TextExpander: Accented Words in English
It all got started when I was typing the word “fête”.
“Wouldn’t it be nice,” I thought, “if I didn’t have to go searching in the Special Characters palette for the e+circumflex every time I wanted to type “fête” or “crêpe”?” So I started adding these accented words to my TextExpander snippets. The abbreviation was the word without the accent mark, and when I typed it, it would be replaced with the accented version.
Once I had created a few of these, I thought it would make a handy snippet group for some folks. I came up with a short list of words, and then I discovered this Wikipedia article: List of English Words with Diacritics. I picked the words that seemed most useful to me and created a snippet group.
List of the Accented Words Snippet Group (PDF)
If you download TextExpander 2.3, you can easily add this Accented Words group by clicking on the plus sign (+) under your snippet list in the TextExpander Preference Pane, and choosing “Add Predefined Snippet Group.”
The great thing about snippet groups that are hosted online is that you can make additions. If you have any suggestions for accented words to be added, email them to me. If you have ideas for other useful snippet groups, or have created one yourself that you want to share, just let me know.
Olé!
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Are you planning to bring TextExpander to the iPhone? Would be great.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Eric: That _would_ be great. We would love to have TextExpander on the iPhone, too. Unfortunately, the version of TextExpander that would be supported on the iPhone currently is not a version you’d find at all useful, even on a jailbroken iPhone. We are keeping an eye on the capabilities of the iPhone SDK as it evolves.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Although I think this snippet group is great, it’s worth knowing that it’s pretty easy to type Western European accented letters using the option key. Hold down option and the modifier key, then let go, then type the letter you want the accent on.
Option-e + [vowel] = acute e.g. é
Option-` + [vowel] = grave e.g. à
Option-i + [vowel] = circumflex e.g. î
Option-u + [vowel] = umlaut e.g. ü
Option-n + [letter] = tilde e.g. ñ
July 24th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I just tried to add the predefined snippets and it didn’t work! I just downloaded 2.3. Is this disabled if you’re on the demo?
July 24th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Macker: It’s not disabled on the demo. Send an email to textexpander@smileonmymac.com, and you’ll get a fast response for our tech support team.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Luke: good point! I know for myself, I find I touch-type faster than I feel like slowing down for an Option + special character. And of course, the shortcut save you an extra keystroke! TextExpander has made some people obsessive about how many keystrokes they’ve saved.
But these are good to memorize.