Sick of typing S.H.I.E.L.D. Already? We have the solution!

January 10, 2013 by 14 Comments

Update: You can also use both methods below to create a shortcut for #AgentsofSHIELD.

Back in August 2012 when S.H.I.E.L.D. was first announced it became apparent right away to us here at SHIELDtv.net that typing S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to get old fast. We came up with an easy way to solve the problem via iPhone but the windows solution took a little longer.  The good news is now that we know how to do it we want to share with you a few easy steps that means whenever we type shi we automatically get S.H.I.E.L.D.

iPhone/iPad/Mac Instructions

The tedious task of typing out S.H.I.E.L.D. on an iPhone/iPad can be simplified by using the built in “Shortcut” feature.

Go to Settings, then Keyboard, then to “Add New Shortcut…” and enter the phrase S.H.I.E.L.D. and your preferred shortcut we’re using “shi” to make it nice and simple but you can use whatever shortcut you like, just be sure to avoid any real words because you’ll find that gets old fast..

Macs have the same feature built into System Preferences. Just click the Language & Text icon, then choose Text, and you’ll see a list of “symbol and text substitutions.” Click the [+] button below this list to add your desired substitution.

Windows Instructions

The keyboard shortcut is a little more complicated in Windows because shamefully Windows has no built in hotkey creator. The good news is there is a free app you can use to accomplish the task and spending just a couple of minutes setting it up will save you lots of frustration for years to come! Of course, this may not be an ideal solution for everyone but if you’re like us had find yourself typing S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot, you’ll find this very useful.

1. Download and install AutoHotkey
2. Run the program.
   If you would like an overview of commands you can click “Yes” to the pop up box asking if you want to create a sample script, otherwise just click “No“. You can easily access help for this information at a later time if required.
3. Create a new AutoHotkey file.
   For our purpose we are going to create the file directly in the Windows Startup folder, this way the shortcut will be available whenever we start windows. Go to C:UsersYOUR USERNAMEAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup then right click somewhere within the folder, go to “New” and select “AutoHotkey Script“.
4. Delete all content in window and replace it with: ::shi::S.H.I.E.L.D.(where “shi” is the text you want to type and have converted to S.H.I.E.L.D. )
5. Save the file giving it a name that makes sense (we use SHIELD) then double click the file to start it running in the background, you will notice a item in your system tray while the hotkey is running.
6. Test it out by going to an input area of your computer (eg document, web form, Twitter etc) and typing shi followed by a space. The text should automatically convert to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Things to note:

• While we use “shi” as our shortcut you can use anything you like including special keyboard commands for example CTRL  + ALT + S. Use the AutoHotkey help file to find the necessary characters to include in your script to activate these command keys.
• You will notice Autolt3 Window Spy in your Start menu, this is a necessary part of the hotkey program that detects shortcut activity and not spyware.
• We take no responsibility for anything occurring as a result of installing this software on your computer.
• While this setup is for Windows it is more than likely a similar application exists for Mac users and we would welcome instructions from someone using a Mac to add to this page.

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