Visual Assist build 2001 and newer
By default, an entire shortcut must be typed before Visual Assist will suggest a VA Snippet with the shortcut.
You can configure Visual Assist to suggest VA Snippets when partial shortcuts are typed. This alternate behavior is particularly useful if you create multiple VA Snippets with shortcuts that have the same prefix; when you type the prefix, Visual Assist will suggest the multiple VA Snippets.
For example, if you have VA Snippets with the shortcuts "def", "defc", "defe" and "defst", Visual Assist can suggest all four VA Snippets when you type "def".
If you type beyond a shared prefix, Visual Assist reduces the suggestions to those that match the new prefix. Type the full shortcut for one VA Snippet to make Visual Assist suggest that particular VA Snippet.
Change the default behavior, and make Visual Assist suggest VA Snippets with partial shortcuts, by setting the registry:
HKCU\Software\Whole Tomato\Visual Assist X\<IDE spec>\PartialSnippetShortcutMatches = 01
Set to 00 to restore default behaviour.