Tips for making Autocorrect shortcuts that are easy to remember.
Bob C writes:
” I use MS Word autocorrect to insert longer words of phrases that I’m too efficient.. OK,lazy.. to try to spell or type out completely, usually duplicating several leading consonants in the word or leading letters of words in a phrase. E.g.,
bbcctt autocorrects to bureaucrat
ddcc to defined contribution (DC)
aamm to America
ffyyiioolltt to FYIOLT (FYI Or Lack Thereof), cciihhaakk to Cih?k
“
Bob’s tip is just one possibility for remembering personal Autocorrect shortcuts. Here’s some other suggestions:
Use the same starting character. We’ve already mentioned using the tilde ~
~e or e~ makes the Euro symbol
~s or s~ makes the UK Sterling symbol
~c or c~ makes the Copyright symbol
~r or r~ makes the Registered trademark symbol
~t or t~ makes the Trademark symbol
~y or y~ makes the Yen symbol
or the period/fullstop:
./ becomes ü
.] becomes J
.[ becomes L
One advantage of this is that all your personal Autocorrect entries will show up together in the AutoCorrect dialog (in Word 2007/2010/2013 File | Options | Proofing | AutoCorrect Options).
Another old, old Office-Watch.com tip is for typing the full name of an organization instead of the common acronym. We suggested adding an ‘f’ (for full). For example make an AutoCorrect entry to make ‘FBIf‘ to ‘Federal Bureau of Investigation’. If you type FBI it remains unchanged but adding the ‘f’ will change to the full name.
That’s even more useful when there’s a very specific wording required. KAOSf can become ‘KAOS, a Delaware Corporation’.
