Re: shortcuts in fiction

[Philip Friedman pfilf@xxxxxxxx]

J R FOX  wrote:

> it *should* all become transparent to you with sufficient and regular usage. That is to say, you will no longer
even perceive it on a conscious level, any more than you do the mechanics of typing. (Just my 2
cents worth.)

worth more than 2 cents.  Using new features or macros has been for me essentially the same as the
very process of making XyWrite part of my intuitive processes in the first place.

I think that, in general, the question becomes, what works for you? Though I've always been
intrigued by the fact that using pull-down menus never becomes the same kind of transparent process
for me (and I suspect this can be generalized) -- which observation led me to chivvy the XyQuest
folk (some of whom I knew well at the time) about the idea of A la Carte Menus for XyWrite. But
autoreplace was definitely a superb (indeed, for me, indispensible) addition to the program.

Also, for Jo -- my own experience with using autoreplace for character names, etc, is that the
process of typing the two-letter abbreviation takes on the same mental dimensions as typing the
whole word. The only time I've had trouble is when the abbreviations are too similar and I have to
stop to remember which is which.

Philip