Am I the only one to have programmed the glossary of my word processor with lots of personally tailored shortcuts? I hardly think so.
When I type “cssn” in Microsoft Word, my dictionary says that the word “cssn” doesn’t exist. Then the program turns to my glossary and finds that “cssn” should be rewritten as “commission”, “cssnr” as “commissioner”, “infln” as “inflation” and so on. But constructing this glossary takes time.
Now the tortured world of SMS has spawned a whole world of acronyms and other shortcuts. I guess the same must exist in the world of word processors and glossaries. I’d like to download at least a selection of common glossary entries to permit me more accelerated typing by standing on the shoulders of giants (even pygmies would do the trick I expect).
Any suggestions Troppodillians?
Constructing the glossary takes time, but it’s usually worth it. Coping with a built-in dictionary that doesn’t recognise the word ‘blog’ is another matter.
I use a word processor that automatically changes my abbreviations to the full spelling.
My favourite short-cuts include:
t = the
n = and
c = with
b4 = before
t4 = therefore
I’ve never used glossaries!
Anyone want to swap ‘Auto-correct’ backup files?
Learn to type properly and it shouldn’t be an issue. It takes less than a second to type “commission”, even if you type it 100 times you aren’t getting back the investment of time it took to edit your spell checker.
The more writing you do, the more useful that glossary/auto-correct thing becomes. Especially when writing at length; while hacking out a doctoral thesis a decade ago I set up a whole series of shortcuts for frequently appearing words (in this case, ‘Shakespeare’ and derivatives). The point wasn’t necessarily to save time, but to ensure accuracy and minimise aggravation.
Yes, it took a lot of work to set up. And dear God yes, if I’d been able to swap auto-correct and glossary files with someone I’d have leapt at the chance.