Computers

TextExpander

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Global keyboard shortcuts

I just used it again… And it reminds me of just how important this particularly cool tool has become to my everyday workflow.

It’s TextExpander, a wonderful little Mac program that instantly pastes any long or short snippet of text you have saved into whatever you’re typing — everything from a piece of HTML code to a complete form letter –using a simple code word or abbreviation.

For example, when I type in “xsig” (my abbreviation for “signature”) in the program I’m using, TextExpander, pastes my entire signature block into the email I am composing.

Using Windows? There are similar types of programs–try searching “text expander for windows.”

-- Chuck Green 11/14/13

(I have used TextExpander for a couple of years. The Macintosh OS has a handy (and free) text epander (System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Tex), which is good enough for most users. TextExpander's extra features ( fill-in-the-blank snippets, Dropbox synchronization, libraries of HTML and other snippets, the ability to add content in the clipboard into an expanded snippet) make it worth the price for others, including me. According to TextExpander's statistics, I have expanded 7,551 snippets, saved 563,966 characters, and saved 47 hours of typing. I have a feeling these numbers are lower than they should be. I must have reinstalled the software recently. -- Mark Frauenfelder — editors)

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