Re: Typing in Shorthand

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

Morris,

This is a very useful file. I've been trying to work out a shorthand system
for years.

I interview people on the telephone. I take notes pretty fast, and I
abbreviate a lot.

But I found that I can't abbreviate too much, unless I use a standard
system. If I'm interviewing doctors, then I can use "doc" to stand for
"doctor". If I'm interviewing a lawyer, I can use "doc" to stand for
"document". But I have to decide which one to use consistently.
"Experience" and "example" are two that I always have trouble with. It
takes me a remarkably long time to decide on which abbreviation to use. I
need a list prepared by somebody who is more decisive.

I too work in 3.55. I believe that you don't even have to use an expansion
program--3.55 can use the automatic spell correction feature to expand
abbreviations. You treat the abbreviation as an error, and it "corrects"
with the expanded word.

That's one of the features that was disabled in the "dehanced" version
3.57, after PRD+ sued XyQuest to remove the expansion feature. PRD+ was the
add-on shorthand program, and they claimed a patent for the idea of
expanding abbreviations. They had a pretty sophisticated system, and I was
tempted to buy it, but I didn't like the idea of their suing Xy.

I'm going to look over this list. I don't think I could adopt it entirely,
but I could use a lot of it. "z" for "is" is pretty good. This is actually
about 1,000 words, I'd guess. That should cover about 99% of the word
frequency.

Thanks for sharing this.


From: Morris Krok 
To: Xywrite@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: xpl program
Date: Friday, March 17, 2000 7:29 PM

At 06:18 AM 3/18/00 -0800, Morris Krok wrote:
>
Find a copy of a personal dictionary file which I use to expand
abbreviations. This file can also be used for programming purposes by
including the common programming commands such as sv, sx, pv, gt, etc.,
with their full expanded equivalents that include euro quotes (3 examples
are included at the end of this file). It can also be used to store
characters related to certain foreign tongues such as French, German, and
Spanish.

Here I am going to attach my personal dictionary of abbreviations for the
most common words used in the English language. This file you will note is
preceded by the code ;sp;. All this uses the XY3 program but it probably
can be adapted for version xy4 for dos. The personal dictionary file which
I call Shthand.spl must be inserted in the startup.int file. It should
appear as BC load shthand.spl (enter).It can also be loaded on the command
line just before inputting text. But by putting it in the startup file, it
becomes automatic the moment the computer is switched on. My XY3 version is
3.55



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Norman Bauman
411 W. 54 St. Apt. 2D
New York, NY 10019
(212) 977-3223
http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman
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