 | Speed Writing with WordPerfect®
By Stephen E. Harris
Try typing "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
Did it take you more than two seconds? Then I see you're not using QuickCorrect™!
QuickCorrect? Yes, indeed, the name doesn't do justice to the tool. Sure, QuickCorrect will change "adn" to "and", but we're talking about speed writing here.
Creating QuickCorrect entries
OK, here's the trick. I simply set up a "tqbf" QuickCorrect entry for my "The quick brown fox..." sentence, then typed those four little letters, pressed the space bar, and out came the sentence! To see how this works, launch WordPerfect and set up a speed writing entry for "I love you".
1. Click Tools, QuickCorrect.
2. Type "ilu" in the Replace box, as shown in Figure 1.
Don't type an actual word in the Replace box. Setting up a "win" abbreviation for "windows", for example, might result in accidentally typing "I hope you windows the prize." However, you could make exceptions for rarely used words, such as replacing "cant" with "can't".
3. Type I love you in the With box.
4. Click Add Entry, and click OK.
Now every time you type "ilu" in WordPerfect, out pops "I love you"!
If love doesn't blossom when you type "ilu", click Tools, QuickCorrect, and make sure that "Replace words as you type" is checked.
QuickCorrect changes "artic" to "arctic" or "ilu" to "I love you" the moment you press the SPACEBAR, ENTER, TAB or INDENT keys. Your entry is replaced even if it has quotation marks, an apostrophe or other punctuation attached. For example, if you have a "cl" entry for "Corel," "cl's" will expand to "Corel's".
Yes indeed, QuickCorrect does a lot more than fix typos. I like to think of it as an all-purpose abbreviation tool. For example, after typing "QuickCorrect" for the fifth time, I simply set up a "qc" entry to accomplish the task.
Over time, you can accumulate a nice collection of personal abbreviations that will really make your typing fly. I have abbreviations for Corel (cl), Chapter (cha), document (dt), Figure (fi), Linux (lx) and Massachusetts (mas), just to name a few.
If QuickCorrect fixes something that you want to let stand (such as switching a lowercase "i" in quotation marks to "I"), undo (CTRL + Z) will put it back. However, the program isn't smart enough to keep your trailing space or punctuation, so the correction pops right back again when you resume typing. The way around this is to type another word or two, go back and change the text, and then sneak away by using the right arrow key.
Getting rid of the SHIFT and apostrophe keys
Notice how my "QuickCorrect" abbreviation is "qc" not "QC". That's
another great thing about QuickCorrect—it frees you from the tyranny of
the SHIFT key. Set up capitalized entries for any names you type, such
as "terry" for "Terry" or "githa" for "Githa".
If you must vary your case, one lowercase QuickCorrect entry usually
does the trick. Try this: set up an entry to replace "wis" with "windows",
then see how your "wis" entry expands as you vary the case of the
abbreviation in your WordPerfect document:
| Typing |
Expands To |
| wis |
windows |
| Wis |
Windows |
| WIS |
WINDOWS |
Note: the case sensitivity for the replacement entries extends from lowercase to uppercase, not the reverse. If you create a "DT" entry for "DOCUMENT," for example, you'll still
get "DOCUMENT" when you type "dt".
Now that we've taken care of the SHIFT key, let's move on to the
apostrophe. Whenever you find that you're typing a word with an
apostrophe, such as aren't, can't, didn't or don't, set up a QuickCorrect
entry to get rid of the little bugger. For example, to take care of the
"you're" in the last sentence, I set up an entry to replace "youre" with
"you're". Frequently used contractions are excellent QuickCorrect
candidates. Use "dont" for "don't", "im" for "I'm," and so on.
Don't look now, but not only did we get rid of the dreaded SHIFT key,
we've extricated ourselves from the elusive apostrophe key as well. Tell
me you don't (dont) love it!
More speed writing tricks
Now that you've set up abbreviations and eliminated two keys, you're on
your way to speed writing nirvana. Here are a couple more QuickCorrect
tricks to take on your journey:
- If you use a term in both its abbreviated (WP) and expanded (WordPerfect) forms, use a variation of the abbreviation for your expanded entry (such as "ww" for WordPerfect)
- Create variations of QuickCorrect entries to cover plural, possessive or other forms. For example, you can use "dts" for "documents" and "dtg" for "documenting"
- Press CTRL + W to use any special character or symbol in the With box, as shown in Figure 2. For example, you can automatically put the accents on names and words such as "René" and "cliché"
- Replace two periods (..) with one (.) for automatic correction in case you accidentally type two periods at the end of a sentence
Deleting and revising QuickCorrect entries
To delete a QuickCorrect entry, type or click the entry, and click Delete Entry. To revise an entry, type or click the entry, type your revision in the With box and then click Replace Entry.
You can take them with you
You ask: "Now that I've accumulated a choice list of abbreviations and replacement entries, do I have to start from scratch again after the next upgrade of WordPerfect Office?" Nope, you can take them with you. In fact, the carry-over is automatic with most upgrades.
Your QuickCorrect entries for version 9 of WordPerfect are stored in the wt9us.uwl file. (For non-English versions, substitute your language code for the "us" in the filename.)
For the Windows® version of WordPerfect, this file is found in the C:\Program Files\Corel\Shared\Writing Tools\9.0\Corel User Files\ folder. With Service Release 4, the location changes to the C:\My Documents\CorelUser Files\.
"That's splendid," you say, "but I'm moving over to WordPerfect 9 for Linux® next week." Again, not a problem. Simply copy the list from Windows over to this location in Linux:
/home/username/.wpo2000/Writing Tools/wp9us.uwl
You can rename the existing file if you like. Note that .wpo2000 is a hidden folder (since it starts with a period), so you'll need to have hidden files displayed.
Fixing all those other mistakes
QuickCorrect™ provides an extensive list of mistypes (such as "antartic" and "aparent") that it fixes on the fly. Still, if you had to make a list of all the possible typos and spelling mistakes, I suspect it would stretch from here to the moon.
The great news here is that there’s no need to create such a monster list. WordPerfect® can automatically correct your misspelled or mistyped words of five letters or more, so long as it finds one (and only one) close replacement.
For example, if you type "informtion," leaving out the "a", the program can be pretty certain that you meant "information". Likewise, when you transpose two characters, as with "transpsoe", the program can usually correct your mistake.
This feature is off by default because (a) it’s so quick and automatic that most users won’t know what’s happening, and (b) it can, on occasion, make a fix that you hadn’t intended. But unless you’re heavily into scientific, technical or foreign words that aren’t in the dictionary, you’ll love the way it fixes mistakes as fast as you make them.
So by all means turn on this smart little tool and give it a whirl. Click Tools, QuickCorrect, and check the box that says "Correct other mis-typed words, when possible".
What, more speed writing tools?
Before we go, click Tools, QuickCorrect again, and click the other tabs
in the QuickCorrect dialog:
- QuickWords™ (Windows version only) are abbreviations that expand as you type. They’re more work to set up than QuickCorrect entries, but you can include formatting and graphics (for company letterhead, for example)
- QuickLinks instantly transform entries into hypertext links that you can click to jump to an Internet address. For example, type @Corel to create an instant link to Corel’s home page at www.corel.com
- Format-As-You-Go™ provides automatic sentence corrections, instant bullets and other conveniences, as shown in Figure 3. For example, you can automatically capitalize the start of a sentence without touching the SHIFT key or get superscript ordinals when you type 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on.
- SmartQuotes turns straight quotation marks into curly ones.
These are very nice conveniences, so I suggest you check out the
options and select the ones you want to use.
What’s in a name?
If you’ve followed my drift so far, I think you’ll find that "QuickCorrect" is a
major misnomer. Sure, it corrects a lot of mistakes, but it can instantly
do a whole lot more, especially in the departments of expanding
abbreviations and eliminating those annoying shift and apostrophe
keystrokes.
Play with it for a while. Once you’ve added your personal entries to the
QuickCorrect list, you’ll be amazed at how pleasurable typing becomes.
Remember: don’t think QuickCorrect, think speed writing!
Steve Harris is the author of the best-selling WordPerfect for Linux and
WordPerfect Office 2000 Bibles. Steve lives in the woods of western
Massachusetts with his wife Githa, two cats (Becky and Chester), bears,
deer, turkeys and other assorted wildlife. You’ll find Steve, plus more
WordPerfect solutions and links at www.qwkscreen.com.
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