Typing short cut

What kind of a keyboard are you using?

Sometimes when I have a single problematical long word or phrase that is used a lot, or even a word that I habitually mistype, I'll just substitute a string like "qqq" or "zzz" for it, and globally replace it later. I find that handy.

caw

blacbird said:

Sometimes when I have a single problematical long word or phrase that is used a lot, or even a word that I habitually mistype, I'll just substitute a string like "qqq" or "zzz" for it, and globally replace it later. I find that handy.

caw

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Another way to manage that (and this is particularly useful for fantasy writers, who often have big, weird, made-up words) is to insert the word into your word processor's autocorrect dictionary, so that when you type the first few letters of the word (or qqq, or whatever you decided to use as the trigger), the program will autofill in the correct spelling.

I detest the "autocorrect" function. It far too often "autocorrects" something I don't want "corrected".

caw

Type it however you want for the first draft, i.e leaving out the quotation marks, then when you re-read and edit it, put them back in. If you're writing your first draft that fast you'll need to go back and carefully edit the whole thing anyway. Doing a bit of extra formatting and punctuating while you edit may be a little slower, but if you weigh that against being able to get your first draft down without interrupting your thinking process, that probably outweighs the cost of the extra time adding in the quotation marks.

I would be wary of auto-correct for something like a punctuation mark because you usually have to type a space or other punctuation mark to trigger auto-correct.

On my keyboard, the double quote is only just above the Q and W, so not a problem for me. If you just need some other key, programs like Word normally allow you to map characters to different keys, so pick a key combo you wouldn't normally use for anything else (eg ctrl-@) that you find easy to reach and set that to generate the quote marks. If you can't directly map a character, you ought to be able to 'record a macro' which will record a set of key-strokes or a single key-stroke in this case, and allow you to assign that to a handy key combo.

You could always do it the British way and use single quotes for speech... single key press rather than a combo shift + 2

That said you must be typing either at lighting speed or really, really slowly for punctuation marks to slow you down that much? If the latter maybe do a typing course or similar? I am lucky to have managed a Pitman training centre many, many years ago so I had to learn to type and I can type at least as fast as I can think... read into that what you will (c:

Final offering - I once wrote a macro in word for inserting either quotes or parentheses at either end of a selection which would make it very quick to add them afterwards.

I would honestly suggest working on your touch-typing, at that point. " is two keystrokes, same as capital letters. If it's substantially slowing you down, then I'd be looking more to other causes than it being the keystrokes themselves as a thing to avoid. Any real shortcut would involved more keystrokes, most like.

Manaxshl said:

I find when I'm writing dialogue, inserting quotation marks slows my writing down and blocks my spontaneity. Does anyone have any hints (shortcuts, options) that might facilitate the process? Thanks!

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LOL. This is great!

As neandermagnon said: If you really hate using quotation marks in your first draft, don't. You're going to have to go through the whole manuscript again anyway when you edit & revise, so put the quotation marks in where they belong then. You can write a macro to help.

Alternatively, don't bother using quotation marks at all. Some writers don't (e.g. Cormac McCarthy). The French don't. You're not Cormac McCarthy or writing in France so it will make your fiction a lot harder to sell to editors, and US/UK readers tend to dislike it. But it's a choice.

Third option, just use a real keyboard and learn to type better and the problem will go away by itself.

In your first draft, you can use any mark you want, or none.

A slash, a bracket, a number, single quote -- these are all single keystrokes instead of a Shift+', and can easily be replaced later.

Or use none and edit carefully.

benbenberi said:

Alternatively, don't bother using quotation marks at all. Some writers don't (e.g. Cormac McCarthy). The French don't.

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Don't the French use a sort of double-chevron symbol instead, though? <<Je voudrais tout le fromage, om nom nom,>> elle dit.

Um, Caveat: I've only attempted to read a book in French once, mind you, and an old one at that.

I can empathise with the OP. I write fiction longhand and have realised that I often miss the quote-marks out in my original drafts. What is it about them which is so irritating?

When I type them all up, I will often insert a different character--a forward slash, for example, or sometimes a double paragraph return--then use find and replace to correct it all after.

jjdebenedictis said:

Don't the French use a sort of double-chevron symbol instead, though? <<Je voudrais tout le fromage, om nom nom,>> elle dit.

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Sometimes they use the guillemots (that look like double chevrons, but aren't). More often, I see dialog that starts a paragraph is mostly marked by an em-dash, & dialog in the middle of a paragraph is unmarked, so it's not always obvious where the narrative ends and dialog begins.

I'm sure there must be rules which mark if any to use, but I haven't figured them out.

Autocorrect in Word can be a great tool, and it's easily tweaked.

File | Options | Autocorrect gets you to the list where you can add, delete, or edit the words in the AutoCorrect dictionary to your heart's content. Got a long name for a character or place, like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? You can set up an autocorrect entry sot that you just have to type lfpw, or some short combo. You can make it automatically format text, too.

That dialog box is also where you can turn off auto formatting of hyperlinks, if that annoys you.

cmhbob said:

File | Options | Autocorrect gets you to the list where you can add, delete, or edit the words in the AutoCorrect dictionary to your heart's content. Got a long name for a character or place, like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? You can set up an autocorrect entry sot that you just have to type lfpw, or some short combo.

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A thing which, as I mentioned earlier, you can do without autocorrect. The whole point of a "typing shortcut" is to make it short and easy. For me, some simple three-letter string like "qqq", which can be globally replaced in about three seconds, works just fine.

caw

Sage said:

Why would the double-chevron be a shortcut to the quotation marks? Don't you have to actually hit more buttons, including the shift key?

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As far as I know, double chevron is not a normal shortcut to quotation marks. It's a workaround, when you're writing in French without a French keyboard, for the guillemots -- which are not quotation marks but a different piece of punctuation altogether, and are not used in English. If someone who is not writing in French wants to use << or >> for some purpose, that's their choice, but it would, as you suggest, be silly to do that instead of quotation marks.