Typing Productivity - Part 1 - Phrases

A Free Document Productivity Tool for Word

This tool describes an abbreviation system to reduce the typing load for business and technical documents.  

Part 1 deals quickly entering multi-word phrases that are often repeated in such documents.    Part  2 deals with abbreviations for long words and words that are very frequently used.  Part 3 provides a tool that automates the job of looking up and adding new abbreviations. Part 4 allows you to bulk import and export your abbreviations, and includes a dictionary of over 1000 abbreviations.

An abbreviation system has two important benefits:

• Using abbreviations increases your typing throughput, regularly used phrases and long words can be typed with just a few characters.
• Abbreviations makes typing more accurate because shorter words are easier type and the chances of needing to edit the word later are reduced.

AutoCorrect

AutoCorrect provides a general purpose tool for expanding an abbreviation to full text. For example the abbreviation "typpro" is expanded by AutoCorrect to be "typing productivity". 

I had used AutoCorrect concept in the past, but found the experience frustrating because I could only remember a handful of abbreviations.

I propose the B2E system – a set of simple rules that allow you to generate the abbreviation in your mind as you generate content.  They need to be simple so you can use them without being distracted as you type.

The B2E system – Part 1 - Phrases

The B2E system is intended for general purpose rather than specialist or high volume.  It focuses on the big ticket items – speeding up the entry of regularly used phrases and long words.

To use B2E, the abbreviation and its corresponding full text need to be loaded into the Word dictionary. This can be done manually or imported via a spreadsheet (see part 3).  Once this is done, the abbreviations will be available in all Office apps (e.g. Excel, Visio ) provided you keep using the same dictionary.

Rule 1 – Three or more word phrases 

Use the beginning  letter of each of the words in the phrases.  For example:

• rar  = roles and responsibilities
• isra = Information Security Risk Assessment

You can capitalise the full text if that is the way it is normally expressed
See also Rule 3 – Acronyms

Rule 2 – Two word Phrases

AutoCorrect - How to Access and Record Entries

A Free Document Productivity Tip for Word

This post shows how to load the AutoCorrect maintenance tool onto the Quick Access Toolbar so that it is available for use with a single click.  It then describes how to enter an abbreviation and its corresponding full text.

These tasks lay the foundation for the following posts that use the abbreviation concept to reduce the typing load of repetitive text.

Adding AutoCorrect to the Quick Access Toolbar

Step 1 - Open Quick Access Toolbar maintenance tool.

SmartMove Up/Down

A Free Document Productivity Tool for Word

This tool moves a single paragraph up/down inside a table cell, and is useful for changing the order of bulleted items in a list.

It also supports the standard reordering tools that move paragraphs up/down in regular text or rows up/down in tables.  Details of this standard functionality can be found in the Moving Table Rows post.

The tool uses the context of the selected text to determine what to move. 

If the cursor is in a table cell and there is no range selected (i.e. just an insertion point) then the function will move the paragraph up/down.  

 
If the cursor is in a table cell and a range is selected, or a whole row (or rows) is selected, the standard OutlineMoveUp/Down  will be used to move the rows up/down.

If the cursor is in standard text as an insertion point or a range is selected, the standard function moves range up/down.

SmartTable Cell Format

A Free Document Productivity Tool for Word

This tool formats a table cell by adding punctuation and removing empty paragraphs at the end of the cell.  It operates on selected cells or the current cell if no range is selected.

It adds a "." character to paragraphs that do not already end in a punctuation mark. 

It does not add the "." character in the following situations:

SmartTable Insert

A Free Document Productivity Tool for Word

This tool is one of a set that provides advanced features for adding, deleting and moving rows in Word tables. When used with SmartTable Number, they allow rapid entry of information into a table without the distraction of inefficient standard editing functions.

A full list of all the SmartTable tools can be found here.   See also SmartTable Delete

SmartTable Insert

SmartTable Insert places five empty rows below the current and positions the cursor in the first of the new rows ready for data entry.  

It handles special insert situations when inserting rows below the header and section headers, and ensures that the formats in these special rows are not copied down.

SmartTable Insert makes quick entry of content into tables a breeze.  Adding five lines at a time means that you can enter a good deal of information without having to concern yourself with  creating more space.

SmartTable Number simply removes any unused lines with a single shortcut key.

SmartTable Delete

A Free Document Productivity Tool for Word

This tool is one of a set that provides advanced features for adding, deleting and moving rows in Word tables. It is a companion tool to SmartTable Insert described in the previous post.

A full list of all the SmartTable tools can be found here.

SmartTable Delete

SmartTable Delete uses the current context to decide what to delete.  It sounds like there are lots of rules but in reality its intuitive based on where the cursor is and what is selected.

Rules Applicable When In a Table

If you are in an table and you hit the shortcut key:

• When an entire row is selected, the row is deleted. You can select multiple rows and delete them together.
• When the cursor is in an empty cell, the row is deleted.
• When a range of cells are selected, the contents are deleted.

Rules Applicable Anytime (In a Table or Not)

If you hit the shortcut key:

• When some text is selected, the text is deleted.
• When the cursor is sitting in some text, the text to the end of the sentence or paragraph is deleted.

The last rule is interesting - and yes... I agree I need to get out more.

Often I want to delete the remainder of the text in a bullet point. If I use the normal Word

Moving Table Rows Tip

A Free Document Productivity Tip for Word

How to move rows up or down in a table.

Moving rows up or down in a table is a breeze if you use the standard Word shortcut key.  The function is OutlineMoveUp/Down, and the description does not make it clear what happens when you use it within a table.

If you place the cursor in a cell and then use Alt+Shift+Down, the row will move down one row at a time. Similarly, Alt+Shift+Up moves the row up.  If you select a group of rows, the shortcut key moves them all.

Outside a table, the shortcut key works with paragraphs, and will move a paragraph up and down in the document. 

I use it most in bulleted lists to change the order of the entries. All you need to do is place the cursor in an entry in the list and then use the shortcut key to move the entry up or down the list.