MTips E-Zine

Newsletter for MT’s using MS Word

Vol 1 No 1 March 3, 2001

Laura Bryan Editor

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Table of Contents:

1. Feature Article: Spell Check: Let Me Count the Ways

2. QuickTakes-Keyboarding Tips: Some Old, Some New.

3. Technical Advice: Does your computer need some caffeine?

4. Bloopers

5. Other Sites To See

Spell Check: Let Me Count the Ways

Creating an accurate medical record is what we all strive for, and proofing for spelling errors is one of the most important tasks for producing top quality documents. MS Word provides several ways to spell check a document depending on your personal preference. Word is kind (or should I say cruel) enough to underline misspelled words with a red sawtooth line. Once identified, it’s up to the typist to do something about them. Here are four different approaches:

You have probably already discovered how to spell check with the mouse. Right click on the misspelled word and a "shortcut" menu will appear. Left click on one of the suggested spellings and your done! (But if you hate mice as much as I do, read on!)

Another way is to let Word work its way through the document for you. When you are finished typing, press F7 and the spell check dialogue box will open. After you make each spelling correction, Word will bring up the next sentence with the misspelled word.

If you prefer to make corrections using the shortcut menu rather than the dialogue box, press ALT+F7 and Word will "jump" to the next misspelled word and simultaneously open the shortcut menu. Use the arrow keys to navigate up and down through the shortcut menu and press Enter to make your selection. If no suggestions are given or you don’t like any of your options, press Escape and try spelling the word another way. Press ALT+F7 again and the cursor will jump to the next red-lined word in your document.

For those of you who like to make corrections as you go, you’ll love this idea! Place the curser anywhere in the misspelled word and press the application key. (The what? the little key to the right of your spacebar with the "menu" on it.) This key is the same as a right click on your mouse! When you press the application key, the shortcut menu will appear. Use the arrow keys to make a selection, hit Enter, and your done-and your hands never left the keyboard!

In the next issue, we’ll finish our discussion of spell check with the different options in the spell check dialogue box and shortcut menu.

QuickTakes-Keyboarding Tips

Shortcut keys are great for exterminating mice and keeping your hands on the keyboard. Did you know that "most" of the time, you don’t have to select the entire word or paragraph to change formatting? Place the curser anywhere within the word or paragraph and press the formatting keys. Here are some basic shortcut keys and a couple that may be new to you:

My favorite "oops" key (AKA "undo") is CTL+Z. Did you ever strike a key and somehow everything flashed before your eyes and then disappeared? Or suddenly your formatting changed and you have no clue what you did? Next time you make a mistake or simply change your mind, try CTL+Z. You can hit CTL+Z several times and work your way back through the last several commands or words that you typed. If you go too far, press CTL+Y (redo).

Another "fix-it" key is CTL+Q. This command will remove all paragraph formatting (i.e. indents, spacing and alignment) Just place the curser anywhere in the paragraph and press the key combination.

In the next issue, we will focus on the many uses of the ALT key.

Technical Advice

From Bob’s PCWerks

Ever noticed that your screaming machine from last year is a miserable moaner now? In many cases, the system registry, the set of instructions that Windows uses to operate your machine, has become full of unwanted and unnecessary entries. Large registries or those with lots of unnecessary entries can slow a computer by 20% or more. There are several registry tools out there to deal with this problem, but if you are running Windows 98 or Windows98 SE, you already have a free one on your computer. There is an unpublished tech trick to help deal with this problem without having to purchase additional software or reload Windows.

From the desktop, select "Start" then "shutdown", but instead of shutting down or restarting, choose "Restart in MS-DOS mode". This will take you to a black screen prompt "C:\Windows." From the prompt, type "scanreg /fix" (with a single space and without the quotes) and press ENTER. This program scans the registry for problems and repairs them. It has been known to reduce the size of the registry and thus the operating system overhead by up to 50%. This process can take several minutes, but it is worth the effort. When finished, type "Exit" to restart Windows.

This Week’s Blooper:

"Oh, transcriptionist, could you sneak into that last patient’s rectum and add a scant amount of guaiac-negative stool? Thanks"

Other sites to see:

MTWerks is your resource for using MSWord for Medical Transcription.

We hope you enjoy your subscription to MTips E-Zine. If you like the information here, check out our book "Make It Your Own-Productivity Manual for MS Word" which is full of ideas for working faster and smarter! Great for "Newbies" and Veterans, alike. To learn more about the book or the "Make It Your Own Productivity Seminar", see

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