The short form of a Word Entry consists of a single character that must be present in the expansion.
The short form of a Word Entry defines the scope of its possible abbreviations.
An abbreviation
must start with a letter that matches the short form,
and it must be a subset of letters of the expansion that appear in the same order.
The following Word Entry for example:
| Short | Expansion |
|---|---|
c |
chocoholic |
allows multiple abbreviations, all starting with a c such as:
| Short | Expansion | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
|
c |
c h o c o h o l i c |
c h c |
|
c |
c h o c o h o l i c |
c c c |
|
c |
c h o c o h o l i c |
c o o o |
Note that 99% of the time, it is natural to choose the initial character of the word to expand as a short form. But there are also cases where it makes sense to choose another character that comes next, as in the following Word Entries for example:
| Short | Expansion |
|---|---|
|
x |
e x c e p t i o n |
|
t |
p t o s i s |
|
f |
P f a n n e n s t i e l |
These Word Entries allow abbreviations starting with the corresponding short form such as:
| Short | Expansion | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
|
x |
e x c e p t i o n |
x c p |
|
t |
p t o s i s |
t s s |
|
f |
P f a n n e n s t i e l |
f a n n |
Note, however, in this case you cannot use:
e x c as an abbreviation for e x c e p t i o n
p t o as an abbreviation for p t o s i s
p f a as an abbreviation for P f a n n e n s t i e l
as all these abbreviations start with a different letter than the short form of the corresponding Word Entries.