Tips, tricks, tools, and techniques for Microsoft Office

If there’s one piece of software that will give you the greatest productivity boost for your buck, ActiveWords is it, bar none.

I see dozens of utilities each year. Most are variations on a theme: a better file manager, a browser companion to stop annoying behavior, collections of Word templates. Once in a great while does a truly unique program come along.

For sheer usefulness within Office -- in fact, within all of Windows -- nothing comes close to ActiveWords. If there’s one software utility you should invest your money in, this is the one.

TURNING TEXT INTO ACTION

Think of Word’s AutoText feature, which lets you replace boilerplate text (or graphics) with a shortcut. For instance, you can define an AutoText entry that when you type “vty” replaces it with the words “Very truly yours.”

ActiveWords is AutoText on steroids.

Like macro programs, ActiveWords sits in the background and watches as you type. When it recognizes that you’ve typed an ActiveWord, it takes the associated action, such as replacing your keystrokes with the text you’ve defined (up to 32KB worth of text, in fact). Best of all, that boilerplate text can be summoned from any Windows application, not just Word.

Text replacement is just the tip of the iceberg. You can define an ActiveWord to launch a program, pop-up a mini File Manager, or open a browser to a Web site. I set up an ActiveWord “mailsis” to open my e-mail client (Outlook Express), fill in my sister’s e-mail address, and position my cursor at the Subject line.

I’ve added the entry “openbud” to open my budget spreadsheet. That’s nothing special – I can do that by placing a shortcut to that file on my desktop. The advantage is that I don’t have the hassle of reaching for my mouse, navigating to the desktop, and double-clicking the icon, or muddling through my Favorites directory. I just type “openbud” (without the quotes) and two spaces in whatever application I happen to have open at the moment (even if I’m just looking at the Windows desktop), and ActiveWords works with Windows to do the rest. All the while my hands stay on the keyboard, my thoughts focused on what I want to do next.

With an additional pre-defined set of ActiveWords, you can pair Word with Outlook. For instance, after a quick synchronization step between your Outlook contact list and ActiveWords, you can type the last name of a contact and ActiveWords will switch to Outlook and display the contact record. Predefined ActiveWords can open your Contacts, Tasks, or Calendar view, add an all day event, or create a note, among other tasks.

Another set of words can execute many Windows actions, such as closing a window or closing all windows.

These sets are easily downloaded from the company’s Web site and installation is virtually effortless. I was amazed.

Your set of ActiveWords, called a Word Base, can easily be transferred to a second computer, though you’ll need a separate license to run ActiveWords on that system. You can maintain a different collection of ActiveWords in a profile -- a good idea if more than one person shares a computer.

There are a variety of settings you can control. For instance, you can set ActiveWords to suggest ActiveWords when it sees repetitive actions. You can set the program to notify you when it recognizes an ActiveWord (you confirm execution by pressing a function key, which is F8 by default) or execute automatically whenever you type the ActiveWord followed by two spaces.

ActiveWords is priced as a subscription. The product is $29.95 for a one-year license per computer system, though the company permits you to load the software on your desktop and laptop. There’s a generous 60-day free trial period (though that carries an annoying nag screen whenever you start the program) so you can judge the benefits. A clever monitoring tool records how many keystrokes you save, then computes the time (and money) you’ve saved with ActiveWords running (calculated using the hourly rate you specify). In just a month, it was clear I’d more than paid for the product in time saved.

WORK IN A WHOLE NEW WAY

Such savings may convince you (or your boss) to buy the program. Yet ActiveWords is more than that just a time and money saver. It’s a more convenient (and efficient) way to work.

What I find more revolutionary is how ActiveWords keeps me focused. By typing “webtol” in my current application (typically Word), I don’t lose my train of thought – bam, there’s the browser with The Office Letter site displayed. No moving my hands from keyboard to mouse to keyboard. Gone is the need to traipse through menus. Say goodbye to clicking on desktop icons, typing the first few letters of a URL, scrolling through History lists, or navigating through a list of Favorites. It’s simple and incredibly efficient.

Best of all -- I don’t have to stop and think about what I’m doing. I can type “webtol” in any application (not just Office), something that’s perfectly natural for me because “Web TOL” is how I think of the TOL site. With a macro I have to ask myself -- do I press Ctrl+Shift+O or Ctrl+Alt+O? I can make the ActiveWord virtually any common word or combination of letters I like -- whatever mnemonic works for me. I’m not limited to keyboard combinations that use Alt, Ctrl, or Shift.

It’s almost as though, in addition to using the mouse or entering text with the keyboard, I have a new way to interact with my computer: by entering an ActiveWord. It’s that radically different.

ActiveWords doesn’t have a recorder to turn keystrokes into a script, but its basic scripting language is easy enough to use to define and playback keyboard sequences. For example, you can define an ActiveWord to perform the equivalent of pressing Alt+F, choosing Send To, then picking Mail Recipient (As Attachment) in Word to send the current document as an e-mail attachment.

ActiveWords can’t substitute graphics for text the way Word 2002’s AutoText can, but that’s about the only thing I miss. Given how much more efficient I am since loading ActiveWords on my system, it’s an omission I’m willing to overlook.

ActiveWords, from ActiveWord Systems, Inc; http://www.activewords.com; $29.95/year per system.

-- James E. Powell

Editor's Note (2/10/03): ActiveWord Systems has changed its licensing effective this month.  ActiveWords PLUS! now costs $49.95 USD for individual use without an explicit time limit and each licensee can use the product on three computers (e.g., home, work, laptop), while Enterprise licenses are available for $29.95 USD/year per seat.

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