Text Macros & Autocorrect

Text Macros & Autocorrect

Text macros are productivity powerhouses for professional editors and writers who find themselves typing identical phrases, company names, or technical terms repeatedly throughout their workday. These intelligent shortcuts allow you to input a brief abbreviation that InCopy automatically expands into the full text string. For instance, typing just three letters like mgh instantly transforms into McGraw-Hill, saving valuable keystrokes and ensuring consistency across your documents. This feature becomes particularly valuable when working with lengthy client names, technical specifications, or standardized legal language that appears frequently in your publications.

Creating a New Text Macro

Setting up custom text macros is straightforward and immediately pays dividends in your daily workflow. Here's how to establish these time-saving shortcuts:

1. Open the Text Macro panel by navigating to Window > Text Macros. This panel serves as your command center for all macro management activities.

2. This is an optional but recommended step: if you can see the text you'd like to convert into a macro somewhere in your document, select it now. This pre-selection streamlines the setup process and reduces the chance of transcription errors.

3. Click the New Macro button at the bottom of the panel to launch the macro creation dialog.

4. Under Macro Code, enter the abbreviated text you'll type to trigger the macro. Choose something intuitive and unlikely to conflict with common words—typically 2-4 characters work best for efficiency without accidental triggers.

   

5. Under Macro Text, you'll see any text you had previously selected automatically populated. If you didn't pre-select text, manually enter the complete text string that the macro should insert. This field supports formatted text, so your macros can include styling and special characters.

6. Click OK to save your new macro. It's immediately available for use across all your InCopy documents.

Using the Text Macro

Once your macros are configured, deploying them becomes second nature and significantly accelerates your writing process:

1. While composing text, simply type the abbreviated code you created followed by a space. The space acts as the trigger that tells InCopy to execute the macro expansion.

   For instance, typing nd followed by the spacebar will instantly replace those characters with Noble Desktop, maintaining your writing flow without interruption. This seamless integration means you can focus on content creation rather than repetitive typing tasks.

Autocorrect

While text macros handle intentional abbreviations, InCopy's Autocorrect feature works behind the scenes to catch and fix common typing errors before they become published mistakes. This intelligent system is enabled by default and continuously monitors your typing patterns, automatically correcting frequent misspellings as you work. For instance, when you accidentally type acheive and press the spacebar to continue, Autocorrect silently replaces the error with the correctly spelled achieve.

InCopy ships with an extensive database of common misspellings and their corrections, but professional editors often need to customize this system for industry-specific terminology, proper nouns, or recurring client-specific language. Here's how to tailor Autocorrect to your editorial environment:

1. Access the Autocorrect preferences through:

   Mac:	InCopy > Preferences > Autocorrect
   Windows:	Edit > Preferences > Autocorrect

2. Click Add to create a new autocorrection rule.

3. In the Misspelled Word field, enter the incorrect version as you typically type it, and in the Correction field, provide the accurate spelling or preferred formatting. This is particularly useful for standardizing brand names, technical terms, or style guide preferences.

4. Click OK to save the new rule, then click OK again to close the preferences dialog. Your custom corrections take effect immediately and will apply across all future InCopy sessions.