Software I Couldn’t Live Without: ActiveWords

There is certain software that goes on any new computer of mine right at the start. ActiveWords is one of those.

Some say I’m really efficient at using the computer – I can get lots done in short order. I like the ring of that. It sounds so much better than how I describe it – I’m lazy and if there is a way to do something that is faster or easier, I’ll choose the faster and easier way every time. If I can do something with three keystrokes, I don’t want to do it another way that takes 20. If I don’t have to remember where the bookmark to a website I use often is or where in that great hierarchy of folders the one with my tax information is, I won’t.

ActiveWords is a big part of my being able to more in less time and with less effort – my ‘productivity.’

This handy little program lets you assign an “ActiveWord” (or phrase) that will do things that might otherwise require a lot more work. It’s sort of like macros on steroids that doesn’t require programming or a lot of work to set things up. Here are some of the things you can do with ActiveWords.

• Substitute text in any program on your computer. Type ‘me’ in any program followed by the ‘ActiveWords key’ (I use F12 but you can choose any of the Function keys) and ‘me’ is replaced with your name, address, phone number, email address, etc. You can enter paragraphs of boilerplate with a single word.
• Open programs, files and folders. Type ‘taxes’ and the folder with your tax information is opened. When I type ‘ep’ in the ActiveWords ‘ActionPad’ – more about that in a minute – and hit the Enter key, EditPlus (my text editor) starts up. Typing ‘masterdocs’ causes Excel to start up (if it’s not already open) and to open a specific spreadsheet. I don’t have to remember where I saved the spreadsheet.
• Navigate the internet without hunting through hundreds of bookmarks or remembering the url. For me typing ‘cfr’ causes the web page for the Code of Federal Regulations to open. That’s much easier than typing http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html or even faster than going to my desktop and clicking on a shortcut. It’s certainly a lot faster than trying to remember where in my myriad of bookmarks I saved (i.e. hid) the bookmark for the Code of Federal Regulations.
• Send emails. Type ‘boss’ and an email already addressed to your boss opens. All you have to do is add the subject and body of the email.
• Open Windows settings. Want to change the resolution on your screen? Type ‘display’ and the display settings from the control panel open.

Using ActiveWords is easy. Bring up the ActionPad by hitting a couple keys at the same time. I use the two shift keys. When I press them both at the same time, the ActionPad opens. If I want to start Snagit (a screen capture program), I type ’snagit’ and hit enter.

I don’t have to find it in the start menu or minimize everything that’s open so I can find a shortcut on my desktop. I just hit the two shift keys, type the ActiveWord and it opens. Similar ActiveWords take me to websites, open folders on my computer (or on other computers on my home network), open documents, etc.

If you want (I don’t), ActiveWords will even monitor what I’m doing and after I’ve done the same things a number of times (started the same program, opened the same folder or document, etc), it will ask if I want to create a new ActiveWord. You even get to decide how many times you have to open that same document before you’re prompted.

The folks at ActiveWords let you install the program on any computer you use for the price of a single license – $49.95. I have ActiveWords installed on every computer I use. There is no easy way using the non-corporate version to share ActiveWords from computer to computer. I tend to use my laptop the most, so I just moved my set of ActiveWords lock, stock and barrel to the other computers. However, sometimes that means I set up a trigger on one computer and then try to use it on another computer – which can lead to confusion. For example, on one of my Windows XP computers, I set the ActiveWord ‘mmc’ to run the Microsoft Management Console. Well, that ‘program’ is not in the same folder on my laptop (which runs Microsoft Vista). ActiveWords pops up a message that lets me set ‘mmc’ on my Vista machine to the folder where mmc is found.

ActiveWords has ’sets’ of ActiveWords you can download for free and pull into your own set. These include everything from ActiveWords to help make Google searches easier to one for Microsoft Outlook that lets you execute complex Outlook actions with simple words or phrases. There are even sets of ActiveWords for Salesforce, Mindmanger and Palm Desktop.

There is also an extensive set of misspellings. The nice thing about using ActiveWords is that misspellings are corrected in any program you use – not just those with spell checking programs. And it happens automatically. For example, when I misspelled “mispellings” in the second sentence of this paragraph, ActiveWords fixed it automatically. Of course there is a danger in that. Sometimes you have to delete the trigger for a misspelled word. For example, when I was working at Genworth Financial, I would sometimes write about a Health Savings Account (HSA). Well, ActiveWords thought that if I typed “HSA”, my fingers had slipped and what I really meant to type was “HAS”; it would then try to help me by changing my ‘HSA’ to ‘HAS.’ Eventually I just deleted ‘HAS’ in the list of misspelled words that ActiveWords looked for. It also seemed to want to replace ‘van’ with ‘vancouver’ – probably a text replacement I created in a weaker moment when I was having to type ‘Vancouver’ a whole lot of times. That was fine until the day I was working on family history and typed my grandfather’s name, Alan van Seekor and discovered his name had been changed to Alan vancouver Seekor.

You can download the program and try it for 60 days. If your experience is anything like mine, after a couple days you’ll start saving your pennies so you can buy the program at the end of the 60 days.

If you decide you like the program, let Buzz (one of the people who created the program) know you heard about the program from me. (I don’t get a commission or anything – he’s just been very helpful to me over the years and I’d like him to know all that help wasn’t in vain.)

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