textexpander - the basics

TEXTEXPANDERA fabulous text expansion app

Miranda Castro: mirandacastro@cox.net

What is TextExpander?

Expandable abbreviations galore! Use short abbreviations to insert

“snippets” of any length into any field of any application

Brilliantly helpful app Saves a ton of time Makes mundane/routine typing tasks fun

& fast Add personal touches with the greatest of

ease I love it – couldn’t work without it

What are Snippets?

Words or phrases Simple or formatted text Fully formatted documents of any length Graphics including animated gifs Coded snippets (dates and times) Auto-corrections (common misspellings) Snippets within snippets, and way way

more

Web link

TEXTEXPANDER BY SMILE SOFTWARE

http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/index.html

I have been using it since March of 2010!

Persuasive Statistics!

My stats for the past 4 years – see how much time I have saved!

Here’s How It Looks

Here’s a Snippet

Getting Set Up

It can take a bit of time to get it set up and working like you want it to.

You will want to revisit the preferences from time to time to tweak it.

You need to go into Systems Preferences at the outset to give TextExpander access to your whole computer so it can do its work in any program you are working in!

Mavericks

> System Preferences> Security & Privacy> Unlock to change> Click Privacy tab> Click Accessibility

(left)> Scroll to

TextExpander (right) and check

> Restart TextExpander

Snow Leopard

> System Preferences

> Universal Access> Enable access for

assistive devices> Restart

TextExpander

TextExpander Preferences

Expansion Options Appearance Sync Hotkeys Update Backup

Go through each section customizing it to suit you and the way you work.

Here are mine FYI …

HotKeys

I resisted Hotkeys until I watched Don McAllister’s (free) ScreenCast. I learned to save yet more time by configuring these to pop up on command

Let’s do it!

Create a New Snippet Click the New Snippet icon (above) Cmd + N Click the + (bottom left)

Select Plain Text or Formatted Text, Pictures

That’s all there is to it!

The basics really are that simple You need to give some thought to

the Label – it should be consistent with other similar labels in the same group

You need to give a lot of thought to the abbreviation

Abbreviations

Logical (at least to your way of thinking) Easy to remember Easy to type and quick to type Easy to expand on (to create other similar

snippets in a group) Not something you type ordinarily – you’ll

soon find out if you made a mistake and used an abbreviation you use in a different situation

Abbreviations

Make the letters easy to find on the keyboard and easier still to remember

Use double letters at the outset Use one or two spaces at the end Create a naming convention: sg for

signatures, dd for date, ddtt for date and time, tt for time, em for emails, ref and initials for a referral

Forget about numbers and caps unless you are a killer typist

Remembering Snippets

It is easy to forget the snippets you have created if you don’t use them often

Make sure Suggest Abbreviations is checked for each group

Set and use the Hotkey for Suggest Matching Abbreviations

This is where your naming convention comes in handy

Formatted Snippets

Advanced Snippets: Macros

For Days/Dates/Times and all kinds of other neat things as well

You don’t have to be a programming genius

About Date, Time and Math Macros About Macros and More David Sparks Date & Time Snippets

Delimiters

Delimiters are Space, Tab, Return, Esc as well as over 30 other characters such as period, comma, slash, backslash, brackets, and tilde.

Go to Preferences > Expansion and click "Set Delimiters" to see all available delimiters.

Use them to determine when a snippet gets expanded.

Automatic Backups

Set up in Preferences > Backup icon Select automatic backup frequency

Select another folder by clicking on the Library icon

Manual Backup

Know which folder your Backups go to

File > Click Backup TextExpander Data

NOTE: upgrades use the backup file to restore data

Menu Bar Icon

Use the TextExpander icon to search for snippets, to create a new one or to open or disable the program

Competition

LifeHacker Articlecomparing text expansion apps

aText ($5) LifeHacker’s fave (price/value/function)

TypeIt4Me ($5) Doesn't offer as many options as aText

Typinator (24.99€) Similar features but doesn't work as well as

TextExpander TextExpander ($35)

Offers more features than aText and a mobile app as well

Details

OS: Snow Leopard or 10.6

Single License: $34.95 Family Pack: $44.95 (5 computers/1

house)

90-day money back guarantee

“TextExpander is completely and utterly indispensable - I probably use it a couple of times every working hour”

Don McAllister

Extras

TextExpander on Twitter Don McAllisters free ScreenCast Online

from March 2010 of TextExpander 3 is brilliant. There aren’t a lot of changes between versions 3 and 4.

Take Control of TextExpander eBook