Use Dot Phrases in an Encounter Note

A dot phrase is saved text, such as standard wound care instructions, that you can insert into an encounter note instead of typing it out. Each dot phrase has a short trigger, such as .sutures, and a name. Type a period and a few letters of the trigger or name, choose the dot phrase from the menu that opens, and its text appears where you typed.

This guide shows you how to insert a dot phrase, how the menu finds the one you want, and where dot phrases work. Your practice administrator manages your practice’s list of dot phrases; see Create and Manage Dot Phrases.

Before you begin

You’ll need an encounter open in the Document Encounter workspace, with an unlocked note. To create an encounter, see Document an Encounter.

Your practice administrator must have created at least one active dot phrase.

How to insert a dot phrase

1. In the encounter note, put your cursor at the start of a line, or type a space.

2. Type a period (.) and then a few letters of a dot phrase’s trigger or name, for example .fol.

   A menu opens below the line and lists the dot phrases that match. Each row shows a dot phrase’s trigger, such as .followup, then its name, such as Follow-up plan. The first dot phrase in the menu is selected by default.

3. Choose a dot phrase:

   • Press Enter or Tab to insert the selected dot phrase. To select a different one first, use the Up and Down arrow keys.

The dot phrase’s text replaces the .fol you typed. See What gets inserted.

The menu lists up to eight dot phrases. As you keep typing, the list narrows to the dot phrases that still match; press Backspace to widen it again. If nothing matches any more, the menu closes, and Enter starts a new line as usual. The menu does not show a preview the full dot phrase that would be inserted.

To close the menu without inserting anything, press Esc. What you typed stays in the note. For example, if you started typing .as and did not select a dot phrase, the note will still show .as. Clicking elsewhere in the note or pressing space bar also closes the menu and leaves your text as it is.

How matching works

The letters you type after the period are compared with the trigger and the name of each active dot phrase. Capital letters don’t matter. The menu lists the matches in this order:

1. Dot phrases whose trigger starts with your letters.
2. Dot phrases whose trigger contains your letters.
3. Dot phrases whose name contains your letters.

Within each group, dot phrases are sorted by trigger, from A to Z. If more than eight match, keep typing to narrow the list.

For example, suppose your practice has these dot phrases:

Trigger	Name
.careplan	Care plan review
.followup	Follow-up plan
.footcare	Diabetic foot care
.rosneg	Review of systems negative
.sutures	Wound care after sutures

Here is what the menu lists for some typed letters:

You type	The menu lists, in order	Why
.fo	.followup, .footcare	Both triggers start with “fo”, so they are sorted by trigger.
.care	.careplan, .footcare, .sutures	The trigger .careplan starts with “care”, the trigger .footcare contains it, and the name Wound care after sutures contains it.
.Wound	.sutures	No trigger contains “wound”, but this dot phrase’s name does. Capital letters don’t matter.

Tip: If you can’t remember a trigger, type a period and a word from the dot phrase’s name instead.

What does not open the menu

The menu opens when the period is at the start of a line or straight after a space, a letter follows the period, and at least one active dot phrase matches. So ordinary writing doesn’t open it. The menu does not open for:

• A period straight after a letter or number, such as in e.g., 3.5 mg, or Dr. Lee.
• A period followed by a number, such as .5 mg.
• Letters that match no active dot phrase. No menu appears at all, not even an empty one, and Enter starts a new line as usual.
• Anything you type just after the note opens, while your practice’s dot phrases are still loading. Once they have loaded, keep typing and the menu opens.

A trigger is one word, so a space ends it. If you type a space while the menu is open, the menu closes and your text stays as you typed it.

What gets inserted

The dot phrase’s text replaces the period and letters you typed. It keeps its own formatting, such as headings, bulleted and numbered lists, bold, italic, and links. It doesn’t pick up the formatting around it: a dot phrase of plain text typed inside bold text is not bold.

Where the text goes depends on the dot phrase:

• A dot phrase that is a single paragraph joins the line you’re typing on, so you can use it mid-sentence. In a heading or a list item, it stays part of that heading or item.
• A dot phrase with more than one paragraph, or with a heading or a list, goes in as separate lines. Typed on an empty line, it replaces that line. Typed partway through a line, it splits the line around it. Typed in a list item, it goes after the end of the list instead of inside the item. If the dot phrase was all you had typed in that list item, the empty item is removed too, and so is the list if that was its only item.

Your cursor ends at the end of the inserted text, ready for you to keep writing. No additional space is automatically added to the end of the dot phrase.

To undo a dot phrase, press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) once. That removes the whole dot phrase and brings back the .fol you typed. The menu opens again for it; press Esc to close it, or Enter to put the dot phrase back. Press Ctrl+Z again to carry on undoing your typing as usual, starting with the .fol.

Once the text is in your note, you can edit it like anything else you type. Your note saves automatically, and Saved appears when your changes are stored.

The text is copied into your note. If your practice administrator later edits or turns off the dot phrase, the text already in your note doesn’t change.

Where dot phrases work

Dot phrases work only in the body of an encounter note: the encounter’s first note, and each note you add with Add another note. Only Active dot phrases are offered. A dot phrase your practice administrator has turned off leaves the menu, though not always straight away if your note was already open; see Troubleshooting.

The menu doesn’t open in:

• A signed note. Once a note is signed with Sign & lock, it is locked. If Unlock to edit appears below the note (whether it is offered depends on your OpenCoreEMR setup), select it to make a correction. The note then shows the message “Unlocked for correction — the next save is marked as Amended.” Dot phrases work again in the unlocked note.
• A note you can view but not edit.
• The note template and dot phrase editors in Admin.
• Any other text box in OpenCoreEMR.

Troubleshooting

The menu shows “Dot phrases are unavailable right now”. OpenCoreEMR couldn’t load your practice’s dot phrases. You can’t select this row, but you can keep writing: Enter, Tab, and the arrow keys do what they normally do in the note, and Esc closes the row. To try again, wait until your note shows Saved, then reload the page.

The message “This dot phrase could not be inserted. Ask a practice administrator to check it.” appears below the note. Nothing was inserted, and the letters you typed are still in the note. The dot phrase you chose has no text, or has text that OpenCoreEMR can’t insert. This can happen with a new dot phrase whose text has not been written and saved yet. Delete the letters you typed, and ask your practice administrator to check the dot phrase. The message goes away the next time you insert a dot phrase.

A dot phrase is missing from the menu, or doesn’t show a recent change. If your practice administrator added, changed, or turned off a dot phrase while you had the note open, the menu may not show the change straight away. To get the latest list, wait until your note shows Saved, then reload the page.