by David Gracey
In this fast-paced world of communications, nothing can be better than having to type fewer characters on your iPhone. The size of those little keys and the fatness (in my case) of those fingers always makes for troublesome (and sometimes humorous) misspelled words. I find that my email responses are always much shorter if I’m replying from my iPhone than if I’m replying from a computer with a normal sized keyboard. Often I don’t get to say what I really need to say.
But I’ve noticed there are a number of phrases that I use repeatedly when I’m working on the iPhone. Or better yet, there are a number of phrases that I would use more frequently if they weren’t so long to type them. For instance, if someone sends me an email just as I’m starting my car, I might want to send a quick response to buy me some time. Here are a few examples:
“Thanks for the email. I’m in my car now, can I contact you later?”
“Can you call me on my cell at 404.943.0800?”
“Yes, dear. Anything else you need me to pick up at Publix?”
So if I were a financial planner and one of my clients sends me an email, it is important that I return the message promptly, displaying my client-intimate work habits, but also with enough detail that it does not appear that I’m being short with him. So on the iPhone go to Settings > General.
Then click Keyboard > Add New Shortcut. You’ll notice the “omw” shortcut is already there by default.
Your shortcut can be any combination of keys. The shorter, the better, but make sure it’s not a combination that you’ll hit frequently. I like the exclamation point following by a letter.
The shortcut can be used in both emails and text messages. So start thinking about what you would like to say in an email and stop settling for short replies.
