Formatting aids...

[Nik]

Um, hopefully this does belong in 'resources'...

My old Win'98 systems had some neat utility software to let function keys give single key-stroke entry of multiples such as '...' and plain-text paragraph indents.

Those utilities seem to have vanished, along with their reputable freeware sites. I've only found 'HotKey' on much-diminished 'Tucows'.

Any others ??
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Note: Please, please, please DO NOT suggest 'Word'. I have grave issues with Word. Document bloat, over-whelming complexity, compounded styles, exasperating templates, limited back-compatability, macros, scripting etc etc made me 'swear off' that sprawling monster. I still have a registered 'V7 for Win'95' which opens most DOCs for re-saving as TXT. Funnily enough, it works quite well in XP...

 

[KESpires]

Every time I try a different processor other than Word, I always end up going back.

So all I can advise is to give Word another shot. It works most of the time for me.

 

[Jev]

Atlantis Word Processor has an autocorrect that saves me a lot of time in bar notes: I type "jt" and it puts in "judgment"; I type "jxn" and it puts in "jurisdiction," et cetera. (I also have a delta and a pi set up for "d(space)" and "p(space)" respectively, since delta and pi are used in US law to signify defendant and plaintiff respectively.) It would be easy to set up an autocorrect for an ellipsis or however much indentation you want, too.

It's very much like Word except a) under $40 US; b) portable; c) no tables (but OpenOffice does tables). When I write fiction I find the live word count invaluable, since I'm one of those people that will check it every sixth word, and the fact that OpenOffice doesn't have that keeps me from using OpenOffice for much besides tables.

Atlantis Word Processor

(ETA: Download is 3.6 MB; fully functional 30 days' trial. $35 to register.)

Hope it helps!

 

[Nik]

I suppose there's 'retro' WordPad !!

All the advantages of Notepad, almost as simple, no ~80kb file limit and no bloat...

 

[shadowbox]

And though, perhaps it makes for a weak writer, Word Pad has no spell check.

When I lost my Word, I wrote everything in my e-mail. Which is weird I know, but then when I got my Word back, I still had it.

and e-mail has spell check.

 

[kcartlidge]

I cannot post links (being too new a member) but you could search for AutoHotKey (all one word). It may well do what you want as it includes auto-expanding abbreviations as you type and should work in most software.