Automating your text entry

This tip comes from SpeakerNet News (editor@speakernetnews.com), servicing the professional speaker community worldwide. Automating your text entry – Dawn Bjork Buzbee (dawn@softwarepro.com) Do you frequently type your address, a closing for a letter, add your company logo, or type a favourite quotation? Any repetitive text or graphics can be recalled easily in Microsoft Word with AutoText. Here's how to get started: 1. Highlight the text and/or graphics you want to use again (formatting will also be part of the AutoText entry). 2. In Word, choose Insert > AutoText > New. 3. A prompt will appear asking for the name; you can use 1 or more characters, a word, or phrase or other shortcut combination. The real trick is to use at least 4 unique characters at the beginning so that your entry will pop up automatically when you want it. For instance, ABCaddress and myclosing are better than address1 and closing1. 4. OK to save. There are 2 easy ways to bring up your AutoText entries: 1. Type the first 4 characters or more of your shortcut, and Word will pop up a yellow ScreenTip suggesting the entry. (Try this by typing November). If you want to add the AutoText entry that is displayed, just press "Enter" or "Tab" and it will appear along with all formatting and graphics. Very cool! If you don't want to add the entry and just want the word, just keep typing and ignore the yellow popup. 2. If you used a shorter name or you don't see the AutoText popup, just type the entire shortcut name (with no space at the end) and then press the [F3] key to add the AutoText entry. Using AutoText is a great timesaver! For more communication success tips, subscribe to our ezine called The Communication Edge