MTips E-Zine

Newsletter for MT’s using MS Word

Vol 1 No 2 March 17, 2001

Laura Bryan Editor

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Table of Contents:

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

2. QuickTakes-Keyboarding Tips: The ALT Key

3. Technical Advice: Startup Folder Shutdown

4. Bloopers

5. Other Sites To See

Spell Check: Let Me Count the Options

To finish our two-part series on Spell Check, will we cover the options available in the Spell Check shortcut menu and the Spell Check dialogue box. You can choose how you would like Word to handle a misspelled word, but your options vary slightly depending on whether you open the shortcut menu or the dialogue box.

If you open the shortcut menu, you can arrow down to your choice and press Enter, or you can press the underlined letter corresponding to that command. On the shortcut menu, below the suggested spellings, you can choose one of the following:

Ignore All: This will instruct Word to ignore this and any other occurrence of this word in this document only. Examples include unusual spellings of a patient’s name or a doctor’s name that you do not want to add permanently to your dictionary.

Add: Selecting this option will add the current word to your Custom Dictionary, so Word will no longer mark it misspelled in any document. The Custom Dictionary is a list of words unique to your computer and is created the first time you "add" an entry to your list. Examples of words to add to the Custom Dictionary include doctors’ names, local hospitals and clinics, new drugs and equipment, and also Latin abbreviations such as t.i.d. If you accidentally add a word to your custom dictionary and you recognize this immediately, press CTL+Z to remove it from the list. If you later realize you have incorrectly added a word, you can edit the custom dictionary file. (Instructions for this can be found in Word’s Help file.) The Custom Dictionary is not the file that loads with Stedman’s Medical Spell Checker. If you have loaded Stedman’s, it has incorporated the medical terms into the main dictionary file that loads with MS Word.

AutoCorrect: This option may have slipped by you, but it is quite handy if you come upon a word that you typically misspell. When you choose this option, the list of suggested spellings appears a second time. Click on the "correct" spelling, and Word will make the correction in your document and automatically add the word to your AutoCorrect list-all in one quick click!

Spelling…: This is the last option on the shortcut menu, and choosing this will open the Spell Check dialogue box which may list more spelling suggestions than shortcut menu. In addition, there are several commands which are not available on the shortcut menu:

"Ignore" will allow you to ignore this one occurrence of the word in this document only. It will remove the red saw-tooth line but will not change the spelling of the word.

"Change All" will change all instances of this word to the correct spelling you have chosen-for this document only.

And finally, clicking "Options…" will take you to the Spelling and Grammar tab under Tools/Options to make changes to your spelling and grammar functions.

You will know that you have addressed all the spelling and grammar concerns in the current document when the red X turns to a red check mark on the Spelling and Grammar icon on your status bar (the picture of an open book at the bottom of your screen). See what happens when you right click, left click and double click this icon.

In the next issue: AutoCorrect: Do You Love It or Hate It?

QuickTakes-Keyboarding Tips

Using the ALT key is the best way to avoid "Disney Word Syndrome". (No mousketeers here!) Pressing the ALT key activates the Menu Bar and allows you to choose any command across the bar by next pressing the underlined letter corresponding to the command. For example, ALT, F, U will open the Page Setup dialogue box on the File menu. ALT, T, A will open the AutoCorrect dialogue box on the Tools menu. Remember, these keys are pressed in succession, not together. Next issue: Navigating dialogue boxes.

QuickTake key for this week: ALT+F3 (pressed together) will open the Create AutoText quick-entry box. Be sure to select your text before pressing the shortcut key combination.

Technical Advice

From Bob’s PCWerks

Start-up Folder Shutdown

Does it take a long time to start your computer? There are several causes for this, but one major source of frustration is a "labor saving" feature called the Startup folder. It has been there since Windows 3.0, but most of us never used it or even noticed it. Any icon placed in this folder will cause the program associated with that icon to start automatically every time you turn on your computer. Neat concept but one that has become totally abused by software engineers. If you have more than one or two items in your Startup folder, you may be limiting your system’s performance.

Many programs place bits and pieces of themselves in your Startup folder during installation. For example, a program may put an application in your Startup menu that will remind you every 30 to 120 days to register a program or to check for updates. It wastes compute cycles, because it runs in the background all the time. Another thief is scanner software, which often includes a utility to monitor your scanner port. It's job is to automatically bring up the scanner software when the scanner lid is lifted, but it is running ALL THE TIME, using resources and slowing down your computer. I prefer to run the software myself from an icon when I need to scan, which is not very often.

Other utilities and drivers may be running as well (CDRW software, Napster, AIM, ICQ). If you have Winfax, scanner software and OCR software such as Paper Port running on the same computer, you may have slowed your computer down by 60%.

I recommend that you move questionable icons from the startup folder to your desktop, then restart your computer and see how it runs. I wouldn't delete the icons from the desktop until you are sure you don't need them at all. Icons moved to the desktop will still run if you double click on them, and they can always be moved back to your startup folder if necessary.

To move them in Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, and 2000, click on START, Programs and choose Startup, then you literally drag the icons out of the Startup group to the desktop. (Sorry Laura... No easy keystrokes for this, though it can be done.)

In Windows 95, right click on the START button then left click on "Explore". This opens an Explore window. Double click on "Programs" then scroll down to the "Startup" icon and double click. Now you can drag the icons from the folder to the desktop.

Next issue..... Hidden startup items.

This Week’s Blooper:

"Discharge status: Alive but without permission. The patient will need disposition, and therefore we will get Dr. Blank to dispose of him."

Other Sites to See:

The AMA web site has a searchable database for all physicians (including non-AMA members) which includes their address and medical specialty. You can search by name, "sounds like", location or specialty. To access the database, click on "Patients" then choose "Doctor Finder". Thanks Diana for sending this link.

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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