It helps me a lot to have most of my common English phrases in shortcuts.
Posted By: Misha on 2006-07-28
In Reply to: Anyone have any good proofing tips? - sm
I don't often drop short words just because I don't have to type very many of them, LOL.
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Do you use expansions for common English words and phrases too? sm
I have read that something like 80% of sentences can be formed using the same 200 most commonly used words of the English language.
Think of common English phrases that you can add to your expansion software that you use quite often in MT reports such as "he has no significant" or "there are no significant" or "there was no significant," etc. :)
*This link leads to a listing of the 500 most commonly used words in the English language:
http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm
*And here is a listing of the top 100 English verbs:
http://www.world-english.org/100verbs.htm
Common phrases. LOTS of common phrases, just like ops. SM
pser = the patient was seen in the emergency room
wwd= the wound was dressed
Just two tiny examples. People need to learn to use their Expander programs. I'd be making like $10 per hour without mine. I also work in a job where I do the work type I do best. That's very important. I would imagine (don't know for sure) that H&Ps and DSs have the most lines (I work on a gross line count) but you have to think more, look up more, and type more to get those lines.
I have everything magicked in there. That's the way I like it, that's the only way I will work.
Are you using just word shortcuts, or phrases? sm
You should be able to type entire sentences with just a few keystrokes.
How does it work with typing common phrases,
But how does that work in relation to typing phrases that are common usage, the patient, return p.r.n., etc.
English is common in India, still...
After 3 centuries of British occupation, English is still the primary language for many educated Indians and a second language for many others.
Still, to be fair, English is a very confusing language and I don't blame anyone for misusing prepositions - by, over, etc. I think it's easy to understand how someone would say "by" for the slash when "x" stands for "by" in measurements.
As long as I can understand their English, I don't care how thick their accent is or if they misuse a few words. I get most irritated by the MDs born here who will not open their mouths and speak distinctly, or go 110 mph.
I know a little French and a little Spanish and I confuse some of those terms.
She's asking for *keyboard* shortcuts, not mouse shortcuts. Huge difference. nm
nm
She's asking for *keyboard* shortcuts, not mouse shortcuts. nm
nm
of course they speak english, with an accent but they speak British-English quite well.
And I can't speak Indian so I guess they have an edge don't they?
overused phrases
 LOL has to be one of the most overused phrases today.
I use w for was and wr for were within phrases to differentiate.
x
words and phrases
I currently only use the auto correct feature in Word. So my Expanders are mostly 2-3 word phrases and a few longer words like hypertension, hyperlipidemia, gastroesophageal, etc.
CATCH PHRASES ARE "AMAZING" - NOT!
It's time to move on from these phrases that I've heard ad nauseum from people who can't think of anything on their own.
"At the end of the day."
" . . . amazing."
" . . . awesome."
Anybody else?
You have to change your way of thinking about phrases in IT. sm
Think first letter of each word instead of full words and your phrases will come up. No memorizing unless you want to put customized shorts in IT. I watch the advisory lines more than my document window so my eyes don't cross. I just wouldn't work without IT because my productivity went way up in a really short time.
(Forgot to say, 'type the phrases
Words and phrases advisories
Hello,
Any time you give a word or phrase a dedicated short form (meaning a short form consisting of 2 or more letters) it automatically goes into the Phrases Advisory.
An entry with only one letter for a short form automatically goes into the Words Advisory.
Favorite words/phrases
And then there's the psychiatrist who ends every sentence with "you know." Well, I sure do now.
Three word phrases are all that I put in my expander.
dd
More about phrases as other poster addressed
Since the dictators seem to say the same thing in so many different ways, I have found I often have to add a a bit extra, and it would have been easier if I had thought of that when I first started making Expanders so I would have started right off being very consistent.
For an example CTDW, CSTDW, CDTDW = (respectively) continue to do well, contintues to do well, continued to do well. - It is amazing how many things will overlap or conflict.
Or, they will use a phrase with the word "or" or "and" in it AND without them ...
like, cyanosis, clubbing, edema ... and cyanosis, clubbing, and edema ... Or even worse, they flip the words around to clubbing, cyanosis, and edema.
So many dicators and so many ways of saying the same thing. That is what gets frustrating to me. It's endless.
Maximize your expander with phrases rather than words.
Check out every productivity board that you can for more tips and tricks. Even after 8 years I've increased my speed with productivity tips.
I grew up in FL, and my black teachers used a lot of these phrases...sm
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet because every northerner I know has asked me about this..."I'm fixin'to" as in, "Get your shoes on, we're fixin' to go to church." 2 of my 5 elementary teachers were black, and they both used this phrase all the time, so it was perfectly normal to us. Those teachers weren't any less educated, they were just native southerners raised in segregated communities. My hometown was still segregated well into the '80s.
It's funny, half the phrases people are naming on here I wouldn't have thought were southern-specific, they're that common to me.
Some single words, but mostly 2-3 word phrases.
I have a few full sentences, too, but with so many different doctors, I tend to stick to the more commonly used short phrases, and build sentences & paragraphs from those.
Words and Phrases in Instant Text
The reason why you have a Phrase advisory different from the Word advisory in Instant Text is because these two advisories work differently.
The Phrase advisory works more like a traditional expander: you have a short form (abcz or tp) and it expands what you defined for it whether it is a word or a phrase.
The Word advisory works like a wild card search. There are no dedicated short forms. You type the first letter and any letter that is in the word like cardpu or cdpu for cardiopulmonary.
If you want the words to be in the Phrase advisory without having them cluttering your phrase selection you may want to follow sm's suggestion and create a glossary where the short forms are identical to the words themselves. They would then all be in the Phrase section, but as an included glossary these words would show up at the bottom of the phrases of your base glossary assuming it is a standard IT glossary (no words in the Phrase section).
If you need help, please contact tech support at Textware Solutions and we will be happy to guide you.
Marianne
Textware Solutions
Words, phrases, chunks of text ... sm
If a word has 5 letters or more and I use it more than once a month, I make it an expansion. Albeit, only do 1-2 a day this way but I don't have to add to my expansions daily now as I've done this for years and it is built up. Examples: Use fuv for follow up as a verb. Use fun for followup as a noun/adjective. Use a k in front of all drugs so kt is Tylenol, ka is aspirin, kprv is Pravachol.
Phrases -- do all kinds of combinations as you use them. Example: Use tpw for the patient was. Use mgr for murmurs, gallops or rubs.
Chunks of text -- not quite a whole standard but more than just a phrase, e.g., sentences. Example: Use nka for no known allergies but nkah for ALLERGIES: No known allergies.
Abbrevs/Acronyms -- Let your Expander do the all cap work for you and use an x to show expanded versions. Example: Use copd for COPD but use copdx for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
You should be able to skip along with the dictator just using expansions with occasionally typing whole words.
You can add phrases to single word glossary in IT (SM)
When you insert the medication and other information, hit tab and then, backspace to the first letter. It will ask you "are you sure? and just hit return and it will accept it.
I have many two and three word phrases in my single word glossary list. There is a web site for IT users which you can Google for; it is easy to find - forum style.
Having IT provide phrases, sentences is its best advantage. Two words together.
But one word? By the time it arrives in the layout screen, you have typed all but the last letter.
claudicatio - semicolon
of the - bracket
I miss Word's auto correct boohoo
Ever hear the phrases "Don't let yourself be a door mat" and "stand up for yourself?"
:+
I learned this many years ago: I type in phrases ,even when I'm not expanding but SM
I use Expanders VERY extensively. Doesn't ever have to be a canned report. Everybody says "the patient" and everybody says "within normal limits" for two examples that I'm sure you already are using. No telling how many thousands of abbreviations I have.
I cannot tolerate the laziness of those phrases fixin and reckon!
It makes me scream. It just makes the people that say them sound unintelligent and lazy!!! AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!
Think I found it: ortho/neuro words & phrases by ..
Health Professions Institute. Found it on a book site. The 1994 edition got a good review. The 2000 edition got a bad one. Anyone?
Phrases appear in alphabetic order by short form.
You can type a few letters and see all phrases in the advisory or you can type a few letters and see a phrase, then a word, then a phrase. It all depends on the alpha order of your short forms so you are not going to get all phrases, then all words.
You can clear the option to sort by short form and use the frequency order instead, but I don't think that's what you want.
Unless a facility name accompanies the phrases you hear/type, you should not capitalize.
xxxx
HPI General Surgery/GI Words and Phrases shows lower case also. nm
NM
All; heavy dependence on single words and phrases/standard sentences of all lengths. SM
Like San Francisco does, they can be used with any account/any dictator, which is extremely important. Just entering mostly whole reports and sections makes one dependent on that account/that employer and back to square one when it's time to take on a new account or even a new dictator.
I also have dozens and dozens of headers, bolded, unbolded, capped, lower case, etc., in various forms of each, like "Indications" "Indication," "Indications for Procedure," "Indications for Surgery," and so on and on and on.
Sounds like a strawberry or raspberry cheesecake brownie. Google the phrases + recipes and lots of
s
I use ShortCuts and like it.
nm
I use shortcuts
shortcuts for windows. much faster and costs less. if you put a whole report in it, it will take a few seconds too spill out, but still faster than shorthand.
shortcuts
I use shortcuts to the max but what do you do if the doctor dictates in abbreviations? For example continually says CHF for congestive heart failure, etc. Do you type the abbrev? or spell it out?
SHORTCUTS
I, too, don't know what shortcuts for Windows are. Can someone help me?
Shortcuts
I am a longtime MT but have just converted to employee status (am so sick of the tax thing). Anyway I have never really used a lot of shortcuts (just the Autocorrect in Word) but now that I have to do more lines to make the same amt of money I need some tips on creating shortcuts so I can produce more lines an hour. Thanks ladies (and gents!)
No, just using shortcuts
with Auto Correct. We have a few doctors who have their own "normals", but 99% straight typing, proofing as I go.
Shortcuts?
Ok, I can try. Tell me step-by-step how I would do this. Nothing ventured..... Thanks
Re: Shortcuts
Hi mt'er -
I am curious as to why you would need a book on shortcuts or macros. Everybody is different, thinks different, types certain keys with ease more than others, etc. You have to do what works for YOU. I've been an MT for 15 years or so and I add shortcuts to AutoCorrect daily. For me, if I type the first three letters or consonants of a word I remember it easily. For a phrsae such as "heart and mediastinal contours are within normal limits" I'd use "ham". "Please see discussion above" = "pda", etc. Some doctors dictate the same thing for normal exams. I use the doctor's first three letters of their last name then the first few letters of whatever exam they are dictating. Becoming proficient at using macros and shortcuts is seeing what works for the way you think and type. Make shortcuts for EVERYTHING! "There is" - "ths", "are" = "rr" (it's easier/quicker to type two identical letters rather than take your fingers off a key. For shortcuts that are pleurals, I use the last letter twice: "demonstrate" = "dem", "demonstrates" = "demm". The less you move your fingers off the keys, the faster you will go. The more you use your techniques, the easier it becomes for you to develop your own shortcuts with your own technique that is easy for you to remember. Macro every month of the year for dates, macro the year "2007", whatever can be turned into less Keystrokes is beneficial.
Save your hard-earned $$ and your time and work out a system for YOU!
shortcuts sm
I know how you feel, but unfortunately you must go by the rules of whomever is paying you or the client of theirs. I have had clients that marked my reports incorrect when using the BOS, they want it their way or the highway. Don't take it personally, just go along to get alone. Been there, done it, hate it!!
I use WP5.1 with XP and Shortcuts
and so I can use the expansions i saved in Shortcuts for DOS in WP5.1 with XP but I cannot access Shortcuts nor can I add things to Shortcuts via XP (unless I get the Shortcuts for XP) and I cannot access MACROS but can use the MACROS in WP5.1 that I saved for a long long time....
hope you all understand my post....I use WP5.1 with Shortcuts for DOS in WIN XP but cannot add anything to Shortcuts nor add anything to my WP5.1 macros but can use all I saved prior to going on XP last year. It all works out....
I have my shortcuts set up
as 1y, 2y, 3y, all the way up to 100, where it expands to 1-year-old for 1y. I know most don't do that, but it got around the space problem you are talking about.
Anyone tried these shortcuts?
Has anyone ever set up a keyboard shortcut system like this one at this website http://medicaltranscriptionexpandproductive.blogspot.com/ ? This person is using each key on the keyboard for commonly used words. Is this productive?
Tried using those shortcuts
gave up and I can make money with VR.
You can try ShortCuts for free....sm
http://www.ehti.net
Is there a way to transfer shortcuts...
from Word and Wordperfect to Shorthand. I sure hope, it would save SO much time.
Thanks all!
Sunny
build your shortcuts to the max
it's ALL about your shortcuts. you have to shorten every word, phrase, not just medical ones, regular English too, assuming you transcribe for someone who SPEAKS English!! 
I have been using the same shortcut program for 10+ years and I STILL add things to it almost daily. 1st rule is if the shortcut doesn't just pop in your head, keep typing and don't think about it. it has to come to you automatically. then you have to be creative. example - I have this one doc who constantly says "once this was done" so I have that in as OTWD. "The patient tolerated the procedure well" is PATOL. I have things like ADP for adenopathy, then you have to expand that on further to be LADP for lymphadenopathy, AADP for axillary adenopathy, etc. if you have one doc who says some phrase constantly, even if it is only one doc, if you type him every day, make it a shortcut. I have typed in "codes" for so long they are drilled in my brain. I'll look at a license plate and it will say RSD456, my brain says "reflex sympathetic dystrophy." the longer you use it the bigger it will get and pretty soon you're typing all shortcuts and not much else.
Meditech shortcuts
Use Shorthand9, I think.... I used it with Meditech all of the time for all of my shortcut needs.
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