Instant Text Revision 304 Now Available

I am pleased to announce the availability of Revision 304 of Instant Text III.

This revision comes in two forms:

• Rev304S.exe applies to the Standard version.
• Rev304P.exe applies to the Pro version.

You will find both revisions on the Textware Solutions web site at the url: http://www.twsolutions.com/demo/revisions.htm

Select the proper file and download it. After downloading it, just run Rev304S.exe or Rev304P.exe (whichever is applicable) and it will automatically find the files to be revised and update them. (If you mistakenly try to apply the wrong one, it will protest and nothing will be broken.)

To be sure that the revision has been applied, you can check the build date in Help/About Instant Text and it should now be 1999-08-25.

Revision 304 makes several improvements discussed in later sections:

• For expansion with the space bar
• Starting Instant Text in lower screen position
• Easy reopening of the current glossary
• Easier use of the glossary speed-menu

Many of these changes are in response to wishes expressed by several users. Some of the remaining changes are of a cosmetic nature. For example, we had requests for longer short forms and the revision brings that length from 12 up to 20.

Other changes are less visible: The new version uses less memory space for open glossaries and improvements have been made to the Application Programming Interface for Instant Text used by our system users. This revision also integrates the information needed to link with WordPerfect 2000, Trellix, and MedPad. (This information was previously available as a separate patch.)

Finally, we are still in this happy state of Zero Known Problems.
(Still not heard this from another reputable software company!)

Two major improvements in Revision 304 are for users of the space bar.

The first is an automatic sort of entries by length of short codes. To see the effect assume that the pa two-letter group contains the following entries shown below. Most likely, they were initially sorted but this is how they might look after several additions:

	palp	palpation
	palps	palpitations
	pa	posterior aspect
	paa	pleasant and alert
	par	paresthesias
	panad	patient appears in no acute distress

When using the space bar, it is important to have entries sorted with shortest short codes first and Instant Text now sorts entries when the glossary is opened. In this example, it means that after typing pa, the Phrase Advisory will appear as shown below so that using the space bar after pa will expand to "posterior aspect" as intended:

The second improvement is that Instant Text now prefills the advisory when the letters you type do not match a short form. For example, after typing pal the advisory is prefilled with an entry that confirms that expanding pal yields the expansion pal:

And similarly if you type pan:

With previous versions of Instant Text, the same effect was achieved by merging or including the Shorts.glo glossary. Now you can completely retire Shorts.glo since this is done automatically. Note that this prefilling only happens if no short code matches what you type. So, if you type par, there is no prefilling and the advisory will look as expected:

The above changes will simplify the use of the space bar as an expansion key. As such, they are intended to help new users who transition from other products such as PRD where expansion with the space bar is the only choice.

The space bar is actually a workable choice for relatively small glossaries - say 2,000 or 3,000 entries - where you can be expected to memorize all entries. For larger glossaries - many Instant Text users are in the 10,000 to 40,000 range - the number of entries is beyond what most people can memorize. Then using an expansion key such as the semi-colon gives you a better control. Moreover, it makes it easier to take advantage of continuations.

Another request has been for a way to start Instant Text directly in the lower screen position, as when it works with a word processor. This can now be achieved with the command line parameter /W. If you want to use this feature, right-click on the IT icon and look at the target. If it is:

   C:\InstText\Exe32\ITPro32.exe

add /W at the end to get:

   C:\InstText\Exe32\ITPro32.exe /W

Now Instant Text will start in the lower position and this may make it easier to click on the WordPerfect or Word icon (hence the mnemonic W).

Users of the Includes feature have been longing for a faster way to reopen the current glossary. The need arises when you use a glossary - say, MyBase - which includes another one - say, Drugs. When you add a new Drug entry, the change is only reflected when you reopen MyBase.

The glossary menu now contains a new menu item called "Reopen current glossary" and which does this reopening in a single command. You can see this new command below in the glossary speed-menu:

Since we are on this subject of the glossary speed-menu, the most common mistake I have found myself making with Instant Text is to right-click on a glossary entry (not on the header) in the hope of opening the glossary speed-menu. Since being wrong so systematically was becoming intolerable, I decided that any mistake that is so natural is no mistake and should become the rule!

With revision 304, if you want to close a glossary, you right click on it and choose close on the speed-menu. What happens is that the right-click makes the glossary current and also opens the speed-menu. You can then take whatever action you wanted, in this case, select the close command.

If you know of other common mistakes that are good candidates for new rules, send me an email...

This is the fourth revision we are issuing using the advanced patching technology developed by Wise Solutions. We are quite pleased that this gives us an ability to easily issue revisions as the need arises. As previous revisions, it is announced by email to registered users and also in the Instant Text forum.

If you have not visited the forum lately, you may want to look at the titles and see that it is becoming a very good place for exchanging tips, techniques, and suggestions. Over the past six months around three hundred messages have been exchanged. We remove obsolete messages and messages whose interest is time-limited after a few weeks. On the other hand, messages of general interest are kept for as long as they are relevant and we now have a strong base that is a kind of FAQ.

User-to-user exchanges are definitely encouraged and they give us a good way to understand your needs and formulate what is needed for the future version 4 of Instant Text. So we hope you continue participating as we are listening to what you have to say. We may also open a private forum for version 4 suggestions. (Please email me if you are interested.)

Of course the forum is no replacement for an active support line! As usual, if your question is very specific or if you need urgent help, do not hesitate to email support@twsolutions.com or to call our support phone line at 781-272-3200 ext. 2. These two methods remain the best way when you need fast service.