

My personal take: When do you realize there’s a typo in your email? Usually just after clicking Send. I need to be careful because using the spelling I learned at school might be technically wrong. I’m an Australian who often needs to use US spelling. You use the wrong spelling as the abbreviation and correct spelling as the snippet. Here are some examples I tried in the past-some common typos and spelling mistakes. Allow TextExpander to help you create emails and documents without errors. There may be a few words you consistently spell incorrectly, or that your fingers mess up when typing fast. Correct Frequent Typos and Spelling ErrorsĪutomatically fixing errors is a useful safeguard. Watch out for opportunities to set up snippets, then without a few keystrokes, the app will enter the text for you accurately every time.

My personal take: If you type the same text repeatedly, TextExpander can definitely save you time. Finally, you type in the snippet-the actual address-and you’re ready to go. Alternatively, you can easily search for the snippet from Apple’s menu bar. Alternatively, you could end with a delimiter, like addr. By repeating the first character, you’ve come up with something unique. For an address, Smile suggests you could use aaddr or hhome. In TextExpander terminology, the few characters you type is called the abbreviation, and the long passage it expands to is called the snippet.įirst, you need to come up with a good, unique abbreviation that will never be typed under other circumstances. Maybe you notice yourself typing the same text into your calendar or to do list app. Depending on your job, there may be some industry-specific words you find yourself repeating. Fortunately, you can disable this feature if you find it annoying.Ĭommon opportunities for snippets include addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and signatures, and web addresses. Helpfully, TextExpander watches what you type, and when it notices a frequent phrase prompts you to create a snippet.
TEXTEXPANDER MACOS SOFTWARE
Computers were created to solve problems like that! When I first got into computers I made it my aim to never retype anything, and text expansion software helped.įrequently typed words, sentences and documents vary from person to person. Typing the same things over and over again is a waste of your time. In each subsection, I’ll explore what the app offers and then share my personal take. TextExpander is all about speeding up your typing, and I’ll list its features in the following five sections. According to the TextExpander app, it saved me from having to type 172,304 characters, an equivalent of over seven hours. I used and enjoyed TextExpander for a number of years, but pressed the pause button once it moved to a subscription model.
TEXTEXPANDER MACOS MAC
Most of my family were Mac users, and I eventually joined them. When I moved to Linux, I discovered AutoKey. I used that app to totally customize my computer.
TEXTEXPANDER MACOS WINDOWS
When I switched to Windows I explored the alternatives and eventually settled on PowerPro, an app that includes text expansion, but does much more, including scripting and macros. I could even get the software to pop up a box asking for specific information so I could personalize what was entered. I did use it to quickly type addresses, phone numbers, and frequently used business letters. One of those features was text expansion, and way back in the late 80s I started thinking through the best ways to use it.Īt the time I decided not to use it to automatically correct common typos (like changing “hte” to “the”) or spelling mistakes-I was concerned that the software would encourage me to keep on making them. When DOS was the operating system of choice I settled on AlphaWorks, a “Works” program (word processor, spreadsheet, database) that had a lot of smart features. They saved me a lot of time and keystrokes. My name is Adrian, and I’ve been using text expander apps since the late 1980s. Correct Frequent Typos and Spelling Errors
