Personal Dictionary for word shortcuts

xnman

I thought I had suggested this before but can't find it....

This was a feature in WS that I find I will really miss.....

I would like to see each user have a "Personal Dictionary" whereby they could use their on acronyms for words. For example with me... I would type... JCC and it would change that to "Jesus Christ" or NTT would be changed to New Testament. ott would be changed to Old Testament.. etc and etc.  I didn't realize how much I depended on the "Personal Dictionary" until I got to typing in Logos and started having all these weird acronyms show up ....

I know this is a little thing, but this would be a huge help to people like me that does a lot of typing. I have it in WS and in Word... hopefully one day in Logos.

J. Remington Bowling

Depending on how important this functionality is to you, you could create it yourself with a tiny bit of upfront work. The end result wouldn't be as convenient or quick as something like an auto-correct feature, but it might still save you time if you write a lot and depend heavily on the abbreviations.

The following instructions are assuming you're on Windows. Some things would be different on Mac.

Set up instructions:

• Install Python (https://www.python.org/)
• Install a text editor like Sublime Text 3
• After installing Python, open command prompt/terminal and type:
• pip install --user pyperclip
• In the text editor (e.g., Sublime Text 3), copy and paste this code exactly*:
• https://tinyurl.com/dsmhzzu7
• Note: visualizing execution on this page won't work, since it doesn't have the pyperclip module
• Save the file as something like abbrv.py or whatever name you want, but it has to have the .py extension.
• Create a new text file and write the following (with appropriate substitutions of your file paths):
• @py.exe C:\<the path to where you saved the .py file>\<name of your .py file>
• e.g., C:\Users\Me\Documents\abbrv.py
• Save this with whatever name you gave to your .py file except save it as a .bat file and save it in a location like C:\Users\Me.
• e.g., name the file abbrv.bat

Customizing the dictionary instructions:

It should be that the only thing you'll need to change in this code is the dictionary (persona_dict). To add items place the cursor at the last comma (in this case after 'Old Testament') and hit the enter key. Sublime Text will maintain the correct indentation level. Then just put your new abbreviation and what the full result should be using the same formatting as already exists in the examples of JCC etc. The dictionary is case sensitive, so ott would be treated differently than OTT. 

Running the program:

After you've written some text using your abbreviations and you want to format it, copy the text to your clipboard. Hit Windows key, type run, hit enter key, a run app will open. In the text field, type whatever you named your .bat file (e.g., abbrev.bat) and hit enter. The run app will immediately disappear and it may seem as if nothing happened, but if you paste your clipboard you'll see that it has replaced your abbreviations with the full text. So just paste via ctrl + v or left-click menu and you'll have your reformatted text.**

Demo:

I just pulled a bit of text at random that had the words "Jesus Christ" and "New Testament" in it and then I added the abbreviations plus "OTT" for demo purposes:

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* There's a lot in this code that doesn't have to be exact as I've formatted (or written), but to save time of explanation just keep it exact.

** When working with the pyperclip module in the past, I've noticed that occasionally pyperclip either doesn't grab what's on the clipboard or the clipboard itself hasn't grabbed anything. Not sure where the problem is, but I find that using ctrl + c is more consistent then left-click menu. Make sure you're successful in pasting the formatted text before you delete your unformatted, abbreviated text. In other words, I wouldn't just try to paste over the abbreviated text.