If you are ever typing the same thing over and over again, such as your address or your signature, you need Textexpander! This software is Awesome piece of software.
It allows you to store your repetitive information in “snippets” with a trigger
action to extract the snippet. i.e.: If my snippet is “Washington DC, 20201” and my trigger is “/dc”, anyplace where i type /dc, this will type out Washington DC, 20201.
Here are some of the key features:
- Insert standard greetings, text, and signatures, including formatted text and pictures
- Save keystrokes by typing short abbreviations to get long snippets
- HTML, CSS, AutoCorrect, Accented Words,
- Internet Productivity snippet group (shorten long URLs automatically)
- Insert the current date and time in any format you prefer
Download
Head over to https://textexpander.com/download/ and download the free trial . Once it is downloaded, open your “downloads” folder, Unzip the zip file by double clicking on it and drag the icon to your applications folder to install the app.
Once the app is installed take a look at the top menu bar, you should see a “te” icon indicating that it has been installed and running in the background.
Lets open the app and check out the options. If you click on the image on your top menu bar, you get a similar dropdown, Here you can see I have created a few groups to club my “snippets” (repetitive text) into related groups.
Note: Sorry had to blur out a few current projects 🙂
Here are the main parts of textexpander,
- First on the left you have the groups that you specify.
- Second is the “repetitive” text you want to write.
- Third is the “trigger” that you type to get the full repetitive text.
In this case typing ,a will result in <a href=””></a> to create a html link tag.
Customization
After installing textexpander, here are a few steps that i take to personalize it further.
- If you click on the plus sign on the left side of the dialog box, you get the option below to write new snippets or create new groups.
- Usually one of the first things I do after installing the app is add the predefined groups, Textexpander has a bunch of groups that are super helpful.
- All of the addon groups are great but Since i dabble in html I installed the html and css groups as default. It saves you so much time! specially if you have to type the Lorem ipsum dolor… text holders.
- Another feature inbuilt allows you to sort your snippets according to Content, Abbreviation, Date Created etc.
Click on preferences to customize the following items, Expansion, Dock and Sync.
Expansion
The main item in this dialog box is under #1. Here you select how you want textexpander to actually execute the short text that you type. As you see, i have it selected to “immediately when typed” although you can set it to typing your snippet + space, tab, command or enter. I just find it easier to type my snippet and have textexpander execute.
For example, if i want to shutdown immediately from a terminal window, i can enter either: / shut = sudo shutdown -h NOW (“if immediately when typed” is selected)
Appearance
Another almost “default” setting that i do once installing textexpander is Hide TextExpander icon in Dock, this way you only see the icon in your top menu bar, rather than on your dock.
Sync
This is a neat feature and I’m glad apps are taking advantage of Dropbox . I have selected sync method to dropbox, since i have multiple Macs that I work with, i don’t have to create my snippets and groups for each one. I have pointed all of them to dropbox and basically share my settings. Even when I am mobile and away from my house or office, any additions I make to my snippets or groups will be reflected automagically on any of my TextExpander installs.
This wraps up TextExpander, hope you find it useful. Again this is one of my “default” apps that I install as soon as format or get a new mac.
Also this domain and Web site would not be possible if not for Fatcow, if you are in the market, Please check out the features of http://www.thecybersecurityblog.com/hosting/ and sign up using my affiliate code.
Thanks again, and hit me up for any specific tips, tricks or posts you would like me to cover.
-Vik
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