How to create a text (.fkp) file in Text Expander?

EvaY · Post by **EvaY** » Mar 1st, ’21, 08:51

I have a list of phrases and words I want to auto-correct in Bulgarian.

I can't find a tutorial on how to create such a file. Can I import it from txt or xlsx?

Of course, My abbreviations is empty, but I can't imagine entering everything manually. There must be a faster way.

PS I'm a total newbie, downloaded FastKeys yesterday because I'm a translator and today start working in a platform online which uses Chrome's spell-check which is very basic for Bulgarian. So I really need to start using FastKeys if I want to handle my tasks fast.

Post by **Marko** » Mar 1st, ’21, 10:28

Phrase files are normal text files and you can prepare them in any text editor. The format is the following:
::abbreviation::substitute

Please see the other phrase files to get the idea. You could use Excel to make the proper format. You can also contact our support mail and we will help.

gbotes · Post by **gbotes** » Mar 1st, ’21, 11:31

I have lists of human resources-related codes that I create and maintain in Excel by concatenating cell contents and the "::' characters. It works well. I opened an existing .fkp phrase file to examine the content, and worked it out from there. The ease with which this kind of thing can be done is a major strength of Fastkeys. I use this also to make sure that I don't make finger errors with salary ranges and employee salary ranges for new hires. Because my spreadsheets consist of linked data, they auto update when I open the spreadsheet and refresh the data, and then I just copy the text over to my phrase files.

Post by **Marko** » Mar 1st, ’21, 13:46

Thanks, great ideas!

Also, take a look at Excel File Lookup macro if it's useful for you.