Expand/Convert/Shorthand

When you enter certain combinations of characters, the text will automatically changed to something else. For example, two hyphens automatically become an em dash, and (c) will be automatically be changed to ©. This feature can be turned off or customized.

To suppress expansion in individual cases, press Esc before the final character. For example, if you have legal symbols enabled, so that (c) will be automatically changed to ©, you can type (c) as follows:

To review, turn off, or customize this feature, click Edit, Expand/Convert/Shorthand. The Expand/Convert/Shorthand dialog will open.

To disable this feature click to clear the Expand/Convert/Shorthand box at the top of the dialog.

First tab: Convert Automatically. The items on this tab will convert automatically if checked. Click to check or clear the boxes for each item. The first four of the following items are checked by default; the last 2 are not checked.

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Leader: Three hyphens at the beginning of a line followed by [Enter] convert to a leader of hyphens/dashes. (A leader is a series of dashes, dots, or other characters that continues from the point of insertion to the right margin or to a number or other text is inserted at the end of the leader.) Similarly, any character repeated three times at the beginning of a line followed by [Enter] will convert to a leader. For example, three dots followed by [Enter] will produce a leader (a line) of dots.

•	Legal Symbols: (c) or (r) or (tm) automatically convert to © or ® or ™. Note that if the program detects (a) and (b) prior to (c), then (c) will not automatically convert to ©.

•	Circled Numbers: Numbers in parentheses (up through number 10) will convert to circled numbers if you choose to check this item. If you check this and then want to type a number in parentheses and not have it convert, you can suppress the expansion as described above.

•	Number Dash: A number followed by a hyphen (dash) converts to a number followed by an em dash if you choose to check this item.

Second tab: Convert on Control or Key. The items on this tab can be converted by typing ^ after designated characters, or by tapping and releasing the Control key. These items are not on by default, so this will work only if you open the dialog and check these items.If you would like to use a character other than ^ to activate the conversion, you can enter that character at the bottom of the second tab (it must be a non-alphanumeric character).

•	Arrows: < or > can be converted to arrows. If this item is checked, you can type a < or a > followed by either ^ or a tap of the Ctrl key. Repeat the ^ or the tap of the Ctrl key to cycle through four different styles of arrows.

•	Bullets: # can be converted to square bullets and @ can be converted to round bullets. If this item is checked, you can type # or @ followed by either ^ or a tap of the Ctrl key. Repeat the ^ or the tap of the Ctrl key to reduce the size of the bullets.

Third tab: Advanced Options. The third tab shows shorthand options for inserting date, filename or a flush left IP (indent paragraph) command. For example, T^ will insert today's date. You can add your own shorthand options by typing them in and the clicking the green + icon. To delete one of the shorthand options, click to highlight it and then click the red x icon.