Dear Eric, I think I have the same problem as You. Typing a lot of chords is a lot of work. But I use the lilypond-tool and jedit for help. There You can make shortcuts or You can expand abbreviations. For example, if I have a chord like
<c es fis a> I type only cv, than I press the space bar, and than I get the desired chord. But, off couse, You cant have millions of shortcuts for all possible chords. Therefore You should think about using a midi-keyboard for note entry. This can help You a lot, too.
Hope I could help You, Stefan