June 20th, 2008 arthurfreydin
Here’s a quick walk through on how to use the AutoText capability and a couple of examples that don’t come included out of the box.
First, let’s discuss exactly what AutoText does. From Jeff Barr’s blog:
AutoText is a macro (text replacement) system with some built-in intelligence so that it can handle multiple languages and mixed case text. AutoText is responsible for some of SureType’s spelling correction features. For example, it automatically replaces “acn” with “can,” “ehr” with “her,” and so forth. Basically, the spelling correction dictionary is out in the open and … is also fully editable.
That sums it up pretty good and is a bonus because I didn’t have to type it out myself :).
If you’re new to your Blackberry (god help you), here’s where you can find the AutoText settings and how to add a new instruction, step-by-step:
- Go to your application screen (the one with a bunch of icons on it)
- Open up the “Options” application (should be all the way down on the bottom and looks like a wrench)
- Select the AutoText option
Once in the AutoText screen, your Blackberry should present you with all the built-in instructions.
- Hit the Blackberry hard button on your phone to bring up the context menu
- Select “New” from the menu
- Enter the word you would like to replace as you type in the first “Replace” field
example: “teh”
- Enter what you would like that word replaced with
example: “the”
- Click your trackball and select “Save”
- Done!
Now, onto a few uses of creative text that didn’t come pre-packaged with your Blackberry.
- b4 = before
- goin = going
- hr = hour
- mins = minutes
- r = are
- sec = second
- sry = sorry
- thx = thanks
- u = you
- w = w/
- y = why
- yday = yesterday
One important point to keep in mind with AutoText is that it only automatically replaces what you have typed once it recognizes a space after the word to be replaced. For example, it won’t replace “y” with “why” but will if you type “y ” (there’s a space after the “y”).
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