Here’s a shortcut that will save you a lot of time with text entry. In fact, it could save you so much time that you could even use the default keyboard SIP that came with your Windows Mobile device to input more characters than TouchPal (which claims to be able to give you the ability of 300 characters per minute). There’s no need for software installation but just some minor tweaking, and I am not talking about registry hacks. In fact, this one is one of the simplest tweaks that you can do, and all you need to play with is a .txt file.

What You’ll Need

• Microsoft Excel (or any similar program that does spreadsheet).
• A connection between your PC and PPC.

Steps

• First up, you will need to get autocorrect.txt which can be found in your /Windows/ folder. If you can’t find it there, try the option in File Explorer to show hidden files and you should now be able to see it. In some cases, it might be namd differently such as autocorrect1234.txt but they are still the same thing.
• Copy this file to your PC. You can do this via ActiveSync or through a memory card.
• <Optional> On your PC, make a backup of this file first, in case anything happens.
• Open the file with Microsoft Exce (or your preferred spreadsheet program).
• Edit the file to your heart’s content. Column A is what you want to type and Column B is what you want it to show. For example, I could put ebdc in Column A and Eten Blog dot Com in Column B. This way, every time I input ebdc on my PPC, it will show up as Eten Blog dot Com.
• When editing is complete, be sure to save it in the same format. Using the ‘Save’ option would be your safest choice.
• Upload this new autocorrect.txt to /Windows/ folder.
• Do a soft-reset and from now on, it will automatically change those shortcuts to meaningful text.

Points To Note

• When choosing abbreviations for Column A, be sure to use text that do not signify other things as this can cause complications later. For example, do not use pda in Column A and Public Display of Affection in Column B if you intend to use pda to mean personal digital assistant. In short, every time you input pda into your device, it will always be corrected to public display of affection.
• Having too large a file MIGHT slow down your device so while it might be fine to add another 25 or so entries, increasing it to 500 might not be such a good idea.

Suggestions

This feature can be really useful when used correctly. You could have a shortcut such as cm123 to say ‘Call me later, I am driving now’ or something similar. If you frequently type your email due to your mobile surfing habits, such as I, then you might want to have a shortcut for that as well. There’s practically no limitations as to what you can do with this.

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Tags: guide