To Format or Command -- the difference explained.

Instant Text offers you the option of saving the formatting of your entries. This is useful for things such as bolded headings, templates, etc. Another way is to use Command entries and there are pros and cons for the two techniques.

Formatted entries carry all your formatting into the entry, including the specific font style and size, justification, centering, and so on. This means that if you created a formatted entry in Courier 10, that’s the font it will expand in, even if you are typing in Arial 12. If this is what you want, then use a formatted entry.

On the other hand, there are situations where this can be a nuisance, and Instant Text V Pro has the answer. Use Command entries instead of the Format button.

Here’s how to create a heading with bold and underlining that will expand in whatever font you are typing in at the time of expansion.

• Place your cursor in the entry exactly where you want the formatting to start (usually before the first word)
• Click on Command
• Hit Ctrl+B
• Click OK

To add another command, in this case an underline, just repeat these actions, using Ctrl+U for underline. Move your cursor to the end of the heading (or wherever you no longer want bold and underlining) and repeat the command (s) (to toggle both types of formatting off).

Finally, choose your short form and click OK, as for any other entry, and you’re done!

You can use the command feature for pretty much any keyboard-generated command; bold, italic, underline, backspace, for instance, as well as for inserting a non-breaking space or hyphen, for any function key command, or even for calling up a macro (I use them for this all the time). As you can tell from the above paragraph, it is possible to string several commands together, opening up even more possibilities.

Although it isn't quite as quick to create the entries, it is very powerful in that you can use it for many commands other than formatting, as noted above. Also, you can still choose to use the format button as before, but only if you are certain that the font you create the entry in is the same as the one you will always want to expand in. Nothing has been lost -- just some extra choices on how to do things. :-)

Page 46 of the manual has more information.

MarieR