Word expander... hope for advice

• Word expander... hope for advice - 1teriwh
  • IT IS WORTH IT oh my it is WORTH it!!! sm - Lyndia
    • does this only work with Word? - shopaholic
      • Instant Text claims compatibility with all word-based programs - tnmt
    • Word expander... hope for advice - 1teriwh

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can anyone tell me if it is worth purchasing word expanding software, or does the auto correct option in word do the same thing?

I use PCShorthand.com and I really like it; not only is the price $89.00 it has everything you will ever want and need for a word expander.  It works with MS Word also.

I'm hoping someone here can straighten out my brain on this subject.  Please bear with the length of this post.

All my other MT jobs have been in-office and I never used an Expander before.  Since I'm now working at home on my own computer, I do use the expander.  I assume I'm using it correctly, but admit I was totally unfamiliar with one.

For instance, I have all headings, phrases common to just about any medical report, names of surgical procedures, names of certain parts of lab tests, routine PE findings, innumerable diagnoses, names of scans and x-rays, etc.  I have them with the first letter of the word (or first letter of the first word in a phrase) capitalized and with the whole word (or phrase) lower case, depending on how I need to use them.

I also have what amounts to near-paragraphs relating to, say, the surgeon's routine "informed consent" or evan a doctor's routine exam on a progress note.  And I have been using my expander religiously and, I thought, with good results, though I continued to struggle to make my required line count each shift.

Then I got to thinking, since I get paid by the 65-character/space line, how am I coming out ahead to get paid for typing "nloc" (4 characters) instead of typing "no loss of consciousness" (24 characters & spaces)?  Am I mistaken that you do not get the character and space count for what the expander inserts in the report, only for the letters you type to get it in there?

I do understand it gets you through a report more quickly and on to another.  But if you have a doctor pawing through the chart all throughout the report or one that hems and haws, how does using your expander benefit you in those cases?

Again, as I have already said, this concept has just been rolling around in my head.  I know all of you wouldn't give up your Expanders for anything and I know all of you aren't wrong about the benefits of using one.  What is wrong with me and mine that my line count usually falls short?

Now, here's the kicker.  Since I've had this thing gnawing away at me, I stopped using my word expander.  No headings, diagnoses, or any other things that I listed above as being in my expander.  I immediately began EXCEEDING my required line count per shift, and not by just a little, with no effort.

So can anyone shed any light on this before I go nuts?  Where am I going wrong here?  

hoping to find a decent one at a reasonable price.  Please post if you have one for sale or have a good web site.

Thanks!

Is Flash word Expander a good one to use?  I'm just trying to get my production up, so any comments would be great.

Thanks tonz!

Any suggestions for a good word Expander for a radiology acct.  This will be used for radiology only.

Thanks for any advice.

Does anyone know if RadNet has its own word Expander and if so, how do I get to it?

Does anyone know of a Word expanding program, where at the bottom of the computer screen, you have options of chosing which expansion you want?   Also, what do you think the best expansion program is, and why?  Thanks

I like the Expander that comes with my company's software but I can't find a commercial expander like it.

I am trying ShortHand but the main thing I don't like about it is that it does not recognize when characters entered are part of a preexisting word. So if I'm editing and just entering a letter here and there, Shorthand records those characters, and if I hit the spacebar or punctuation mark and those characters happen to be one of my abbreviations, Shorthand will expand those characters even if I did not want an expansion there. I have to stop the expansion manually. For example, if I'm editing and change the word "proceed" to "proceeding" by adding an "ing," which is also my abbreviation for "inguinal," Shorthand thinks I want "inguinal" there and I end up with "proceedinguinal" unless I notice the expansion ahead of time and stop it manually.

My company's expander does not do this. When I add a character to a word, it recognizes the characters that are already there. So when I add "ing" to "proceed," it recognizes that I intend the "ing" to be part of the already-existing word "proceed" and does not expand the "ing" to "inguinal."

With my company's expander I can also go back and add a character or two to letters that are already there, hit the spacebar, and get the expansion, whereas with Shorthand, if I missed a letter in an abbreviation and go back to correct it, I have to enter the whole abbreviation again from scratch. For example, if I meant to type "tahbso" but I missed the "o" and didn't notice it until proofreading later, I could go back and add the "o" on the end of the already-existing "tahbs," hit the spacebar, and the abbreviation would expand. With Shorthand, I find I have to retype "tahbso" to get it to expand.

I'm not that experienced with Shorthand so maybe there are different settings in it that could avoid the unwanted expansions, but then again maybe not.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if there's an expander that will recognize when characters are already part of a word and when they are not and behave accordingly. Thanks.

I have a question about word expanders. I have been researching a few also. Can you tell me do they have samples of how to put in the expanders, such as, (ht-hypertension) or anything like that. I can do a few on my own, but would be helpful to have others to help me along with.

Also someone mentioned about backing up the dictionary. Does this also back up the autocorrect or do I have to do that a different way. I have Stedmans dictionary and not sure how to go about backing these up, especially the autocorrect.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is it worth it to purchase one of these?  I was looking at Instant Text.  Anyway, I have always just used the Expander (ESP) that came with Dictaphone Extext, plus ctrl-R (normals).  I came from a hospital that would not allow us to add software to their PC, just what was already built in so I am not familiar to what is out there.  I work for a national now and use my own computer.  I was wondering if it is worth it to purchase Instant Text just stick with what I got.  TIA.