Overview

Macros are part of a system built into Formalizer where you can use a string of letters or numbers (the macro) to create an expanded word or phrase (the value). In their most common use day to day, they are used to create shorthand that expands into longer words or phrases that are encountered frequently in dictations. If you are familiar with stenography, the concept is similar, but macros still use individual letters and use all the letters on a standard American keyboard.

Any macro can create any value, so the system can be very flexible to individual styles. Each Scribe has their own personal macro file, which is first created with a pre-made set of macros that are part of our default macro list. This list includes some very basic Common Terms, basic English words, and a large amount of numerical macros (bulk macros) that would be difficult to enter in manually.

A macro can be expanded by pressing the spacebar key.

• Since most punctuation cannot be used in macros and will prevent them from expanding, you will need to create a habit of using spacebar and then backspace so that you can expand any macros that are at the end of a sentence.
• The Enter key can also expand macros, but it should be avoided. Using Enter to expand macros can create unintended line breaks at the end of the text body.

You may come across macros you do not want to expand. To cancel a macro, you can use the left or right arrow keys or the Esc key.

When you capitalize the first letter of your macro, the first letter in the expanded value will be capitalized as well. Note that if your macro contains multiple words, it will not capitalize all of the words; just the first one.

How To Add Macros

First, you'll need to understand a couple terms used when making macros.

• The macro is the letter or number string used as an abbreviation. This would be what you actually type into Formalizer when you want a specific word or phrase.
• The value is what the macro string will turn into. You can think of this as the "expansion" that the macro code turns into when it is inputted correctly.

Formalizer

Macros in Formalizer can be accessed using the F4 tab. Each time you load into Formalizer, it will load all the macros from your personal macro file into one list on this tab. Right below the list, you'll find two fields, and three buttons.

The Value, Macro, and Add keys all have hotkeys that will make the process go much quicker.

• Alt+M moves the text cursor to the macro field. Enter your macro here.
• Alt+V moves the text cursor to the value field. Enter your expanded value corresponding to the macro here.
  • Alternatively, you can use the Tab key to move from the macro field to the value field.
• Alt+A will add the macro to your personal macro list. You will now be able to use the macro in the main text body.
  • Note: The list in the F4 tab will not update with your new macro right away. You will need to click the refresh button if you want any new macros you added during the current session to be visible in the F4 tab. The list should be updated the next time you log in.
• If there is a macro you do not find suitable, you can use Alt+D for the Delete button to remove the macro from your personal list. You cannot undo this, so be sure you want to actually delete the macro.

Macro Editor

Some machines have a software called Macro Editor installed that you can use your Formalizer credentials to log in to. This software can be buggy. Speak to an Operations Supervisor for more information if you are interested in using Macro Editor.

Acceptable Characters

Formalizer will only accept alphanumeric characters and a small selection of other symbols to use for macro abbreviations.

The list of supported characters for macros includes:

• Letters ( a-z )
• Numbers ( 0-9 )
• Apostrophe ( ' )
• Dash/minus sign ( - )
• Underscore ( _ )

The apostrophe has special characteristics when used in a macro. When you create a macro that has an apostrophe at the beginning, when you use that macro it will make first word of the value Capitalized.

You can use any characters you want in the value section.

There is one special character combination that is used in the value section: backslash and the letter N (\n). This creates a new line break when expanded in the main text field. You can use this for certain situations, like double spacing for a bullet point.

Default Macros

Each Scribe gets their own personal macro file that starts off with a base set of macros already added in. These are the default macros that everyone starts with. The default list does get updated occasionally, so a returnee that started several years ago will not have all the same default macros as a new hire that just started this week.

As of 2022, the default macro list focuses on a lot of very basic Common Terms and a large amount of bulk macros, which will be covered in their own section. The default list includes macros for long numbers, dates, timeframes, dollar amounts, allocations, names, and basic terms. There is also a set of default terms assigned to macros that are double letters.

There are also short lists of macros that are dropped in for Scribes who are going through the Scribe Apprenticeship training course. While these are not considered "default," they provide a valuable foundation for Scribes who are new to the concept of building out macros.

Bulk Macros

When creating macro systems that have a large amount of variations, such as numbers, entering them in manually can become quickly overwhelming. Instead, it is better to create these large amounts of macro systems offline and drop them into your file in bulk. This process is what we call bulk macros.

There are some bulk macros already provided to you, such as 1h and 1t for hundreds and thousands, but there are additional, optional lists you can have dropped into your file for you per request. Speak to an Operations Supervisor for more information about how to get these added for you.

If you have ideas for your own bulk macros, or if you want to change the systems to your liking, you can even start making them on your own! If you have access to Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you can create your own lists in bulk. Just make sure it is formatted with the macro on the left column and the value on the right column, and you can create as many bulk macros as you want. If you provide the list to an Operations Supervisor, they will be able to drop in the whole list for you!

Developing Your Macro System

Macros are only good if you can remember them. A macro you can't remember is basically worthless! The default macros and bulk macros that are provided to everyone focus heavily on consistent systems that are easy to remember and tedious to enter on your own. When it comes to complex English words and phrases, it takes a more personal approach. There are thousands of possible combinations of phrases for just one word!

Each person learns and memorizes in different ways, so you should work on building out a macro system that works just for you.

Since most of the dictations we receive are financial in nature, you'll start to recognize certain phrases or words that come up more frequently than others. In a sense, macros can also be like your own Common Terms list of phrases you identify and use every day!

Shortening Words

The easiest macros to start with are individual words. For every common word you come across that is longer than four characters in length, you should create a macro abbreviation that shortens that word to four or less characters.

• Example: satisfy -> sfy

To break this down, in this example of "satisfy," we are focusing on the first letter, "s," and a unique syllable of "fy." If you tried to say "satisfy" really fast, you'd end up with something somewhat close to "ssfy," so that would be an easy way to shorten the word to the least amount of characters possible that is still somewhat easy to identify as the word "satisfy." Since the extra S is a little redundant, we can shorten it even further to "sfy" to save a keystroke.

When shortening words into macros, it's easiest to start with a root word and create a root macro for that word. This root macro will help you conjugate the word into different forms.

• Example: sfyd -> satisfied

Since most English words are conjugated consistently (-s, -ed, -ing, etc), it's easy to create a consistent system where you simply just add a single letter (s, d, g) to the end of the macro, and the expanded value will be conjugated accordingly. You can see the table below for some examples of different variations you can get out of just one word.

Other things to think about with your root macros are related words. There are often slight variations of words that have similar etymological roots that you don't often think about. Variations could also include different prefixes. One root macro might lead to other root macros that you can expand upon even further.

• Example: occur -> incur -> concur -> reoccur

If you want to get more in depth on developing a consistent system for transforming and conjugating words, try looking up methods of derivational morphology, especially those that pertain to English words. This is a linguistics term about how languages create new words using suffixes or prefixes. Macros are all about building yourself a new language!

Common Typos and Misspellings

Do you have some of those words you just never can spell right? Do you always forget if there are one or two Cs in "recommend?" Do you know how to spell "circumstance" perfectly, but you end up making a typo of "circumstanec" every single time you type it out?

Macros can help with that! In addition to shortening longer words, you can use your macros to help fix and "auto correct" some of the most common mistakes you find yourself making. This can be incredibly useful for very short words that you don't need a macro for, but you often find yourself making typos that cause you to spend a lot of time in spellcheck. If you have a big enough macro set, you can even identify macros you often make typos on and make more macros to help correct those, as well!

Regular abbreviation macros can help a lot with spelling, too. As long as your macro value is spelled correctly, and the macro is easy for you to remember, you never have to worry about spelling out "accommodate" and missing your extra Ms ever again.

A little redundancy never hurts, either. You can use both long macros and short macros for the same words or phrases. You can't have duplicate macros, but you can have duplicate values.

• ★ Tip ★Try adding simple conjugations to the words you often typo or mix up and add as macros, so you can limit the amount of backtracking you have to do.

When addressing your common typos or misspellings, remember that it's better to have a shorter macro that's easier to remember versus having several macros to address all the different ways to mess up a word. Typo and misspelling macros are handy, but keep your focus on prioritizing word and phrase systems over correcting every mistake you make while typing. It will benefit you in the long run.

Phrases

By far the biggest time saver is the phrase macro. Whether it's two words or ten words, having a solid arsenal of phrase macros will save you valuable keystrokes, even if you have macros for each individual word.

Approaching phrase macros can be overwhelming, as there's no way to possibly cover every word combination we come across in the dictations we receive daily. Good phrase macro ideas can come from focusing on the following:

• General business/professional language
• Commonly used basic phrases
• Common Terms
• Frequently used idioms or metaphors
• Words added on to root word macros
• Terms or phrases involving numbers, days, or months
• Common subject line phrases

Basic common phrases can often be conjugated (followed up, following up, follows up) or have slight variations such as pronouns (he said, she said, they said, I said). Common Terms can often have slight variations that customers might prefer to use. Just like single word macros, phrase macros can be expanded upon once you have a core macro to work with.

Phrase macros can be challenging to memorize after you've created them, since the Corrector Profile training system can only catch and reinforce single word macros. That's why an abbreviation system that is consistent and easy for you to remember is critical.

• If you've been online or on your phone a lot, there are already some abbreviations you're likely familiar with! As an example, you might notice that the phrase "I don't know" comes up a lot in dictations. The commonly used abbreviation for this phrase (idk) would also work great as a macro.
• ★ Tip ★

  Don't focus solely on making your phrase macros the most efficient they can be. It may be beneficial to you to have one slightly longer, inefficient macro to help differentiate between two very similar terms, like Common Terms.

  • Example: National Financial Services is often abbreviated as NFS, but this could also stand for Nationwide Financial Services. To get around this, you could combine a macro for "Nationwide" (natw) and a macro for "financial services" (fs) to get the macro "natwfs."

If you are absolutely stumped for macro ideas or where to start, try starting with a single root word you already have a macro for that has common modifiers or other words attached to it. When you use the root word while scribing, focus on noticing words that are often paired with the root. Think of ways you could add prepositions or pronouns to a word to make a small phrase, and what letters you could use to stand in for those words consistently.

• A good example is the word tax. Taxes are often a huge talking point in advisor meetings, and they cover a broad range of tax topics for their clients.

Building Systems for You

As you start to build out your macro list into the thousands, it becomes important to have consistency in your macro set. Having consistency in your macro style will help you focus on memorizing the root word or phrase of your macro, and less time thinking about the exact character you need for each variation.

Letters as Code

The basic macro training already introduces you to a simple system of conjugation for tenses. The letters s, d, and g can be added to a root word to expand it to a corresponding tense (-s, -es, -ed, and -ing). You can use a similar process of using single letters to make further variations that are still based on the same root word. The end goal is to build consistency in your macros so that ending a macro in a particular letter is associated with that variant of the word, so that you are not relying solely on memorization.

Unique Characters

You don't even need to use letters! Remember that the apostrophe, dash, and underscore symbols are all acceptable to use in the macro field. You can also experiment with utilizing underutilized keys ( Q, Z, X, etc) as part of your systems. Z and X are good substitute letters that do not have crossover with many other words in the English language, so they can be used to avoid potential macro conflicts (macros that would conflict with real words, macros that are too similar to one another, etc.).

If you choose to use special characters in your macros, make sure they are used consistently and with purpose. Non-letter characters can be harder to remember to use if you do not have a specific goal or use case in mind.

Think of Your Fingers

Another factor to consider is to approach macros from the eye of ergonomics. If there are letters that you frequently typo or find difficult to use in sequence, think of ways to tailor your macros to limit how far your fingers have to move between keystrokes. This approach depends heavily on your typing style and being mindful of the keys that you struggle to use efficiently, but it can be beneficial in both your typing efficiency and can put much less strain on your fingers, as well.

One, Two, Three, Four...

Systems also become incredibly important when dealing with numerical values. The default macro list already has a basic system you are already familiar with for expanding numbers into hundreds and thousands: h and t.

You can expand on this idea to approach all kinds of numerical or numerical-adjacent values that you hear every day. Some examples that come up daily include:

• Times
• Dates
  • Days of the week
  • Current date
  • Number of days
  • Number of months
  • Current month
  • Number of years
  • Current year
• Ages
• Percentages
  • Taxes
  • Allocations

Each of these have slightly different ways that different customers will express them. See if you can identify the most common ways they are spoken and the slight variations between different people.

You can expand on this to account for common ranges of numbers as well. While it's not recommended to try to account for every possible number range (especially for dollar amounts!), there are certain ranges you might start to identify as being commonly used, especially in the context of financial discussions.

• One to two
• Two to three
• Three to five
• Five to ten

You do not need to make a macro for every possible combination. Instead, if you think ranges would be beneficial additions to your macro set, focus on the ranges that occur most frequently.

• ★ Tip ★A good range of numbers to focus on for this approach is ranges that deal with numbers under 10. Since our Numerical Values standards requires numbers under 10 to be in word form in most conditions, you can use macros to your advantage to ensure your low-number ranges are always formatted properly.

Often, the best approach for number system macros are to add them in bulk. You'll notice that many of the default and optional bulk macros involve a lot of numerical systems. If you coordinate with an Operations Supervisor, you can use an Excel sheet to help create your own macros in bulk that can be dropped into your macro file for you.

Tidying Up

After spending a lot of time developing your macros, you may find that the default macros or the macros you made when you first started just do not jive well with your style. Take time to tidy up old macros that you don't use, and clean up any duplicates you come across (different macros used for the same word). The Macro Editor can be the best tool to use for this, as it will show your macros in chronological order of when they were added by default.

Inevitably, you will find some macros you made just get in the way more than they help you. Be conscientious of this, and remember you can always delete a macro from your list on the fly in Formalizer, as well. Just pull the offending macro up on the F4 tab and hit the Delete button using Alt+D.

You can also think of ways to trim down your old macros to make them more efficient. Try to see if there are ways to trim down your most frequently used macros to as few keystrokes as possible. The idea of ergonomics can come into play here, as well.

• ★ Tip ★Don't stress too much about how efficient your macros are, though! For most people, focusing on macro coverage will benefit them more than macro efficiency. It's better to have a handful of "okay" macros over one "efficient" macro. For words or terms that you find don't come up very often, it's better to have a macro that's easy to remember rather than something that saves you a few keystrokes.

Have A Little Fun!

Not all of your macros have to be one-to-one abbreviations of English words or phrases! If you have funky little words or combinations that are easier to remember for certain terms, use that to your advantage.

Are you bilingual? Try incorporating systems used in other languages you know into your macros. Or, you can come up with your own patterns of language, if you're into that sort of thing.

You may find customers who always say the same sentence or two to start their dictations, or to end their dictations. You may enjoy some of them because of the familiarity, while others you might find frustrating (we all know a notorious caller or two! ). You can keep these stock phrases in your macro toolkit as well, and they'll make these jobs that much easier!

• Formalizer Hotkeys
• Common Terms