Auto Expand

Auto expand replaces an abbreviation with the word or phrase associated with it. For example, you might want to be able to type "upa" and have it automatically expanded to "University of Pennsylvania." To do this, the replacement pair (the abbreviation and the longer word or phrase associated with it) must be entered in the user dictionary.

The process of assigning a long name or phrase to an abbreviation is exactly the same as adding pairs of misspelled and correctly spelled words. The abbreviation is the first word in the pair, and the expanded word (or phrase) is the second. For instructions on adding replacement pairs to your dictionary, see Customizing Auto Replace.

Auto Expand will work automatically as you type if Auto Replace is on (i.e., if Auto Replace Only or Auto Check & Replace is on). See Auto Replace Only or Auto Check & Replace. You can turn Auto Check or Auto Check and Replace on by clicking Tools, Configure. See the Configure Options Tab. When Auto Replace is off you can force the substitution by typing the abbreviation followed by Ctrl. When you press Ctrl after typing the abbreviation, Nota Bene replaces the abbreviation with its expanded form. If you type a space or other word separator and then press Ctrl, Nota Bene does not expand it.

If you check spelling using Proof, Spell File/Block, the speller will automatically correct replacement pairs only if this option is selected in the Configure Options Tab. If not, the program to pause for your approval on replacement pairs.

Tips for using Auto expand:

•The abbreviation text must be a series of letters and/or numbers with no spaces and no punctuation. The replacement text may include spaces and punctuation, but not hard returns or formatting codes.

•For the abbreviation text, choose letters (and/or numbers) that you would never want to appear in your finished document as an abbreviation.

•Some characters may not display properly in the dialog box and/or cannot be typed into the dialog box, but they will print properly in a Nota Bene document. For example, an en dash is typed in a Nota Bene document by pressing F5 and then Shift+N. You cannot use this key combination to type an en dash into the dialog box. However, you can copy an en dash (or a block of text containing an en dash) from a Nota Bene document to the replacement text box in the Edit Custom Dictionaries dialog. The en dash will not display properly in the dialog box, but it will function properly in replacing the abbreviation text in a document.

•Auto expand does not work with Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, or Arabic text.

Phrase Library provides another way of assigning a word, phrase or block of text to a shortcut key. With phrase libraries, the replacement text may include hard returns and formatting codes. See Phrase Library.