Large Macros

Can anyone tell me how to monitor whether making a whole report macro is worthwhile?  I have quite a few, but I cannot decide if it is worth it or not.  I end up having to make changes and delete things.  Often seems like kind of a toss up and wonder if anyone has any guidelines for this or has experiemented with any specific result.

Thanks for any help you can give me! 

• Large Macros - Still trying to get faster!
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  • large macros - Joanne
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    • Orthopedics - Sara Skelton
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Thank you for replying to my VR macro question on mtstars.  I was hoping someone like you with knowledge of Instant Text and VR work could help me out.  Could you give me an example of how you would set up a macro to change a period to a comma and uncap the next letter in Instant Text for example?  Do you think using macros and commands like this in Instant Text is more productive than creating them in Word? 

I am not a Medquist Transcriptionist but could you tell me to record a macro and then run the macro that you just made.  I used to work at home and used Instant Text.  I now work for a hospital and can't use that.  They totally rely on Word capabilities.  I do use the Auto Correct but I think if I could use a macro it might be better.  However, it is hard to remember the various macros or abbreviations.  I also have to contend that more than one person is using  my computer.  Linda

At Productivitytalk.com there is a forum for WP for Windows macros.  Hope this helps. 

I need serious help recording macros.  If someone has macros for the following actions, I would greatly appreciate it if you could email them to me as an attachment.  I need one for jumping that uses ?? and ctrl+J to get from ?? to ?? and one that starts automatic numbering in the 1) 2) format flush left.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The template idea is a good one.  If that doesn't work, something like a macro to do your report headings might work.  One company I worked for wanted them to be in bold. It was a hospital account and I was doing consults, so a template wouldn't work as far as stock phrases, etc.  I created macros for all of my headings and had all of my keyboard keys assigned with them.  I had Ctrl M assigned to me IMPRESSION that was in bold and I was in the right spot to start typing the paragraph.  I had all of my keyboard keys assigned to shortcuts that I had created - I overrode all of the standard shortcuts that Windows does.

The other poster is also correct in terms of phrases.  Anything that is more than 3 letters that can be condensed down to 3 letters easily, you need to do.  It does slow you down at first to do all of it, but it'll be worth it.  Even things like "further evaluation" I have that condensed to "fe".   You have to use a system that works for you and your brain.  If I have two words I use the first letter of each word and if that letter combination is taken, then I use the first letter of each word and the succeeding letters from the second word, for instance "renal insufficiency" is "rin" since "ri" was already taken for respiratory insufficiency.

If you can change the position of words in your expander, i.e., change the order that words appear on the screen, that helps.  I use Smartype and there were some words that Smartype didn't think were as important that I use a lot, so I was able to move them up in the "rankings" and have them appear on the screen sooner so I was able to get to them with fewer characters.

Good luck. 

I actually set up macros in Word.  I have HPI for HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS and "hpil" for history of present illness, as sometimes I don't want it all caps.

I set up macros for all my headings, HPI, ROS, PE, etc., and assigned keyboard shortcuts to them.  Ctrl + R was REVIEW OF SYSTEMS, Ctrl + P was PHYSICAL EXAMINATION, Ctrl + C was CURRENT MEDICATIONS, etc.  I had to make a list as I used every single one of my keys for the different headings, but it saved a ton of time in the long run.  You can set the macro up to have it bold and all caps and then either put your two spaces, or return to the next line wherever you need to start your typing. 

I don't have that job any more, so I don't need those headings specifically, but I work on the Bayscribe platform that has some weird formatting things.  To bold something you need <B>, so I set up a macro to do that and to give me the end bold code which is </B>.  Saves me a ton of time so I don't have to look for the < or > keys.

Hope that helps.

When I do clinic notes I need to make a log, so have been copying the heading over to another document.

However, someone told me that in WP8 there is a macro that can do this automatically. If true, is there such a thing in Word?

If anyone keeps a separate log, can you tell me how you do it.

Thank you.

This is not the first time this has happened to me.  However, I always have a hard time getting my pont across when asked.  I once again have a doctor who would like to cut his rate, go to voice recognition, etc.  However, he wants me to give him my macros!   Am I to give him all my macros that I programed so that he can give them to someone else?  I feel that whatever means or vehicle I use to give him the finished transcript is my proprietary information.  I could really use some help in this fight though.  Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated. 

Hey!  Just starting to use macros here and have a few questions.

I have a few docs that say the same thing over and over, so I recorded macros using the following, and please let me know if this is what others do:

Control+D - neatly dressed and groomed

Control+T - thought processes linear

Control+J - judgment was intact

Just to name a few.  I have been adding alt + things for others and so on...

How do you all remember what you recorded for what macro?  Is this just you use it so much you just know?  Also, how are macros helpful when your doc doesn't repeat themselves or says things slightly different each dictation?  PLEASE UNDERSTAND I AM JUST STARTING AND DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM DOING.  So, those of you that would like to write back, "what are you stoopid???", please refrain.

Thank you!!

How many of you use whole report macros for specific dictators, and do you find that it is helpful?

I have tried it and it seems like it can be kind of a wash, because many times I had to delete, change, or move things around.

It seems a lot of experimenting needs to be done for me to figure out what does and doesn't help with my speed.

Any thoughts, experiences appreciated! 

a part that is always, always the same and that will be one macro.  The next sentence might be the same, except for right or left and I'll make that a separate macro. 

I used to do lots of cataract surgeries and 99.9% of the time the only thing that changed was the eye having the surgery and the diopter of the lens so in that case I could do the entire report, one for left, one for right, and then insert a stop for the diopter so I could fill it in.

The doctor's didn't even dictate a complete report so you didn't have to read through the report anyway to make sure they weren't changing something.  They would just dictate right, right, right, xx diopters.  

What macros do you use for VR that saves you a lot of time.  You know the ones for turning a period into a comma and deleting a space.  That kind of thing.  Which ones do you use? 

I have a large HP, three drawer laser printer and I go through 500 sheets of chart note paper, probably another 400 to 600 for consults and letters per month and probably 200  envelopes per week and I seriously use only at the maximum of 3 toners per year and they are $110 per toner recycled.   My printer gets 10,000 to 15,000 copies per toner so about every three to four months I get one.  I spend more on the chart paper than I do the toners.    But that is all figured into my cpl.

Aren't macros carbon copies of what someone else is dictating to you?  You have it in your pc to make you're life easier, but it is not "your words" coming from your mouth.  These words belong to the dictator...  Am I missing something here?  That is why at the end of the report, the dictators initials come first and they are in CAPS, and your initials come second and are in lower case.