I've put off developing a good system for these since it'll mean reconfiguring hundreds of shortcuts, but I'm finally ready to take on the task (tired of twice the typing!) and would love to know what's working well for others. Thanks so much for any suggestions.

Hello, Ms. Indigo, and welcome.

Can you be more specific about this? I'm afraid I do not understand what you're really asking. Thanks.

Good evening, Harrie, and thanks. Lots of words fall outside the shorts systems I've developed or could be shortened even further within them by eliminating double letters for double-letter sounds. Using F for CH in "cough" (cof) is a no-brainer.

But then, what for CH in "touch,"
CH in "chandelier" and SH in "should," and
TH in "thought?"

Like that. T and H, for instance, are both used to start so many, many words already that probably some oddball letter should be used. For me "though" is "tho" now, but I'd really prefer "zo" or that kind of zing. I tried a search (serj?), but my search terms didn't work, and I'm hoping to find out what's been working well for others.

I understand now; thanks for the explanation. I definitely have and enjoy some oddball letter type abbreviations, but I'm not so systematic about it as you are referencing at all. That sounds very interesting. I'd like to hear ideas about it myself. Anyone?

Not much help but I use: cud =could, sud = should, and wud = would

Lori

My system has no rhyme or reason, but it works for me;

Could is cd
Should is sd
Would is wd
Cough is cg
Coughing is cg
Coughs is cgs
Touch is tch

Of course, putting these words in sentences is a much better way;

She has had a cough=shhac
she has been coughing=shbc
She coughs when she takes a deep breath=scwstadb
She would not=swdn
She will not=swln
She could not -scdn

I use j for words ending in ion

radiation is radj
Complication is cmpj
Complications is cmpjs
effusion is efj
Confusion is cfn
Ideation is idj

These is tz
Those is thz
Hyperlipidemia is hl
Hypothyroidism is hpm
Hypertension is hp
Hurts is hts
Hurt is ht
Hurting is htg
Seem is sm
Seems is sms
Seeming is smg
Seemingly is smgy
For is ff
From is fm
Work is wrk
Works is wrks
Week is wk
Weeks is wks
Weak is wak


As I said, it's best if you can just use these in sentences. There are times though when a doc will dictate one of those words that you don't have in a sentence exactly as dictated. Hope this all helps and gives you a few ideas.

Marti

Thanks, Guys. It's nice to connect with others. We're pretty much doing the same thing, variations on a theme. Lori, I'm using CD for could and WD for would because they're used so much. It's SHD for should I'm trying to fix, and hundreds of others. I also use J for -ion, Marti. I never learned to take shorthand, but I think that was an abbreviation from that. In any case, it works well, and that's the sort of thing I'm looking for.

I wish I could mostly concentrate on sentences and paragraphs, even whole reports!--that has to be a path to some real line output, but as it is I do many practitioners from various hospitals and am trying to abbreviate all the individual words I can. I also mostly edit these days.

This is starting me thinking, while I wait for tried-and-true to step in. For instance, K isn't used for much unless it follows a C, which might make it a good sub for both SH and soft CH, and it's near the center of the keyboard. I've been using it a lot lately for "correction" macros for that reason, though (as in IO is "in to" for me, so KIO turns "into" to "in to)." No matter what I do, it'll mean a lot of retooling.

Now that I think if it, since -ions are always on the ends of words, that leaves J any more not overused than other letters for other areas. Maybe it could be "TH"? It's also right in the middle of the keyboard, and TH on ends of words is almost always silent.

Any jots? Happy Monday!

I thought I came back long ago and reported on this. Oh, well, at least I do have lots of experience with what I did back then.

I replaced TH, etc., with letters that happened to be less heavily used in my abbreviations than others (in the hope that there'd be fewer disruptions to existing abbreviations). It's worked well and was very quick for my fingers to learn.

In my case, when constructing abbreviations
U replaces TH. (thought becomes uot)
F replaces GH. (tuf)
J replaces SH, soft CH, and SCH (church becomes jurj).
K replaces hard CH, and of course CK.