TextExpander As A Study Aid
Posted by JeanShishir from India has an interesting way of using TextExpander:
Thanks for developing this great product. Being new to the Mac, I have been trying out a lot of programs, and just happened to run into TextExpander.
At first I started using as most people would - to produce recurring snippets while typing. But now I use it as a system where I can keep tidbits of information I need to memorize and recall them quickly. When I am studying, if I come across a definition I need to memorize, I just select the text and create a shortcut for it with the prefix ll (learn). This way when I am reading and come across a term I dont remember, I quickly type the shortcut in my scratch pad and am able to see the definition. This has really helped me memorize a lot of stuff.
This is a good opportunity to point out the new Hotkey preference in TextExpander 2 for creating snippets on the fly. You can designate the key combination you want to use for creating snippets from a selection or from the Clipboard in the TextExpander pane in System Preferences, under the “Preferences” tab.
Once you set the hotkey, all you have to do is select the content you want to make into a snippet and press the hotkey combination. The TextExpander pane will open and the selected contents will be pasted into the snippet content field. Assign an abbreviation and you’re done.
January 7th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hello Jean
Thanks for passing on this tip. As a recently new user who’s still only using the basics, it’s useful to see suggestions like this. I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be handy to create new entries on the fly, so was particularly interested to read the second half of the article.
I tried the hotkey tip and that seemed to work - but the “create snippet from selection” option seems broken. Having thought about it a little, I think I would prefer to be able to use this method rather than the Clipboard. Is this a known bug?
I initially tried it from the keyboard shortcut method in the Preferences and this behaved as if nothing happened. (I did try a couple of different combinations, just in case I had a conflict. I also tried logging out and back in again.) I subsequently noticed the “Create Snippet from Selection” option under your icon in the menu bar. This one is actually greyed out. Instead of a bug, is it perhaps a feature which is not yet released?
I’ll try out the hotkey/clipboard method for now, but would really like to see the other method available too.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Gary - “Create Snippet from Selection” forwards to the TextExpander Service, which is only available if the application you are using supports Mac OS X Services.
You can tell if your app supports these by looking under its application menu’s Services submenu -> TextExpander -> Create Snippet.
If you have a selection but that menu item is grayed, your application doesn’t support Mac OS X Services. One notable application which does not support services is Firefox.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Aha! There we have it. My Services submenu jumps from TextEdit to TextWrangler! There’s no TextExpander entry, greyed out or otherwise. (For the record, the apps I had been trying were initially Safari (in comment boxes such as this one) and TextEdit, both of which are good Services citizens.)
I have tried upgrading from 2.0.3 to the new 2.0.4. No dice. I tried logging out of my day-to-day account, which is a non-admin account and logged in with my admin account, since TextExpander is centrally installed. However, that made no difference either. So, here I am back in my day-to-day account, minus the TextExpander Services menu.
Everything else seems to be operating fine.
I’m interested in any other suggestions you might have, but wonder if it might be better to take this troubleshooting over to email for now - you have my email address in the Comments header lines. Then, once we have identified the solution, one of us can post the details here for anyone else who might be having this problem…