Word Entry Short Form

The Short form of a Word Entry consists of a single character: it is the first character you must type, to start abbreviating the Word Entry.

The following Word Entry for example:

Short form Long form

c

chocoholic


allows multiple abbreviations, all starting with a c, such as:

Abbreviation Long form

chc

chocoholic

ccc

chocoholic

cooo

chocoholic


Note that 99% of the time, it is natural to choose the first character of the word to expand as a Short form. But there are also cases where it may make sense to choose a character that comes next, as in the following Word Entries for example:

Short form Long form

x

exception

t

ptosis

f

Pfannenstiel incision


These Word Entries allow abbreviations starting with the corresponding Short forms such as:

Abbreviation Long form

xcp

exception

tss

ptosis

fann

Pfannenstiel incision


Note, however, that then you cannot use:

as all these abbreviations start with a different letter than the Short forms of the corresponding Word Entries.