How to use Text Macros

In any note field in Abacus, you can use text macros. Text macros are “abbreviations” that you can create to reduce typing effort. Within the note field, you can quickly expand the text macro into regular text.

Index

• Expanding Text Macros
• Importing Small Files
• Special Macros

Expanding Text Macros

There are two methods you can use to expand text macros:

1. Use the F5 key
2. Use the spacebar

Please note that the spacebar option has to be turned on in User Preferences before you can use it. To do so, select File > Setup > User Preferences. In the User Preferences window’s User Info tab, check Expand text macros with SpaceBar.

To expand a text macro, place the cursor at the end of the text macro and press the F5 key or the spacebar (if this option is turned on). The text macro is replaced with the associated text and you can continue typing. If there is a question about the text macro, a browse window of text macros appears for you to add or edit your own abbreviations.

Importing Small Files

The text replacement for text macros is normally limited to 50 characters. If you want longer passages from a text macro (some users set up small “templates” with several lines of text), you can set the description to identify a small text file that contains your text (the size limit is 6,000 bytes).

For example, create a macro called NoteForm. The description must be in the form of “FILE:", so enter: FILE:c:\Abacus\NoteForm.txt.+

To use it, edit a note and type NoteForm, then expand the text macro. “NoteForm” will be replaced by the contents of the file c:\abacus\noteform.txt.

Special Macros

1. Enter addr or phones in a note and then expand it to the related name’s address or phone numbers.
2. Enter fi in a note and then expand it to “file://.”
3. Enter ht in a note and then expand it to http://.
4. Enter CRT in an event note and then expand it. If the linked matter has a court set, the court's street address replaces the text macro.