Shortforms
In this article:
Overview
Shortforms can be used to reduce the amount of typing required and to ensure consistent spelling of commonly used words or phrases, for example the names of people or places. Shortforms are similar to the AutoText facility in Microsoft Word. Once a shortform has been configured, you just need type the abbreviated “shortform” followed by a space, punctuation or the return key and Wincaps Q4 expands it automatically to the corresponding long form.
For instance, "iag" can be defined as the shortform for "it's a goal", so that when you type iag, the phrase "it's a goal" is produced. Shortforms are particularly useful when the same text (e.g. a scientific term or reference) is used frequently throughout a programme.
The shortform definitions (known as topics) are held in the DataStore. In a multi-user system, each user may have their own set of personal shortform topics which can be activated as required by the current job.
Click here to learn how to create and manage your shortform topics.
You can run a shortforms check to quickly identify and replace any shortforms in an existing file.
Using shortforms
Shortforms are used whenever you are entering or editing text in the current subtitle using the keyboard. Typing the shortform followed by a space, punctuation or the return key will immediately expand it into the corresponding long-form. For example, if you define a shortform as follows:
Then entering the following text into the active subtitle followed by a space...
... will produce the following results.
There are three levels of Shortforms, Global, Programme and User. If there are any duplicate Shortforms this is the order they will be displayed in.
The Report Clashes option will pick any duplicate Shortforms and produce a report if there are any;
The Report Clash currently saves the report in C:\Users\user.txt in 4.24.9 which standard Windows permissions will not allow. This is being repaired.
Troubleshooting problems
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If the shortform is not being expanded at all, check that the topic containing the shortform is in the active list
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If the shortform is being expanded to the wrong text, check that the shortform is not defined in more than one active topic
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If the case of the expansion is incorrect, check the definition of the shortform to ensure that the case is specified correctly
See Also: