Auto-replace, AutoText, and AutoCorrect for Typing Acceleration (Hot-strings)

A hot-string is an abbreviation that triggers an action, the most common of which is auto-replace. For example, you can have "btw" replaced with "by the way" wherever you type it.

Although hot-strings work in any application (with the exception of certain games), they require Windows NT/2000/XP or later.

To learn more about hot-strings and their capabilities before trying them out below, see Hotstrings. To immediately try out some sample hotstrings and begin creating your own, follow these steps:

Download and install AutoHotkey, which is free and open-source (GPL).
Download Hotstrings.ahk (1 KB). It's a plain text file that can be viewed in an editor such as Notepad.
Launch the file by double-clicking it. A new tray icon appears.
In Notepad or any other window of your choice, type Btw followed by a comma. The text "By the way," appears.

Try out the other sample hotstrings by typing their abbreviations (ceo, j@, ]d, and otoh). When you're ready to create your own hotstrings, right-click the script's tray icon and choose "Edit This Script". Make your changes, save the file, then select "Reload This Script" in the tray icon's menu.

To further customize your hotstrings and learn more about their capabilities, see Hotstrings.