My writing method

General points
Writing panel
One key abbreviations
Verbs
Verbs not conjugated
Abbreviations needing two keys
Abbreviations needing three keys
Abbreviations of words ending by ...tion or ...ble
Abbreviations of words ending by ...sion or ...ment
Abbreviations of words ending by ...ly, ...ty or ...ent
Abbreviations of words ending by ...ce, ...ed or ...ous
Abbreviations of words ending by ...ness or ...less

Abbreviations using numbers

Recapitulation
General points

I am on Macintosh and my scanning software is SwitchXS. It was elaborated by a Dutch who very often puts new features, which makes it quite sophisticated.

http://www.assistiveware.com/switchaccess.php

Before I had Discover, but when Apple changed its operating system, as Discover did not adapt to Mac OS X, I had to find another software. I may say  that the change is quite convenient because SwitchXS is  much more effective than Discover, and allows me to write much faster. As Discover, SwitchXS has a scan panel editor, so you can make your own panels according to your needs. 

As I am nearly completely paralysed, writing each letter with this scanning system was too much for me, all the more that at that time, I had to do the timetables which meant writing many e-mails.

With the help of Bernard, my husband, I tried to find a software with a dictionary to accelerate writing. Finally we found a very small software for secretaries, TypeIt4me, which does not have a dictionary, but has the possibility of introducing abbreviations. You type the letters of the abbreviation and when you type a space, the corresponding word appears. The problem with TypeIt4me is that you cannot introduce more than 2700 abbreviations, which is very little if you want to make an accelerating writing method. When I had SwitchXS, and later on KeyStrokes, the problem was solved, for in KeyStrokes, you can put as much abbreviations as you want. And with KeyStrokes, you have word prediction for all the words without an abbreviation, which accelerates a good deal more writing .

So as I can make my own scanning panels, why not do a writing one, with a row of letters followed by a space, which avoids typing a space to type a word with an abbreviation, and all sorts of groups of letters that often come out. For this writing panel, SwitchXS is again much better than Discover, for you can put as much keys as you need, whereas the  Discover system does not allow you to put more than 128 keys per panel, which is very little.

The aim of which follows, is to build logic rules for each abbreviation, so as to find them back. I try to put exceptions only on words that come back often.

So this writing method uses KeyStrokes software for abbreviations and word prediction, and LayoutKitchen as panel editor. You can download these softwares from the web site :

http://www.assistiveware.com/download.php

Then you can download my abbreviations and put them in KeyStrokes, choosing “Import” in the prediction menu. In the window that opens, you choose “abbreviations.txt” where you have put it on your computer.

Download abbreviations.txt

 Note : you possibly need to define a new dictionary. Choose “new dictionary” in the “prediction” menu, give a name, and then enter “abbreviations.txt” in that new dictionary, as explained above.

For memory reasons, it is much better that each one enters his own abbreviations, mine are to be use as an example rather than as a litteral application.