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Topic starter
Hello All,
Has anyone had any success setting up quick texts that reference other quick texts? I have a new provider who is interested in developing a range of quick texts and would like to then have several that mix and match options. This is for convenience and not to get around the character limit. So for example we could have two quick texts like this:
.txt1
This is my statement.
.txt2
This is my second statement.
I then tried doing the following in a third quick text:
.cmb
.txt1
.txt2
In the case above the note just outputs .txt1 and .txt2 when I call .cmb I also tried doing this in the .cmb quick text thinking I need to trigger it with a tab or other key input:
.txt1 {numtoascii(9)} .txt2
This failed completely. If anyone has any thoughts I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Brad
Posted : July 12, 2018 5:15 am
I also had providers wanting long quick texts or ones that needed a lot of functionality that couldn't be written in the space provided. I used :
{INSERT_TEXT_COMP([folderpath],[name])}
and {ADD_TEXT_COMP(folderpath, name, insert_position, OPEN, label)}
This allowed me to make the quick text as big as they needed because all of the functions were written in a text component.
I hope that helps.
Posted : July 12, 2018 5:35 am
As Andrea points out below, you can use INSERT_TEXT_COMP("[location]","[quick text name]") and chain multiple quick texts together, but I have found that this will only work on the Text screen (i.e. TEXT Tab view of document). The reason seems to be that the INSERT_TEXT_COMP command returns the unique ID of the text component which when used on the TEXT Tab view will properly return the content of the text component, but it will return the actual ID of the text component when used in a multiline edit field or other text-based form control on a form (i.e. FORM Tab). In the latter scenario, the text translation will display something like [MLI_TEXT:1846844596405330] in the form control. I am actually trying to resolve this very issue myself, so I will let you know if I come up with a workaround.
Posted : July 12, 2018 6:00 am
I've attempted this before, but was not successful in getting multiple quicktext to trigger at the same time within a single quicktext. I tried inserting the ascii characters, as you did, and manually adding a space or hard return within the quicktext, but that did not work for me either.
If you do figure that out I'd be interested in knowing how also! 🙂
What I ended up doing was something similar to the code below, where I put the next quick text at the end of the previous quick text. Then when they insert it into the note, they type the first quick text, and if they see another quicktext at the end, they just continue to hit space(or Enter) until all the quick text are ran.
.txt1 = {"First Quick Text" + HRET + ".txt2"}
.txt2 = {"Second Quick Text" + HRET + ".txt3"}
.txt3 = {"Second Quick Text" + HRET + ".txt4"}
.txt4 = {"Done"}
Posted : July 12, 2018 6:03 am
Our providers are using "exploding quicktext" for long form paragraphs. The basic idea is that the last word in your 1st quicktext is your second quicktext. here is an example:
.ance = "Prolonged discussion was undertaken regards to acne and its causes as well as prevention techniques. Rotating over-the-counter antiseptic soaps was outlined as well as refraining from scratching and picking of the skin was discussed. Antibiotic rotation was also discussed as well as topical medications such as retinoic acid was discussed.
Hormone manipulation for females including birth control pills was also discussed
.acne1"
.acne1 = "Finally discussion took place in regards to Accutane and risk for seizure disorder, liver function tests and cholesterol.
extensive chart discussion took place in regards to risk for fetuses and Accutane's Tretter genic effects."
the provider types .acne, and then hits the spacebar twice. The first spacebar activates the .acne quicktext, and the cursor is at the and of .acne1. Hitting the spacebar again activates .acne1, and finishes the paragraph. I have a few providers with up to 3 quicktexts in a row.
Does that help at all?
Daniel Carpenter
Posted : July 12, 2018 6:08 am
You could try using the mldefs to solve this. Change .cmb to:
{find("_TextMacroLookup", "EXP", "TRIGTEXT", ".txt1") + HRET +
find("_TextMacroLookup", "EXP", "TRIGTEXT", ".txt2")}
The Mldef object _TextMacroLookup has a filter that limits it to the executing user's personal quick text. You would need to make a copy of this object and remove the filter to get it to work on global quick texts.
Posted : July 12, 2018 6:13 am
Dan and Nick's approach below is a clever workaround so I am glad to know that is an option. If the user is using Dragon, you can use custom commands to chain multiple quick texts together as well. We use this method a lot in our office. There are also third party macro tools like AutoHotkey (it's open source) that you could use, but I have to believe there has to be a way to do this natively within Centricity. 🙂
Posted : July 12, 2018 6:15 am
I forgot, I was able to use this method and it works well when the secondary quicktext contain just straight text strings. This is a method that I am using within some of our form programming.
The 2 things I remember when trying to use this method within the quicktext, is when I wanted to use MEL symbols within the "secondary quicktexts",
1 - They worked fine when being used in the Document Text area, but they were inserted as "Protected Text" like the form translations.
2 - When I tried using within my forms, the MEL symbols within the secondary quicktexts would not work. they would show up like this.
But if your using with just straight Text Strings, this should work like Mikes example.
Posted : July 12, 2018 7:23 am
Also, if you're able to get this to work in Forms, with Quicktext that contain MEL symbols, I'd be interested in that as well. 🙂 Thanks.
Posted : July 12, 2018 7:25 am
If you have code that needs to be executed, you could try surrounding the find queries with eval:
{eval(find("_TextMacroLookup", "EXP", "TRIGTEXT", ".test1")) + HRET + eval(find("_TextMacroLookup", "EXP", "TRIGTEXT", ".test2"))}
Posted : July 12, 2018 7:33 am
Topic starter
Thank you everyone for responding. There are lots of different ways to tackle this. I think that Mike's solution may be what he is looking for. I am going to show him using text components as well since that would be handy for me accessing if I want to pull snippets of his text for future form development.
Posted : July 12, 2018 7:38 am
We have tried to make this work for us in the past but all of our quick texts are followed by a auto-generated HRET. Even though the quick text is not set up to end with a hard return. So (using your example) our cursor always falls a line below .acne1 rather than at the end of .acne1.
Maybe this is something specific to the version we are on?? (12.2.2)
Posted : July 16, 2018 5:04 am
Hmm that is strange! we are on 12.2.2 as well, and our quicktext does not include an extra HRET like that.
Here is what our .cmp quicktext looks like at the end. can you confirm that yours is similar and does not have any trailing whitespace in the "With" window?
Posted : July 16, 2018 5:26 am
I can confirm that. I made sure to double check the quick text I have set up to test with.
Posted : July 16, 2018 5:49 am
