Tips for Tuesdays: Use Word Substitution (AutoText) to speed up typing

The name might have changed, but the usefulness has remained the same. In older versions of the BlackBerry OS, there was AutoText. Now it’s called Word Substitution. Under both names it’s a powerful tool that allows you to type more efficiently on your BlackBerry. You can use it for two purposes: to correct common mistakes, and to use fewer characters when typing common phrases. Let’s take a quick look at Word Substitution and how it works. The very first entry in my Word Substitution illustrates how it can help you avoid common errors. Think about how many times you’ve typed acn when you mean can. With me, and with many others, it happens when we’re tying the: it comes out teh or eht or something like that. This is a pain, because it can mean going back and making minor changes to big emails. But there’s a bright side here: the mistyped words are rarely, if ever, used. That means you can have them automatically correct. Your BlackBerry comes preloaded with many useful Word Substitution phrases. It will separate alot into the correct form of a lot; it will add the apostrophe to common contractions. It will flip the t and the h when you accidentally type hting or htey; it will even add the umlaut to naïve. It can even expand common abbreviations: mo becomes month* and sec becomes second. It essentially does some heavy lifing in making your emails more legible. *Anyone who uses Twitter for BlackBerry and talks about the New York Yankees knows that this is not only a good thing. Their legendary pitcher, Mariano Rivera, is nicknamed Mo. I can’t count how many times I’ve talked about Month Rivera coming in from the bullpen. Word Substitution has another great use: it can use a smaller phrase to create a longer, more common one. How many times do you ever type the letters z and x in succession? Probably none, since they don’t appear next to each other in the English language. But you can use those letters to substitute a long phrase. For instance, you might have a phrase you use often in business emails: “You can reach me at xxx-xxx-xxxx between the hours of 9 and 6, Eastern.” To do this, go into Word Subtitution, click the BlackBerry button, and select New. In the Replace field type the uncommon combination (for our uses, zx). Then in the With field type the phrase. Save that up. Now any time you type the letters z and x next to each other, your BlakcBerry will automatically replace them with your chosen phrase. It makes life much, much easier.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.