Using Graffiti Shortcuts

Graffiti's undocumented shortcut feature makes it quick and easy to enter a string of up to 250 characters—letters or numbers. For example, you could create a shortcut to display your complete name and address by simply writing your initials.

Creating a Shortcut

To create a shortcut, first get into an application that accepts Graffiti shortcut input, such as Notepad, Jotter, a note field in the applications that have them, and most text fields. Tap on the Graffiti icon at the right of the screen to bring up the Graffiti box. Make sure none of the buttons in the Graffiti box are selected. NOTE: You must draw all the strokes; you cannot enter any of them with the keyboard.

1. In the Graffiti box, draw the following shortcut stroke. The dot at the beginning of the stroke is only there to tell you where to begin the stroke.
   

   Graffiti then displays the shortcut symbol below on your screen.

   

   This tells you that you are now in shortcut mode.

2. Draw the stroke for the left curly bracket ( { ). [Note: in the instructions that follow, "Tap" indicates that you tap the Graffiti box screen with your stylus. The Graffiti box will display a dot in the upper left-hand corner indicating that punctuation shift is on.]
   

   The left curly bracket automatically replaces the shortcut symbol that appeared earlier. This indicates that you are now defining a shortcut.

   [Note: you can perform the strokes on the screen without the Graffiti box, but you will not be able to activate punctuation shift by tapping the screen. Instead, you will need to draw the following punctuation shift character. The two strokes of the punctuation shift are drawn here with some space between them so that you can see the direction of the pen movement. When you draw them yourself, the two strokes should actually be drawn one on top of the other.]

   

3. Draw the Graffiti characters that you want to activate the shortcut. You can use up to eight characters (letters, numbers, or punctuation marks), either upper or lower case. Note that shortcuts are case sensitive. Remember though, you MUST draw all the strokes; you cannot enter any of them with the keyboard.

4. Draw the stroke below to enter a colon ( : ).
   

5. Write the text that you want to be entered when you activate the shortcut. You may include up to 250 characters, upper or lower case. Graffiti will not perform carriage returns or tabs.

6. Draw the stroke for a right curly bracket ( } ).
   

   The diagram below shows an example of the syntax of a properly completed shortcut.

   

7. After a moment, the shortcut strokes will disappear and be replaced by the shortcut you just created, indicating that your shortcut has been successfully entered. If the shortcut strokes do not disappear and reappear, your shortcut was not entered successfully. [Note: remember that shortcut names must be unique.]

To use a shortcut, get into an application that supports shortcut input, such as such as Notepad, Jotter, a note field in the applications that have them, and most text fields.

1. Draw the shortcut stroke below with your stylus.
   

   Graffiti then displays the shortcut symbol.

   

2. Write the characters that activate the shortcut you want. For example, if you had created the "Oak Street" address shortcut that was used earlier, you would draw the following strokes:
   

   Graffiti would then enter "4992 Oak Street" on your screen.

To delete a shortcut, simply follow the steps to create a shortcut, but enter no information after the colon.

Once the right curly bracket is entered, the shortcut will disappear. The Oak Street shortcut is deleted.

[Note: if you perform a reboot on your OmniGo (pressing SHIFT-ON-NEXT), any shortcuts that you have created will be deleted and you will have to re-create them.]

Displaying a List of Your Shortcuts

You can display a list of the shortcuts you have created by drawing the shortcut symbol followed by a left curly bracket, a colon, and a right curly bracket as shown.