Hi, rjbull.
Several reasons. As you must have seen I run a board heavily leaning toward MTs (but not totally, anyone, including you all, are so welcome there).
http://www.productivitytalk.com/forums/ In fact, I'm trying to get more non-MTs there, but it's difficult. I made the huge mistake of getting put on the LangaList for this purpose, but if I'd had half a brain, I'd have realized putting forums on that list isn't a good idea. All it has brought me is spammers, who had never found the place before. Well, I digress. Anyway, there are just a few main expanders that most MTs use, but not completely. Some do use others. Then, there are MTs still in the student phase, who generally have not used one of the major expanders yet. I'm interested in offering as much as I can there and discovering as many tools for our trade as possible, to share with everyone else, and vice versa. I think we are way too tunnel-visioned in general. Since starting the board, I have found through others AHK and ActiveWords, and I now consider these two programs indispensable. Another good reason for this script is that a lot of MTs work on company computers where they can't download anything, and you can run AHK on a USB stick. And some people won't spend the money or don't have it for certain expanders. I'd seen where there were good scripts already made in AHK, but none that were exactly geared towards what we need, that including the tooltips. I think jgpaiva has proven what a powerful tool this can be! I sure drooled to see this done, too, but could never even begin to understand how to make it. It wouldn't be possible. That's one of the main reasons this forum appealed to be so much and why I joined - that you could ask for snacks! There are so many exciting tools available out there, and I'm interested in all of them.
If you found ABCZ you found a jewel. It so cuts down on remembering, it's not even funny. Must be at least five years ago now that I first started using it. I used Shorthand then and ordered the ABCZ files. Wow! I'd never realized how much I was cheating myself. Now, I use that method almost all the time for my abbreviations that I add. The two-word rule of first two letters of each word is truly superb. You could have me talking forever about it. LOL. Other rules of ABCZ are awesome, too. I still don't think I could get along very well without a visual expander, though. Not when you have thousands of entries. But many MTs do!
I've used Lil Red Notebook before. Mostly for medical terms to reference when I needed to. I do think there are better programs, though. I suggest trying mouser's PopUp Wisdom for remembering your rarer shorts. Tell me what you think!
Yes, I personally could never leave Instant Text. It's too powerful and good. But it's like other very good programs, there are competing apps that others find better for them. I guess I like being a small (very small) part of finding them.
PS: By the way, on my home page I've had a link to DC for awhile now. I love this place! I'm only sorry I haven't been able to spend much time here lately, (or at my own place, for that matter), because of a new job. It exhausts me, LOL!