TextExpander 2.4.1 is now available. In the course of fixing the memory leak for 2.4, I made a mistake on the code for handling the case of abbreviations. Once again “tiat” and “Tiat” can expand to “This is a test.” Yay! To all those affected, sorry for the trouble, and happy typing!
TextExpander user Mar shared a collection of AppleScript snippets he found very useful while helping a friend with a tedious recordkeeping task that required a lot of dates.
Say you need the date for next Monday; type “`nmo” (or “‘nmo” depending on the date format), and TextExpander gives you the date, 08/18/2008.
Tomorrow is `d1, a week ago is `d-7, etc. There’s 31 formulations in the group. You can download the .zip files here:
International date format
U.S. date format
Unzip the file and then choose “Add Group From File…” in the plus (+) menu under your list of snippets.
You could also link directly to the groups on our server. Choose “Add Group from URL…” and enter one of these URLs:
International: http://www.smileonmymac.com/te/Dates.textexpander
U.S.: http://www.smileonmymac.com/te/DatesUS.textexpander
Thanks to Mar for sharing these. As he notes, they are modifiable, so if you have your own special date needs–and are not afraid of a little code– download the file and customize it!
Or better yet, create a new and exciting snippet group and share it with the rest of us. 
(Send them to me at jean@smileonmymac.com.)
We’ve already noted an easy way to get TinyURLs via TextExpander’s AppleScript snippet capabilities.
bit.ly is another URL shortening service that has some very interesting features, like history, thumbnails and click-through stats. Jonathan Berger posted an article at LIVEdigitally on creating a TextExpander AppleScript snippet to quickly generate bit.ly shortcuts.
It works. Here’s the link to his article, bit.lyfied: http://bit.ly/2Oroik
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!
We just released TextExpander 2.2. We added a new snippet group of CSS definitions (created by me!) that you can use. To do so, click on the plus sign (+) below the snippet list and choose “Add Predefined Group”. “CSS Snippets” has been added to the list.
It’s always an fun intellectual exercise for me to develop a new snippet group for public use. Trying to anticipate how people will use the snippets is a challenge. I think it’s important for the abbreviations in a group to have a common leading character so that they are easier to remember. The HTML snippets all use the comma. The logic there is that Shift + comma produces a left angle bracket, the leading character in HTML tags. For CSS, I used the semi-colon. It’s easy to reach on the keyboard, and a semi-colon is used a separator for CSS property definitions. And, as is important with all TextExpander abbreviations, no actual words begin with a semi-colon.
Here’s a PDF with the CSS abbreviations and snippets. (You did know that you can print your snippets and abbreviations as a handy list, right? Command + P to print a group, Option + Command + P to print all groups.)
A few notes on these snippets:
Anyway, give it a whirl and let me know what you think! Any suggestions for additions would be very welcome.
We just released TextExpander 2.1 this week. It now supports one-character abbreviations. If you use a delimiter to trigger your expansions, you can turn any letter or character into an abbreviation for a snippet.
We also improved the performance and reliability for really fast typists. I say “really” fast, because I am a fast typist, and I never had a problem with TextExpander not keeping up with me. I just tested myself at 10 Fast Fingers, which I found via a b0rg_tech’s blog post, “Saving Seconds.”
Want to challenge me?
70 words
I just came across this neat tip on developer David Smalley’s blog. It uses AppleScript to generate a tinyURL with a TextExpander abbreviation.
(If you’re not familiar with Tiny URL, it’s an online service that converts long URLs into short ones more appropriate to share in email and microblogs.)
I am no AppleScript maven, but it sounded pretty cool. I’ve been using Tiny URL a lot lately since I started using Twitter. So I consulted Greg, whose works on TextExpander development, to see what he thought. His response:
This does work, and it’s quite convenient. Here’s an easy way for you to import this:
And he sent me the AppleScript wrapped in a TextExpander Group. You can download it here:
http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/tinyurl.textexpander.zip
Download and unzip it, and then add the group in the TextExpander preferences pane.
Then you’re set to follow Greg’s instructions:
You select a URL, copy it to the Clipboard, then type “tinyurl” (and your delimiter if you’re not doing instant expansion) then wait a few seconds and “tinyurl” will be replaced by a tiny URL.
If you’re a real geek, you can grab the AppleScript from the original blog post and create your own AppleScript snippet in TextExpander.
I just got a short tip from Austin in Carlow, Ireland:
I have all my abbreviations ending with “z” so that there is little chance of them getting confused with a word I don’t want substituted. It makes them easier to remember, and not many words (quiz is the only one that springs to mind) end in z.
This is the first tip where someone has suggested using the last character in an abbreviation to differentiate it from actual words.
When we first started posting TextExpander tips, we got a fairly extensive one from TJ on organizing abbreviations by context. That tip inspired me to use the forward slash (/) as the first character in all my abbreviations for URLs, i.e. /somm = http://www.smileonmymac.com, /gm = http://maps.google.com. [1]
I’ve started using “x” as a leading character for a lot of miscellaneous snippets, on the theory that not many words begin with “x”. I’d have to rewire my brain to think like Austin, using the last character as the differentiator.
What about you? Share your TextExpander abbreviation strategies in the comments.
[1] You might wonder how I can type my abbreviations without expanding them. The trick is to move the cursor using the arrow keys backward and forward once before you get to the end of the abbreviation. I learned this in a tip from Greg.
Shishir 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.
Michael Mistretta at MacApper has posted a very good video review of TextExpander’s features. It covers the new TextExpander 2, so it makes a great sequel to Merlin Mann’s demo at MacBreak.
MacApper will also be giving away two copies of TextExpander:
In order to enter this giveaway, you must comment on this post with 3 of the most repetitve phrases that you use every day. Make us laugh. Alternately you can add some suggestions on what features you would like to see with TextExpander.
Some of the TextExpander abbreviations that have been posted certainly made me smile…
