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InstantText, Smartype, or Shorthand - which one is most like Word Autocorrect? sm - speedyfingerz

Posted: Oct 29, 2009

Which one is most MT friendly to use? TIA.

I only have experience with Shorthand... - CrankyBeach

[ In Reply To ..]
It actually works a lot like the old PRD expander for DOS. It is also quite a bit like autocorrect in Word.

The beauty of Shorthand is that you can download it for a free 30-day trial. You can't do that with Instant Text. Don't know about the other one you mention.

NOT Shorthand - been there, tried that

[ In Reply To ..]
I once worked on a platform that would not allow Autocorrect and had to use Shorthand.. it is not at all like autocorrect. I was frustrated to no end by the horrid platform and also by trying to use Shorthand.

That's interesting. My experience has been exactly the opposite. - CrankyBeach

[ In Reply To ..]
Just goes to prove there's no accounting for taste. :) Or how one individual's brain is wired, I guess!

But at least Shorthand offers the free trial, so one can see if it's useful, without having to put out the $$ up front and then going through the hassle of trying to get a refund if it doesn't work out.

Instant Text can wrap circles around the rest of them - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
IT is a wonderful expander. It will amaze you and it's still the best one I've ever used. I swear by it.

Curious - what does InstaText do that Shorthand cannot do? - I need to buy a new expander soon

[ In Reply To ..]

Have never used InstaText. Just curious. What does InstaText do that Shorthand cannot do? I need to buy a new expander. I have worked with Shorthand before and found it very convenient, but have never used InstaText. Any information you can give me as to what advantage InstaText has over Shorthand would be greatly appreciated.

One major thing is that Instant Text can automatically create glossaries for you... s/m - IT fan

[ In Reply To ..]
instead of putting them in one by one with Shorthand. You can have duplicate short forms and use real words for short forms that won't cause blips on you. You should go to the Textware site and see the overview of the features.

will Instantext capitalize the first word of a sentence after a period? Shorthand won't. nm - speedyfingerz

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x

Yes, you can set options to cap first word and spaces after punctuation. s/m - IT fan

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I used Shorthand for a whole lot of years. Another MT friend convinced me to try Instant Text and I haven't looked back. It wasn't even hard to break the spacebar habit. :)

you can't use the spacebar to expand in IT???? Tell me ain't so. sm - speedyfingerz

[ In Reply To ..]
That might be a deal breaker for me. I've been using the spacebar for years and it's just not natural to use anything else. Why would it be set to use anything else? WHAT is it set to use?

Sure you can use the spacebar in IT, but you s/m - IT fan

[ In Reply To ..]
shut off a couple of the powerful features. You're far better off learning marker keys so you have all features available. Besides, your chances of mistakes because you expanded something else are far less with marker keys.

fastfox - mj

[ In Reply To ..]
fastfox is really cool

To answer your question - oleMT

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The one most like AutoCorrect is Shorthand. I totally believe it is the easiest to use, as well.

one thing I notice with SH is that if I type a word (sm) - speedyfingerz

[ In Reply To ..]
word (ex: patienst - misspelled on purpose for this post) and I need to go back and erase the "st" and type change it to patients by typing JUST the ts, SH will spit out patienthoracic spine. TS is my expansion for thoracic spine. In order to not have SH spit out an expansion I have to retype the entire word (patients). Autocorrect doesn't do this. Does Instantext do this because if so, that would be another deal breaker and then I'm not sure WHICH would be the lesser of two evils.

No, IT does not do that. It backs up and gives you the correct word. NM - IT fan

[ In Reply To ..]
x

There are ways around that... - Varmint_hunting

[ In Reply To ..]
Hitting ESC will keep the expansion from happening. So will hitting CTRL-spacebar instead of just the spacebar.

An alternative would be to back up and retype, say, the last 3 letters of the word instead of the last 2, assuming the last 3 letters of the word aren't yet another expansion all by themselves.

I've gotten used to it over time, and if you mess up, spell-check will certainly catch whatever interesting result you wind up with if you don't notice it when it first goes by.

IT doesn't work like that. Using the above example of patient, s/m - IT fan

[ In Reply To ..]
If you type patienst and back up and erase the st, the advisory will show the correct word and you can hit your marker key before completely typing it out in full. Of course, this is assuming you have that word in your glossary to being with.

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