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RoboType (VERSION 1.1)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Written by Gregory A. Wolking
First Published in PC Magazine, US Edition, November 4, 1997.
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About RoboType:
RoboType saves keystrokes by letting you type short 
abbreviations in place of longer blocks of text. A few 
keystrokes or mouse clicks will transform the abbreviation 
into its expansion. RoboType is a 32-bit application that runs 
under Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0.

Usage:
RoboType runs under both Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. 
To install the program, place its component files 
(ROBOTYPE.EXE, ROBOTYPE.HLP, and ROBOTYPE.CNT) in the folder 
of your choice, then create a shortcut to ROBOTYPE.EXE. 
Should you decide to remove RoboType from your system, use 
the Uninstall command on RoboType's System menu before 
deleting these files. 

RoboType stores your abbreviations and associated expansions 
in library files, and automatically registers the document 
type with Explorer. To load your favorite RoboType library at 
system startup, create a shortcut to the library in your 
StartUp folder. RoboType only allows one instance of itself 
to be active at any time; if you try to launch RoboType again, 
it simply activates the current instance's main window. 
So a quick way to load a new RoboType library is to double 
click on it.

By default, RoboType launches with its main window hidden, 
leaving only its icon in the system tray. To activate the 
main window, double-click the tray icon. Right-click the 
tray icon to activate a pop-up menu from which you can 
activate the window, load a library, change certain settings, 
or exit the program. Note that closing the main window does 
not exit the program; it just hides the window. To exit the 
program, you must use the Quit command, either from the tray 
icon's pop-up menu, the File menu, or the System menu.

Along with the usual menus, toolbar, and status bar, 
RoboType's main window contains two controls. The 
Abbreviation list box contains a sorted list of the 
abbreviations in the current library. The Replacement Text 
edit control shows the text that corresponds to the currently 
selected abbreviation. To create a new abbreviation, either 
select Add Abbreviation from the Edit menu, click the "+" 
button on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+A. Enter the desired 
abbreviation in the resulting dialog, then either press Enter 
or click the OK button. Providing that the abbreviation does 
not already exist, RoboType adds it to the list, and installs 
the default text "New Abbreviation" into the Replacement Text 
control, ready for you to edit.

Your abbreviations can be as long or short as you wish, and 
they are not case-sensitive. The only restriction is that they 
cannot contain tab characters or carriage returns. The 
replacement text for each abbreviation can contain up to 
32,767 characters. Note that the Replacement Text control does 
not wrap lines; RoboType assumes that the target application 
will take care of word wrap. To insert explicit line breaks, 
use the Enter key. To insert tab characters, use Ctrl+I 
instead of the Tab key3/4the Tab key serves only to move back 
and forth between controls in the window. Each library can 
contain up to 5,000 abbreviations.

As soon as your library contains at least one abbreviation, 
RoboType is ready to go to work. To replace an abbreviation, 
you simply type it into the target application, select it, 
then copy it to the clipboard. What happens next depends on 
the Auto Replace setting. When enabled (the default the first 
time you run the program), RoboType types your replacement 
text into the current window or control, just as if you had 
typed it yourself. Auto Replace will work with any Windows 
application, but it won't work with DOS apps running in a 
window. When Auto Replace is disabled, RoboType puts your 
replacement text into the clipboard and presents an audible 
prompt to let you know that it has done so. To complete the 
operation, use the application's Paste command to install 
your replacement text. Disabling Auto Replace lets you use 
the DOS window's frame controls to select and copy your 
abbreviation and to paste in your replacement text.

To save or load your libraries to or from disk, use the 
standard File/Open, File/Save, and File/Save As commands. 
The File menu also includes a Merge command to let you 
combine a library on disk with the one currently in memory. If 
an abbreviation in the library being merged already exists in 
the library in memory, RoboType will ask whether or not you 
want to replace the existing abbreviation.

For details on this updated version please read the file 
UPDATE.TXT contained in ROBOTY.ZIP.

Support for RoboType:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine can be 
obtained electronically in the discussion area of PC 
Magazine's Web site. Go to the URL 
http://www.pcmag.com/discuss.htm/ and select the Utilities 
area. You can also access the Utilities discussion area from the 
utility's download page. The authors of current utilities 
generally monitor the discussion area every day. You may 
find an answer to your question simply by reading the 
messages previously posted. If the author is not available and 
you have a question that the sysops can't answer, the editor of 
the Utilities column, who also checks the area each day, will 
contact the author for you.

Gregory A. Wolking, the author of RoboType, is the primary 
sysop of the ZNT:TIPS Forum on ZDNet/CompuServe and the 
PC Magazine Utilities discussion area on the Web. 
Sheryl Canter is the editor of the Utilities column and a 
contributing editor of PC Magazine.
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