Monday, October 19, 2009

Software: ShortKeys

As a college instructor, I often find myself writing the same comments on student papers. As a consequence, I went in search of a tool which would free me from the burden of repetition. Shortkeys is a "utility that allows you to set up replacement text or paragraphs for any given number of user defined keystrokes." [translation: it allows you to store & reuse blocks of commentary which can then be inserted into an electronic document].

Using it in conjunction with Microsoft Word's Comment function, I am able to provide a great deal of needed feedback to students in far shorter time than it would otherwise take. The video below provides a demo. In it I use the "plus" sign as a prefix symbol along with the code phrase "bre" (for brevity).

Shortkeys can be purchased at http://www.shortkeys.com/. There is also a free "lite" version.


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