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Suggestions for date expansions - janie

Posted: Nov 12, 2009

I recently acquired a dictator who wants multiple dates in EVERY report. In the past I had just typed out entirely. I am sure there must be better short cuts for doing this than I am able to think of. Any (alpha only) suggestions appreciated. IT is my expander.

Thanks!

Hmm. I use Shorthand, but... - CrankyOldBroadOnTheBeach

[ In Reply To ..]
I guess a lot is going to depend on what date format is required by the account, first of all.

One account requires dates in 11/12/09 format. So I came up with a little trick for that one; not much of a shortcut, but here it is. First I type 111209 and then I hit the shortcut key I have assigned (I use CTRL-left parenthesis because that wasn't being used by anything else). The command causes the cursor to do the proper amount of left-arrowing and slash-inserting, and then it jumps back to the end of the text. You could even do that one with a MS Word macro; just position the cursor right after the last digit of your date, and then start macro-recording your keystrokes to do the left-arrowing and slash-inserting.

Another account requires dates in "November 12, 2009" format. I created expansions with keywords that correspond to each month (i.e. keyword D11 is for November) and the expanded text types out the month and the year and then jumps to where the day of the month needs to be inserted. I type it in, and then hit "end" to get back past the year.

But... did I read somewhere that Instant Text does not allow numbers in keywords? Or is it just that it does not allow the first character of the keyword to be a number?

Either way... you might be able to think up some combination of letters that would indicate to you what month it is, and then take it from there. Best of luck with it.

For anyone who is interested, here are the Shorthand codes for my above two examples. Don't panic; I did it all with keystroke-recording:

To put the slashes between the numbers for 11/12/09 date format, type 111209 and then run this:

{@KEYDOWN Ctrl}{@KEY Left}{@KEYUP Ctrl}{@KEY Right}{@KEY Right}/{@KEY Right}{@KEY Right}/{@KEY End}

For the November 12, 2009 date format, keyword is d11 and here is the code:

{@KEYDOWN Shift}n{@KEYUP Shift}ovember, 2009{@KEYDOWN Ctrl}{@KEY Left}{@KEY Left}{@KEYUP Ctrl}

Hope this is of some help - Jane

[ In Reply To ..]

I do not use Instant Text, but I did remember that I had seen some glossaries on Productivity Talk. You might also find some other glossaries there that may be of interest to you.

I have also included some other links that may be useful to you also.

Sorry if you already search these sites. These were the only things that came to mind since I do not use Instant Text myself and I just wanted to try to help out.

Hope this helps.

http://www.productivitytalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1696

http://www.fitaly.com/glossary/mos&days.htm

http://mtherald.com/category/medical-transcription/productivity-tips/

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