MTips E-Zine

Newsletter for MT’s using MS Word

Vol 1 No 9 July 22, 2001

Laura Bryan Editor

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Table of Contents:

1. Feature Article: AutoText and the Mysterious Font Change

2. QuickTakes-Keyboarding Tips: Two Very "Revealing" Shortcut Keys

3. Technical Advice: Desktops, Filing Cabinets and a Course in Speed Reading

4. Bloopers

5. Other Sites To See

I am looking forward to meeting many of you at the AAMT National Meeting in Arlington, VA. If you spot my name tag, please introduce yourself!

Troubleshooting AutoText

AutoText is a very handy feature for inserting text quickly and easily, but if you have encountered one of the following problems, you may wonder if AutoText is really worth using. One of the more common problems people encounter when using AutoText is the mysterious font change. Explaining this problem can be tedious, but the bottom line is this: if you switch between different fonts for different accounts, be sure to click the "Default" button in the bottom left corner of the Font dialogue box each time you switch between fonts. (For more information, see MTips, Volume 1 No 5, Keyboarding Tips.) When an AutoText entry is created, Word memorizes the font "status" of the AutoText entry (i.e. "default" or "not default"). If the entry is created using the default font, Word will insert the entry using the current default font. If an entry was created in a font other than the default, Word memorizes the actual font style and will use that font when inserting the AutoText entry regardless of the font of the surrounding paragraph. For those who use more than one font, designating Default fonts is very important.

Other problems you might encounter include unwanted hard returns when inserting AutoText. Be sure to reveal formatting marks (see below) when selecting and memorizing AutoText entries, so you can decide whether or not to include the paragraph mark in the AutoText entry. An AutoText entry memorized with the last paragraph mark will place a hard return in your document when you use this entry. In the case of addresses, you may want to insert the hard return, but phrases to be inserted in the middle of a paragraph should not include the paragraph mark.

There is one more very common problem using AutoText. If you have created an entry but you do not get a suggestion box and you cannot insert the entry using the F3 key, you may have duplicated the AutoText name. For example, if you create two AutoText entries in the same template that both start with "The patient…", Word will not know which AutoText entry to insert, so it will insert neither. To avoid this, give your AutoText entries unique names. Be careful when accepting the default AutoText name which is created from the first few characters or words of the entry. You can check your list of AutoText entries for duplicate names by opening the AutoText dialogue box and scanning the list of entries.

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QuickTakes-Keyboarding Tips

Two Very Revealing Shortcut Keys

Formatting marks (aka non-printing characters) are extremely important when formatting and editing documents in MS Word. The three main formatting marks include the paragraph mark, the dot to designate a space produced by the spacebar, and an arrow to indicate a tab. I prefer to type with these formatting marks revealed on the screen, but many typists are distracted by them. It is easy to turn them on and off using the shortcut key combination Control+Shift+8 (above the U, not the number pad). You can also toggle the paragraph mark on the Standard toolbar. Be sure to turn on these marks when editing or creating AutoText or AutoCorrect entries and when setting up new templates and boilerplates. You can always turn them off when simply typing. If you use Instant Text, the shortcut key combination will not work because the key combination "Control+numeral" designates glossaries, but you can reassign this shortcut key through the Customize dialogue box. More on this in the next issue.

While on the subject of formatting, many WordPerfect users immediately notice the lack of "Reveal Codes" in MS Word. Although Word has no exact equivalent, you can learn about font and paragraph formatting using the "What’s this?" cursor. Press Shift+F1 and the mouse cursor will change to a large question mark. Click the question mark over an area of text and a pop-up box will display the formatting applied to that paragraph.

Technical Advice

From Bob’s PCWerks

Desktops, Filing Cabinets and a Course in Speed Reading

Often, people ask me whether they should upgrade to a faster processor or install more RAM in order to increase the speed of their computer. While there is no single answer to this question, consider the following:

Imagine an "L" shaped desk with a swivel chair. Because of all the things you need to have available on your desktop (calculator, phone, envelopes, notepads, etc.), you only have room for one piece of paper in front of you.

You have room for four more pieces of paper on the sidebar of your desk. You also have a filing cabinet down the hall where you have room for thousands of pieces of paper.

To keep the papers neat and orderly, there are rules that govern your desk. The first rule says that if you need to look at a piece of paper from your sidebar, you must exchange that piece of paper with the one in front of you. The rule goes on to say that if you need a piece of paper that is not on your desk, you must first take a piece from your sidebar, walk down the hall, and file it away. Then you can get the piece from the file cabinet and take it back to your desk.

The desktop in front of you is the processor.

The sidebar is RAM.

The file cabinet is the hard drive.

A CD ROM is the bookstore down the street and a floppy disk is the back of a napkin.

A faster processor is like a speed-reading course which allows you to read the page in front of you in half the time. If all of your work fits on the desk and sidebar (RAM), you double your speed, but if the next page you need is not on the sidebar (RAM), you still have the same journey to the file cabinet (the hard drive).

More RAM is like a larger sidebar that can hold twice the documents. If your project is large, you make better time by reducing trips to the file cabinet than by increasing your reading speed. If your project is small however, you will see no increase in production.

So, do you buy more RAM or more processing speed? The answer depends on how you use your computer and is not necessarily the same for all, but I will say this: programs, projects, images and even documents have increased in size tremendously over the last few years. You can't go wrong increasing your RAM size, and it is much cheaper than replacing your processor.

This Week’s Blooper:

Thanks to Koreen for sending this classic blooper:

"The patient has used an IUD for oral contraceptive which was not tolerated well..."

Other Sites to See:

Great site with a search feature for looking up lab test names and values.

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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