Glossaries

Z-Write allows you to store snippets of text into glossary entries (abbreviations). Glossaries are cool because you can type just the short name of an entry and Z-Write will "type" in the predefined text for you. This is great for frequently used text like your name and address, letter templates, abbreviations, etc.

You define glossary items with the "Edit Glossary Items" menu command (on the Utilities menu). Each glossary entry has a unique name. To edit the entry, select it from the list at the left and edit the name or the entry's text on right. To delete an entry, select it from the list and click the "Delete" (minus) button. To create a new entry, click the "New" (plus) button and type in a name on the right.

You can put any text you want into a glossary item, including carriage returns. There are two special commands you can insert into a glossary item: #d and #t. These characters are replaced by the current date and time (in the format specified within preferences). This allows you to create a custom date and time stamp. You can even map your glossary item to one of Z-Write's date/time insert commands to customize the way dates appear when inserted (see "Preferences" for more details on this powerful feature).

To activate a glossary entry you can just type the name and Z-Write will automatically expand it. (If this bothers you, you can turn this automatic expansion off within Preferences.) Z-Write normally expands a glossary item when you type a space or other end-of-word character (like a return). If you hold down the Shift key as you type a space, you can prevent Z-Write from expanding your glossary item.

Other methods to activate a glossary are to either choose the glossary's name from the Glossary menu or the menu button on the Toolbar, or type the name of the item and press Option-Tab. (The text cursor must either be exactly to the right of the glossary name or the glossary name must be highlighted for the Option-Tab method to work.) For example, in my Z-Write if I type mbz and press Option-Tab Z-Write will replace mbz with Marc Zeedar.

You also can quickly choose one of the first ten glossary items by holding down the Control key and pressing a number key (numbers 1...0 correspond to glossary items 1 through 10), or use the contextual menu that pops up when you Control-click in the text editing area.