A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

thinking about getting a word expander - Lynn

Posted: Oct 02, 2010

I am thinking about getting a word expander...other than autotext. Any one have any good suggestions. Would like as user-friendly as possible. Thanks in advance.

Word expander - eagles_fan

[ In Reply To ..]
I use Shorthand for Windows Version 10, and I like it very much. I think it is very user-friendly. The "How-To Guide" that comes with it is very helpful.

I second Shorthand for Windows. Love it! I'm using InstantText now - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
because that's what came loaded on the PC I got from the company and I'm not a fan. I Shorthand loaded on my personal PC and love how simple it is. Very straight forward, user friendly. With InstantText, you have to hit the semi-colon to expand which drives me nuts. You can change that to spacebar, but you have to specify one key to expand single words and one key to expand phrases and they can't be the same key. And you do not have the option of expanding when hitting enter. So when expanding a heading and wanting to start typing on the next line, you have type your abbreviation, space bar, and then return. You can't just type your abbrev and return to expand. It annoys me.

Maybe I just don't like change, but really I just want an expander that's simple. I don't need a bunch of bells and whistles.

Not exactly. You can add single words to the phrases side and use one key to expand. - IT fan

[ In Reply To ..]
You can add the enter command to your headings and it will automatically drop down to the next line when you expand. Those bells and whistles in IT are very powerful.

Have you customized your settings? - Marianne K.

[ In Reply To ..]
You can use the Classic Options to have Instant Text work like a traditional expander with unique dedicated short forms. Just make sure you also check the Enter box under Phrase Expander if you want to use the Enter key to expand.
Have you imported your spf file from Shorthand? It just takes a few clicks and you should be able to get close to what you were used to when working with Shorthand.

Word expander - nn

[ In Reply To ..]
I have used Shortcut for Windows since the old PRD days. I like it because of the fact that is super user friendly. For example, if I want coronary artery bypass graft, I type in cabgx and it expands it. You have built in bold and underline controls as well and so far, I have found it extremely user friendly. I have been a transcriptionist at home for over 20 years, been using this program for probably 16 years and there are 2 programs that I have found it is not compatible with, including Editscript, but that is because of the programmers.

Short Cut - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I've also been using Short Cut for years. Very user friendly, and almost identical to Shorthand. If I remember correctly, both programs offer a 30-day free trial.

I've also used Instant Text. It has a huge learning curve, is not user friendly, and is not particularly useful if you do voice recognition. The instruction book is the size of a Readers' Digest.

Comparative Review - Marianne K.

[ In Reply To ..]
You may want to read one of the articles under Comparative Reviews at link below.

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