In Word Perfect it's called QuickCorrect or QuickWords. In Word it's called AutoCorrect. As you may be aware, these word processing features were designed to correct misspelled words automatically while you type, so that "teh" becomes "the" and "Febuary" becomes "February." Whatever it's called, I'll bet you're not using it to ramp up your typing speed! You can use these features to store "shorthand" for your frequently used phrases. For example:
This will confirm our telephone conversation today in which you granted this office an additional two weeks to respond to the special interrogatories outstanding in the above-entitled case. Our responses are due on June 15, 2003. Your courtesy and cooperation in this regard is appreciated.
That's 246 characters or 45 words. Now imagine typing it like this:
Twc our tc today in which you granted this office an additional two weeks to respond to the spi outstanding in the aec. Our responses are due on June 15, 2003. Yoco
If you set up QuickCorrect or AutoCorrect efficiently, those shortcut codes -- twc and tc and spi, and so on -- will expand to the full text, which is 133 characters or 32 words, which saves you over 100 keystrokes in that short paragraph!
The easiest thing to do
is look at any document you've already typed and find the repetitive phrases:
settlement conference, memorandum of points and authorities, attorney-client
privilege, at your earliest convenience, motion for summary judgment, Code of
Civil Procedure, Qualified Domestic Relations Order. You can even store
paragraphs and sentences such as "If you have any questions, please
do not hesitate to call." or the perjury clause.
Highlight the phrase. Click on "Tools" and then select either
"QuickCorrect" in Word Perfect or "AutoCorrect"
in Word. On the window that appears, the phrase you've highlighted will be stored
in the "With" column. In the "Replace" column you type in
your shorthand keystrokes.
** Use shorcuts you'll remember. Initials are an easy choice, so that "mpa" would be the shortcut for "memorandum of points and authorities." Another choice is to use a key word plus the letter "x" so that the shortcut for "fair market value" could be "fairx" and shortcut for the perjury clause would be "perjuryx"
** Don't use a shortcut that is already a word. In other words, don't use "set" as the shortcut for "settlement" or you'll never be able to type the word "set" by itself)
** Don't use a shortcut that is someone's initials or otherwise a commonly used abbreviation. Don't use "wa" for the shortcut for "wage assignment" or you'll find yourself sending documents to "Seattle, Wage Assignment." Don't use "CCP" as the shortcut for "Code of Civil Procedure" or you won't be able to type just CCP without having it expand.
When that's done, click
the "Add" button and close the window. When you're typing, use your
shortcut to get the phrase.
Note: Assuming you entered the phrase in lowercase to start with, if you type the shortcut in UPPERCASE the phrase is expanded in uppercase. If you type the shortcut in Initial Caps, the phrase will have the first word capitalized. Thus:
TWC ..... becomes ..... THIS WILL CONFIRM
Twc .. ... becomes ..... This will confirm
twc ....... becomes ...... this will confirm
Note: In Word Perfect, QuickCorrect is limited to about 55 characters in each phrase, and the phrase cannot include a Hard Return. However, you can store longer chunks of text (addresses, paragraphs, entire letters!), including Hard Returns in QuickWords, which operated in much the same fashion.
Tips and Tricks by Loui
Tucker
Supporting Word Perfect, Word, Timeslips, Abacus, TimeMatters
and many other software packages used in today's law offices.
www.louitucker.com