Word" to true --in case there is a close dialog I still need to see
    delay 0.1
end if
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Microsoft Word" to tell menu bar 1 to tell menu bar item 3 to tell menu 1 to click menu item "Close" --close

Here's something I tried (on 10.9.5). Unfortunately, it didn't work, but I'll note it here in case it inspires someone.

• I noticed that enabling System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Switch to Desktop 16 caused ~/Library/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist to update.
• I found some information (1) (2) about that plist.
• According to that second link, "Switch to Desktop 1" is action 118.
• I tested enabling / disabling Switch to Desktop 16 in that System Preference pane whilst looking at the plist file, using /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :AppleSymbolicHotKeys" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist and, as I expected, the "enabled" value for action 133 (=118+15) changed.
• I added a value for action 134 based on action 133, which I hoped would cause ctrl-alt-6 to switch to Desktop 17: defaults write com.apple.symbolichotkeys AppleSymbolicHotKeys -dict-add 134 "{enabled = true; value = { parameters = (65535, 22, 786432); type = 'standard'; }; }" Unfortunately this doesn't seem to have any effect on my system.
• So: I think that the symbolichotkeys plist file contains a mapping from key presses to actions. The actions include Switch to Desktop 1 through to Switch to Desktop 16, but there are no corresponding actions for desktops with higher numbers. Sorry!