Small City Law Firm Tech

In my earlier posts ‘Using Word’s AutoCorrect’ and ‘Removing annoying or incorrect entries from Word’s AutoCorrect list' I showed you how to use Word’s AutoCorrect feature as Microsoft intended you to use it – to correct common typos (and remove annoying existing AutoCorrect entries).

But that’s not the only reason to use AutoCorrect – there is use for this feature that is even more powerful: You can use AutoCorrect as a kind of shorthand for your repetitive typing, which will save you tons of time in the future.  The key is to recognize which phrases/sentences/paragraphs/pages of text you repeatedly type, and then assign them an AutoCorrect entry.  Fortunately this is quick and easy to do and, once done, you’ll just type your new AutoCorrect entry and then hit the Spacebar to trigger the change.  Don’t be intimidated by the instructions below – you’ll master this on the first try and then use it regularly to speed up your work and increase your accuracy.

As an example, if a lawyer or assistant is repeatedly typing a full statute citation in a series of facta:

Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3

That little bit of typing takes a lot of time, especially with the punctuation and formatting (and trying to remember which chapter number…).

What if all you had to do to get the same result was to type ‘fla’ and then hit the Spacebar?  The time saving would be tremendous if this was something you regularly typed.  Now multiply that by paragraphs you might regularly type and you can see where this can take you and how much time you can save.

I’ll go through setting up the above as an example of how to use AutoCorrect to achieve this shorthand-like effect and then you can take it from there, depending on how you work.  Just always keep these important points in mind:

·         Because the Spacebar is the trigger for the replacement phrase, sentence, paragraph etc., your triggering text should *not* be a real word, because whenever you type that real word and then hit Spacebar, you’ll trigger the replacement text.  This is a problem if you do not want replacement text – you want the ‘real’ word.  (Note: if this does happen, you can immediately hit ‘Ctrl’ ‘Z’ or Undo and the ‘real’ word will return.

·         A good rule for choosing the triggering text (this is the approach I use) is to use the first letter of the first few words of the phrase or sentence etc. being replaced.  In this example, I will choose ‘fla’ as the triggering text (the first letter of each of the words in the example), so that whenever I type ‘fla’ and then hit the Spacebar I will get the full statute citation, along with any formatting.

The best time to set up your AutoCorrect is when you are actually typing something you recognize as repetitive.  When you do, you can use the text you just typed to set up your new AutoCorrect entry as follows: (the instructions below are for Word 2007 and Word 2010):

As you’re working and type some text that you recognize as something you’ve typed in the past and will likely type in the future, such as:

Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3

·         Select the text (whether it’s a phrase, sentence, paragraph, multiple paragraphs, pages of text)

·         In Word 2007, click on the ‘Office Button’, then ‘Word Options’

In Word 2010, click on the ‘File’ tab and then ‘Options’

Then, in either version of Word you will see the ‘Word Options’ box.

·         Click on ‘Proofing’

·         Then click on ‘AutoCorrect Options’

(Note: I am working in Word 2010.  If you are using Word 2007, your Word Options box may look somewhat different, however the AutoCorrect Options button is in the same place)

·         The ‘Word Options’ box will appear with your selected text already in the ‘With’ field, as below.  ‘Plain text’ is selected by default

(Note: to save all this clicking, you can add the AutoCorrect Options to your QuickAccess Toolbar for one-click access.  I’ll show you how to customize your Quick Access toolbar in a future post.)

Now is the time to decide on your triggering text.  In this example, I chose ‘fla’ as that is the first letter of each of the first 3 words and helps me to remember that I have an AutoCorrect entry for the replacement text I want to invoke.

·         If you have formatted your text in any way, as in this example a portion is bolded’, change the selection from ‘Plain text’ to ‘Formatted text’.

·         Finally, click ‘Add’ and then ‘OK’ twice to exit out of all of the boxes.

Your AutoCorrect entry is created.  Now, every time you type:

fla

and then hit the spacebar, that text will automatically be replaced with:

Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3

Let your imagination run wild and see how much of your routine typing can be replaced by AutoCorrect triggers!

Just a little bit of advice though: Don’t get too carried away all at once, because it’s really easy to create a lot of AutoCorrect entries quickly and then forget them!  My advice: Create about 3 new entries at a time, starting with your most repetitive typing (anyone for replacing: ‘If you have any questions, please contact me’…).  Use these new entries until your fingers ‘remember’ them and then add some more, using the same approach.  No use taking the time to create AutoCorrect entries that you don’t remember to use.

Finally, there is a different feature in Word that achieves something similar, but with a different approach called ‘Quick Parts’ and this will be the subject of a future post.