Sorry. You are right. It only uses MD5 hashing. Since it still uses MD5, you can use the openssl tool on UNIX/Linux/Mac systems to generate the hash outside of the switch and then script it to the switches:
openssl passwd -salt `openssl rand -base64 3` -1 password
The openssl rand -base64 3 command generates 3 random bytes and then encodes them in base64 format to give you 4 printable characters. A Cisco-compatible salt needs 4 printable characters.
I don't know of another way to do it without first putting the password in one device to get a hash.