MS Word expert Cheryl Flanders, author of the widely used Tips 'N Techniques and Jon Knowles of ABCZ Software have teamed up to produce glossaries which make use of the powerful Command feature in Instant Text V. This feature permits far more than text entry!
This page describes the Instant Text glossaries, which are also available via Cheryl Flanders' web site. For the Shorthand/SpeedType version, click here.
What can the ABCZ Command glossaries do?
The first benefit is that you can use the home row and neighboring keys much more, and the mouse, top row and even F keys much less! You can literally issue commands, via Instant Text, telling Word to open a menu or submenu, to move around in the document, replace or add a word ending, open, close or save, format text or headings, find and go directly to a hard-to-remember submenu, execute a command that would otherwise require a macro, and more - by typing a few letters and the corresponding entry keys. All this is accomplished without having to remember arcane key combinations, or devise and record a macro, stretch your fingers to reach far-off keys, or type difficult key combinations.
With the ABCZ command files, you simply type the words that come to mind when you think of a particular feature.
To open a document, type "open". To print, type "print". To start a footnote, type "foot". To convert "surgery" to "surgeries" type "ytoies". To find the document word count, type "count". To change the Environment settings, type a few letters of "environment". To change "is going" to "are going," type a few letters of "istoare1wordleft." There are many other menu and deep submenu items and Word keystroke combinations you can access from the home row and neighboring keys with natural, intuitive command entries.
The glossary can be used not only for command entry, navigation, replacement, etc. but also is a unique tool to teach or relearn Word menus and keystroke combinations. The words you type take you to the menu or submenu, and the main keystrokes are visible in the Phrases Advisory - should you wish to learn the keystrokes.
In the above screen shot, WordCommands
has been opened and only the letters "co" have been typed. If you want
to put a name into a header for page 2 of a document, you simply hit the
marker key. If you want to return to the text rather than stay in the header,
you type 2 or Shift and the marker key for copylinetoheadback.
The Shorts are designed to tell you what the expansion does, but you do not need to type the short to get the entry - here 3 or 4 keystrokes carry out a complex command.
Also in the above example, if you want to convert a series to a pair of words (which has been known to happen in transcription), you hit 3 and the marker key. The word "and" is removed, a comma inserted and you are returned to your starting point. The letters you typed to get the command are also removed. You could make a macro to do this, but then you have to assign shortcut keys to it and the macro would cover only this one instance. With the ABCZ file, there are many commands that perform actions like these - such as changing "was" to "were", "has" to "have", or adding a hyphenated or plain ending.
Further down the Glossary List above, if you want to show the hidden codes in a document, you type 9 and the marker, or Ctrl and then 9. If you want to insert a comment, 7 and the marker key, which takes you to the Insert menu where you then type "m". (The glossary goes as far into the submenus as is consistent with all versions of Word).
In the above screen shot, the letters
"fi" have been typed. If you want to select from the file menu, just type
the marker key. If you want to start a "Find", type 2 (or Shift) and the
marker key. To Find Again, 3 and the marker key. If you want to insert
a file, you would type 8 and the marker key. To see the range of field
codes, you would type 7 and the marker. To insert the characters for a
field, 5 and the marker.
In the next screen shot, the letters
"pr" have been typed:
With one or two more keystrokes
you can access the print menu (6 or 8) or print the current page (7). You
can view the page in layout view (9) or go to a previous window (5). You
can also navigate to a previous cell, field or object (1, 2, 3).
These are but a few of the 700+ commands in the ABCZ Instant Text Command glossary, which make it easier and simpler to use the features of MS Word. And this too, without having to make any macros or remember keystroke combinations.
In addition to the ABCZ Command Glossary, if you want formatted headings and don't want to type the heading or manually change the formatting, a set of 16 Headings glossaries is available. Each glossary contains about 350 headings, pre-typed and pre-formatted for bold, all caps/initial caps, underlined, etc. You quickly access the headings using ABCZ short form methods.
In the above example, the glossary which underlines the heading and adds a colon has been opened (H Underlined Kolon). The letters "hu" have been typed. All headings begin with "h". The "u" is for underlined. If you wanted Admitting Diagnosis: you would type 3 and the marker. There are 15 other glossaries which provide different formatting for the 350 entries and you can use as many or as few headings glossaries as needed.