LVG,

What convinces me also is that I have several MT friends who are very computer savvy and continue to use WP 5.1. The people who don't like it are the ones who didn't start with it. They see the reveal codes and freak out! But that's another thing I like about it!

A great expander product for WP 5.1 is Smartype. It's more pricey than Flash, ($200 I think) but I've seen it used and it is good. I just didn't want to spend that kind of money at the time. I think FlashForward is great for my purposes.

Don't feel bad about thinking you're in the dinosaur age! There are lots of us out there!

Hi everyone. I too am new to this chat board and it is interesting to note that those of you using Word also have an expander program. Doesn't Word have one within the program? Isn't AutoCorrect an expander program? Or, maybe it's just not extensive enough? I use WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS and I, too, love it for all it's macros and the ease of it. However, I will be switching to Word soon because my doctors are going digital and was wondering about AutoCorrect. I'd appreciate any help on this.

Diana

Diana:
From my experience in working with Word (just a couple of months) what Autocorrect does is to fix words as you go along, like if you invert "teh", it will fix it to "the" automatically. What I use in Word as an expander is Autotext, which is a tool, sort of like a macro, which you can program and by typing the 4 or more letters you choose, it types out the phrase or sentences you programmed. I'm getting by with the Autotext for now until I can dedicate a little more time to learn more shortcuts...Hope this info helped a little....

LVG

Diana,

You can use Autotext as an expander (I did it when I used Word), but I believe if you actually get an expander you will have more options. Example: If you transcribe a lot of letters and you put addresses in, the expander will put the address in block form, and if I remember correctly, you can't do that with Autotext.

Try going to www.textwaresolutions.com and you will be able to see what the benefits of that expander are. That's one of the more popular ones. I believe Smartype has an expander for Word now also.

Good luck!

Didn't get back here right away but I appreciate all your replies. I guess I will have to play around with it and determine what works best for me. I think though that I may look into Instant Text. I've heard a lot of good things about it. Just don't look forward to learning a new program!

Thanks again!

Hello all-
I just wanted to agree with an above posted website of www.medpen.com Their software MPWord works really well from what I have heard from other transcriptionists. Look into it and hopefully you find something that works for you!