There’s a new abbreviation expander in town.

I type “wtf.”

The software expands it into “What the f*$k?”

That’s useful, but the software gets uber-useful when I type “wtf” and it spews out “I’ve been doing this work for decades and I’ve never observed a more egregious example of bad lawyering. This attorney needs to be sent back to drawing board. Drawing board? No, this lawyer should be drawn and quartered.”

To be able to store that passage and recall it with three keystrokes is a mini-miracle. Now I can use that rant repeatedly whenever opposing counsel offends me. It’s a huge time saver.

Ways to Use Abbreviation Expanders

Expanding abbreviations into words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or even pages of text is the function of an abbreviation expander.

Of course, there are more practical ways to use these software products than expanding rants from the shortcut “wtf.”

I use mine for about 150 different items.

• Some of my uses are as simple as typing “.known” for my “Known Traveler Number” from the U.S. government. I can’t remember the number, but I can easily remember the abbreviation (my wife is “.2known”).
• I use it for signatures and have different salutations for different types of correspondence.
• Of course, I have home address as well as office address cued up and ready to go.
• It comes in really handy for short e-mails I used to type over and over. I use it all the time to respond to inquiries from potential clients, job applicants, and others.
• I use it daily to help me schedule meetings.
• It’s especially helpful for setting up lunches at places I visit all the time. I can incorporate instructions for where and how we’ll find one another.

Which Expander Is Right for You?

My abbreviation expander of choice is TextExpander. It’s for the Mac.

Until now, PC users have mostly used ActiveWords to achieve the same result. Mostly, users are happy with the product. It sells for $49.95.

The new player in the abbreviation expander business is PhraseExpander. This product sells for $59 in the “standard” version. There is a “professional” version that costs more.

The PhraseExpander standard edition does the kinds of things I’m doing with TextExpander on my Mac. The professional edition does much more. It offers more document assembly (fill in the blank) features.

PhraseExpander offers a 21-day free trial download. ActiveWords has a free download as well. It offers a limited version you can use forever for free.

When you drop by the PhraseExpander site, you’ll find it focuses its pitch on doctors, not lawyers. Why? I have no idea. Maybe they have longer words? Don’t worry, though, the software won’t know whether you’re typing legal stuff instead of medical stuff. It doesn’t discriminate.

Download the free trial of PhraseExpander. Compare it to ActiveWords. One of them will feel right to you. WTF do you have to lose?