Easy Typing With a Little-Used iPhone Feature When texting or e-mailing from a phone, I have conflicting desires. One desire is to type as little as possible, which argues for using abbreviations such as "u r," for "you are." The competing desire is not to look like an ignoramus. That argues for typing the complete word. There are third party apps that do the work for you - type "FYI" and it fills in "For your information" automatically. But here's the thing - if you have an iPhone, you don't need a third-party app. There is a feature buried in the phone (and iPad's) menu that already does this for you. It's called "Shortcuts." To find shortcuts, tap on the "Settings" icon - the one with the gears. Then tap on the "General" icon - gears again. Then tap on the word "Keyboard" and scroll down to "Shortcuts." Make sure the toggle switch for shortcut reads "On." Now tap on "Add a New Shortcut..." and you will see two fields, "Phrase" and "Shortcut." Type the phrase you want automated into "Phrase," and your abbreviation in "Shortcut." Pro tip: Make your abbreviations abbreviated - don't use "home" for "I'm on my way home," because that's what will pop up every time you type the word "home." Make it "IOMWH" or something. Shortcut is great for oft-used phrases or answers to common questions. It has saved me numerous times from having to type my mailing address, my lengthy e-mail address, or a polite "no thanks" for invitations to events in distant cities. With Shortcuts, "LOL" can morph into "That's incredibly funny. What a sharp wit you have!