Text Messaging Converter

 

If you are adept at text messaging on your cell phone or in email, but need to demonstrate conventional spelling in word processing documents in an academic or business setting, you can create a converter system with Microsoft Word, using its AutoCorrect feature. 

 

If you are a student who will soon be going away for college, using conventional spelling would be a nice touch in letters home, especially the ones that ask for money!

 

Depending on your version of Microsoft Word, go to the Tools Menu or the Insert  Menu. 

 

Select AutoCorrect.

 

Click on the AutoCorrect box.

 

Put a check in the box that says, “Replace as you type.”

 

Next, under the box that says, “Replace,”  type your abbreviation, e.g. “b4.” 

 

Under the box that says, “With,” type the full word or short phrase, e.g. “before.”

 

Then click on “Add” and then “OK.”

 

Remember to use an abbreviation that you will not otherwise need as a word, e.g. don’t use “me” for “medical expert.”  Also if you need to use single numbers on occasion in word processing documents, do not use numbers alone as abbreviations.  Again, “b4” works because it is not a number alone.

 

If your abbreviation is too difficult to remember, you can always replace it.

 

You don’t need to do this all at once.  Each time you create a word processing document, you can review it to see if you used text messaging abbreviations.  You can then convert the text messaging words that slipped in. 

 

Instead of trying to use every text messaging abbreviation, it probably is better for you to spell out simple, short words such as to, too and two.

 

You also do not need to add every possible short message, such as “laughing out loud,” to AutoCorrect because such expressions would rarely be found in more conventional word processing documents.

 

Obviously, you can also use this Word feature to create your own shorthand for words that you use frequently or that are difficult to spell or that have to be repeated over and over in the document that you are writing.  For example, you can use a single letter for your name.  You can use “j,” to replace the expression, “The War of Jenkins’ Ear.”  You can use “r, for “Round Orange” in your novel of the same name.

 

In some settings text messaging may be a snappy way to communicate.  But, in other situations, it is a barrier to communication and should be converted to more conventional methods of spelling. 

 

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.  A limited license to reproduce this blog in an academic setting is granted provided that the url of the blog is included.