My 2 questions:
1) How many entries can Autotext comfortably handle?
2) Can I import them programmatically?

I happen to use Gregg Shorthand, and have used PC Shorthand to make a Gregg emulator of a sort. (Ness becomes Necessary, mpruvm is improvement, etc.) So, you see that PCS is just Autotext for the PC. I have about 7000 entries in my PC Shorthand files, so the import would be just almost a requirement.

Thanks in advance, and THANKS for all the fantastic tips, tricks and shortcuts all over this forum. I have had days of great exploring.

Kevin

not that I know of... but the backup files look like simple ascii text files. You could probably easily locate the existing 107 entries stock autotext portion of the backup file and replace it with yours, then restore.

So, find the existing file in the backup folder, make modifications to my hearts content, then "restore" the backup file? Sounds like a plan. I cannot try it until tomorrow, but I'll give it a shot if nothing better is suggested. Thanks!

I've never tried it before, but "theoretically" it should work... good luck!

OK, this is fun and interesting. I don't think that your suggestion will work, though.

The backup file that I have found is not simple ascii, though it can be viewed with notepad. Each entry has 40 or so control characters, and in at least two places within that 40 characters, the control characters seem to increment by some algorithm that may or may not be easily figured out.

So, to create 7000 entries, I would need to write a program to reproduce the control characters with proper incrementation, but without knowing the algorithm. It might be doable, but I'd be a little nervous about my chances.

Anyone pushed the boundaries of how many entries the system can handle?

Maybe try going to advanced and backing up ONLY the autotext database and see if you can decypher something out of that?

That gave me a much more succinct file, but the same esoteric format.

If anyone with the know-how wants a challenge and a dictionary of 7000 Autotext entries, I will gladly offer the conversion file in exchange for a working conversion method. (In the past 18 months, I have typed 3.8m characters, and PC Shorthand has typed 3.1 million characters for me; 44% of the total 6.9m characters. Saves me 44% of my typing in standard business emails. At 180 characters per minute, that's over 11 days saved.)