Get Help

The Shortcut Editor

The Shortcut Editor manages text shortcuts used for text expansion. It has four sections:

---

How To...

Create a new list

1. Click the "+" button in the File Tabs and choose the "Create a new shortcut dictionary" command.
2. Enter the file name and click the "Save" button.

The newly created shortcut list will become the current editing list.

Load a list

1. Click the "+" button in the File Tabs and choose the "Open an existing shortcut list" command.
2. Enter the file name and click the "Open" button.

The newly loaded shortcut list will become the current editing list.

Save a list

Asutype automatically saves the list for you, therefore there is no "Save" button or menu item anywhere.

Close a list

1. Click the "x" icon in the tab of a list.

Share a list with others

To share a shortcut file with others, simply let them know the file location and give them the appropriate access rights. From time to time you may need to update the file to see any changes made by others.

1. Right click the current list in the File Tabs and choose the "Check for update of file" command from a pop-up menu.

Note:

• The current file location is shown in the File Tab's tooltip.
• You can right click the File Tabs and choose the "Open containing folder" command to go to the file location in Windows Explorer.

---

Add a new text shortcut

1. Type the full text content in the "Content" box.
2. Enter a shortcut's hot text in the "Hot Text" box, or choose a shortcut's hot key in the "Hot Key" button, or choose a shortcut's mouse gesture in the "Gesture" button, or any combination of these.
3. Check the "No Trigger" checkbox if you want a non-trigger shortcut; otherwise leave the checkbox unchecked and you'll have a normal trigger shortcut.
4. Click the "Add" button.

Note:

• You can have multiple entries with the same hot text or hot key but with different content. Asutype will ask you to choose which one to use to at runtime.
• You can insert a hot code into your content. For details on hot codes, see the Hot Codes topic.

Replace a text shortcut

1. Select the shortcut in the list.
2. Edit the shortcut.
3. Click the "Replace" button

Delete a text shortcut

1. Select the shortcut in the list
2. Click the "x" icon on the right hand side of the selection.

Move a text shortcut to another shortcut list

1. Right click the shortcut in the list and choose the "Move to..." with the name of the shortcut list you want. 

Copy a text shortcut to another shortcut list

1. Hold down the Shift key, right click the shortcut in the list and choose the "Copy to..." with the name of the shortcut list you want. 

Import all shortcuts from an external source
(Not available in the Trial version)

1. Right click the current tab in the File Tabs and choose the "Import entries from a plain text file" command.
2. Enter the file name and click the "Open" button

Asutype can import shortcuts from a plain text file (either ANSI or UNICODE, see below). A message will announce when the importing is completed.

Export all shortcuts to a text file
(Not available in the Trial version)

1. Right click the current tab in the File Tabs and choose the "Export entries to a file" command.
2. Enter the file name and click the "Save" button

Asutype can export shortcuts to a plain text file (either ANSI or UNICODE, see below).

Plain Text Files for Import / Export

A plain text file that Asutype imports/exports shortcuts from/to is a plain ANSI or UNICODE text file (i.e. no formatting information such as bold, italic, tables, images etc. - you can use NotePad to create a plain text file) with each shortcut in a single line, the hot text and the content parts are separated by an equal sign (=). The asterisk character (*) after a shortcut part denotes the shortcut is "no trigger". The circumflex characters (^) in a content part denote a new line. Lines starting with a semicolon (;) are comment lines. Blank lines and comment lines will be ignored when importing. For example: