textexpander
Latest
TextExpander touch on sale to celebrate WriteRoom for iPhone integration
When TextExpander touch for the iPhone was announced, one of the exciting aspects was the SDK to allow other developers to integrate TextExpander's technology into their iPhone apps. The new version of WriteRoom for iPhone now includes TextExpander support. With this announcement, SmileOnMyMac has announced that they will be selling TextExpander touch for $1.99 until September 30 at 12 noon Pacific Time, a 60% discount off the regular price of $4.99. WriteRoom for iPhone 2.1 includes other updates as well, as noted on the development blog: TextExpander support. Optional startup password. Settings are now accessed within app. New option to lock screen orientation. Sync service is out of beta and is open sourced. If you purchase WriteRoom for iPhone ($4.99 on the App Store), you'll get a $5 off coupon that can be used to purchase either WriteRoom ($24.95) or TaskPaper ($29.95) for Mac.
TextExpander available for iPhone/iPod touch
TextExpander for the Mac has been one of my favorite utilities for several years. The ability to define "snippets" of text which expand into words, phrases, sentences, or even the outline of entire documents has been invaluable. When I heard that TextExpander was coming to the iPhone/iPod touch, my first reaction was "WHAT!" and my second reaction was "How?" On the Mac, TextExpander sits in the background, waiting patiently for you to type some set of characters which matches an abbreviation that you have previously defined. For example, when I type "/address" TextExpander jumps into action and replaces "/address" with "10 Main St." If I type "!phone" TextExpander will automatically replace that text with my work, home, and cell phone numbers. On the iPhone, third party applications are not allowed to sit in the background, even if they promise to wait patiently. That's a limitation of the iPhone OS, and whether you think it's a smart move by Apple or an unnecessary one, the reality is that TextExpander touch can't do everything that TextExpander for the Mac can do. SmileOnMyMac has posted about this on their blog and has even released an SDK for iPhone developers who wish to integrate TextExpander's technology into their iPhone applications. Let's just take it for granted that most of us who use TextExpander would love to see it running on the iPhone like we do on the Mac. That said, there is still a lot this app can do. When launched, TextExpander for iPhone gives you a "Compose" window where you can type a message and have it expand your shortcuts, and from there you can: "Send to Mail" (which will put the text into a "compose" window in Mail), "Copy All Text" (which does exactly what you'd expect), or "Send To Twitter Client" which will send the text to a Twitter client (which you have to choose in the app's preferences). TextExpander for iPhone supports the following Twitter apps on the iPhone: Twitterrific, Twitterrific Premium, Tweetie, Twittelator Pro, TwitterFon, and TwitterFon Pro. Before TweetDeck and Birdfeed users form an angry mob to march on SmileOnMyMac headquarters, let me direct your attention to the TextExpander touch FAQ which explains that: Some Twitter clients, such as TweetDeck and Birdfeed, do not support a URL schema such that they can be launched by TextExpander along with message content. If you're not familiar with the phrase "URL schema," it means "There's no way for one iPhone app to send text to these apps, unless these apps are updated to offer the kind of programming 'hooks' which are present in the supported Twitter apps." Or, to put it another way, imagine TextExpander doing its best Han Solo impersonation saying "It's not my fault!" So please, save your torches and pitchforks for the inevitable zombie attack. TextExpander is all about saving time, so you'll be glad to know that you won't have to re-type all of your favorite "snippets." You can sync all of the TextExpander shortcuts that you have defined on your Mac, so they'll be at your fingertips when you move over to TextExpander touch. I have some "snippets" that I use when responding to emails which I've been unable to answer on my iPhone. Now I can use those same responses easily and not have to worry about forgetting about them later. TextExpander touch is now available at the App Store. The introductory price will be $1.99 until September 9th. After that it will be $4.99. Although obviously held back by the restrictions imposed by the operating system, TextExpander looks like a great utility for sending messages through your iPhone. Longer messages don't have to take a long time. I hope that some industrious Twitter client developer will look at integrating the TextExpander touch SDK.
TapIt4Me brings snippet expansion to the iPhone
One of the first things I install on a new Mac is a snippet expander, one of those extremely handy utilities that automatically expands typed abbreviations to longer text strings (TextExpander, in my case). So, for instance, you can have a standard email sign off triggered with just a couple of letters. Given the extra challenge of typing on the iPhone keyboard, a snippet expander seems like a perfect addition to the App Store, and sure enough one has now appeared from the developer of the long-time Mac snippet expander TypeIt4Me (whose earliest versions even pre-date OS X).TapIt4Me (iTunes link) brings snippet expansion to mail and notes on the iPhone. You can even import your pre-existing snippets files from both TypeIt4Me and TextExpander. Unfortunately, it will not work in other applications like Safari, SMS, etc. You actually compose your emails in the TapIt4Me application and then it sends them to the iPhone's email app. Admittedly it's a little clunky, but getting snippets on the iPhone may just be worth the extra hassle.TapIt4Me (iTunes link) is available from the iTunes store for $4.99.[via Macworld]
Last day to buy MacHeist Bundle
Today is the last day to buy the much coveted MacHeist application bundle. MacHeist has decided to sweeten the deal by unlocking SoundStudio early and offering $5 off any Insanely Great Tee. If you are a registered member of the MacHeist site you can also get early access to Headline (an RSS reader).The MacHeist Bundle currently includes the following Mac apps: VectorDesigner DEVONthink XSlimmer CoverSutra Awaken iClip Overflow Cha-Ching WriteRoom Enigmo Bugdom 2 Nanosaur 2 TextExpander SoundStudio The MacHeist Bundle costs $49 and 25% of your purchase will be donated to your choice of charity. Currently, MacHeist has sold over 4,000 bundles and raised over $50,000 for charity. You can purchase a bundle at the MacHeist website.
TextExpander 2.0 released
SmileOnMyMac today released an update to one of my favorite applications: TextExpander. This snippet expanding utility automatically replaces typed text "labels" with longer user-specified "snippets." Version 2 adds several new features including snippet groups allowing you to organize your snippets better, snippet syncing across .mac, and even AppleScript snippets "which expand to the result of the script." Version 2.0 is a free upgrade for registered users, and $29.95 for everyone else; a demo is available. If you're upgrading remember to disable TextExpander before you install the new version (I had some problems with that).
Free HTML snippet file for TextExpander
TextExpander is another favorite utility in the TUAW tool belt, as it can save a boatload of time with repeatedly typing anything from email signatures to canned customer service replies and even code. In fact, SmileOnMyMac just made HTML coding a bit easier on web designers and hackers everywhere by posting an HTML snippet file that contains abbreviations for over 60 common pieces of HTML, ripe for cutting down on the time it takes to hand code your sites. This file should serve as a great example of the power of TextExpander, since SmileOnMyMac made sure to use some of the app's tricks that insert the cursor in a useful place after expanding a snippet, such as in between the quotes of: <a href=""></a>, allowing you to easily fill in the blanks. But don't stop there - a little exploring of how these snippets are put together should enable you to build your own for the specific kinds of work and code you use.This snippet file is free from SmileOnMyMac's site, and the highly recommended TextExpander sells for $29.95 with a whopping 90 day money-back guarantee.
TextExpander Tip: Using the Clipboard in a Snippet
Along with Quicksilver, TextExpander is one of my must-have Mac utilities. TextExpander is a "snippet" utility that will automatically paste in content based on user defined abbreviations. For instance, I have "bc" set to expand to "because." However, the pasted text can be much longer (e.g. "sig" becomes a several line email signature). Today on the SmileOnMyMac Blog, I ran across a great tip I hadn't previously known about TextExpander (RTFM), viz. that you can use "%clipboard" as a variable in your snippets. When the snippet expands the clipboard content is automatically placed wherever "%clipboard" appears. The original tip involved using this to create Amazon.com links, but it quickly occurred to me that I could use this to easily create hyperlinks when for posting on blog comments (not TUAW) or on forums.
On TextExpander cursor positions and why the Dock hiding feature no longer works
Users of the fantastic TextExpander who are also fond of the cmd+opt+d shortcut for hiding/showing the Dock might have noticed a weird behavior with this shortcut as of late. To be specific: the shortcut doesn't quite work anymore, even in 10.4.8; pressing it will cause the Dock to hide (or un-hide), but the Dock quickly reverses the behavior as soon as you let go of the shortcut. I know I thought it was a mere illusion brought on by sleep deprivation when I first stumbled across this, but occasional attempts at troubleshooting revealed not only that I was seeing just fine, but that a solution or even the culprit were seemingly nowhere to be found. Fortunately, watching the latest MacBreak #63 in which Leo Laporte and Merlin Mann cover TextExpander taught me not one but two useful things about this typing tool (three, if you count that I now know that Merlin has a mind-boggling 700+ text snippets). First is a handy way to control where your cursor is positioned once a snippet is expanded. All you need to do is include a specific string - %| - in your snippet to dictate where you cursor is inserted after your snippet unfolds itself. This is great for creating snippets in which you still need to include something specific on the fly that can't be snipped, such as creating [a href] links. Once Merlin covered this hint, however, I was inspired to open TextExpander's Help file to see if there were any other hidden gems. While perusing their FAQs, I discovered an explanation to this aforementioned bizarre Dock hiding behavior (it's towards the bottom of the FAQ page if you're curious). As it turns out, the specific way TextExpander is designed to hook into Mac OS X has uncovered an alleged bug in the OS that causes this unfortunate drawback. SmileOnMyMac is pretty sure this is a bug in Mac OS X rather than TextExpander, and I hope they have alerted Apple, in which case we could hope to see a fix possibly in 10.4.9. For now, the easiest way to get around this quirk and hide/show the Dock is probably to right-click the Dock divider (the line between Applications and the Trash/docs/files sections) and use that contextual menu.
TUAW Tip: TextExpander can subscribe to text snippets
This isn't quite so much a killer trick or hack you can perform on TextExpander - an indispensable time-saving text abbreviation and expansion utility - as much as it's a neat feature that I just recently discovered. TextExpander can export a list of all your text snippets and corresponding abbreviations, and it can subscribe to such a list if you keep it somewhere, say, like your iDisk or an FTP/WebDAV space. If you have a desktop and lappy for working on the go like me, this can more or less enable rudimentary syncing for your snippets between Macs. Of course, it would rock if SmileOnMyMac would make this an official feature, with bonus points awarded for baking in both .Mac and FTP/WebDAV syncing (like Mr. Simmons did with NetNewsWire). For now though, this might be a decent solution for keeping your snippets n'sync.
Macworld on healthy computing
Most people know that the right ergonomic setup is important to maintain not only good productivity but good health. Far too many otherwise healthy and intelligent people, including Mac pundit and New York Times columnist David Pogue, succumb to painful, sometimes even debilitating, RSI or back pain caused by flawed work environments. Lucky for those of us who don't have the time to do a full re-configuration of our computing areas, Macworld has a two succinct and informative articles on small but important things you can do to improve the ergonomics of your desk. The first article touches on methods for improving over-all physical ergonomics such as screen and keyboard positioning and best practices for how to set up your chair. Once your big picture is all comfy and healthy, it's time to look at the software tools such as TextExpander which can help reduce the amount of repetitive actions one takes in their daily computer usage.
TextExpander 1.4 released
SmileOnMyMac has released TextExpander 1.4, an update to their customizable typing utility that allows users to assign keywords to snippets of text, ultimately saving gobs of time in re-typing things like phrases, websites, signatures and more. New features in this indispensable tool include: User-specified delimiters ("Set Delimiters..." button in Preferences tab) Import comma and tab-delimited text, RTF, and RTFD files Choose TextExpander or Textpander style menu bar icon in Preferences Sort snippets by date created (helps when locating import groups) Sort snippets by date modified (helps when tracking recent changes) Also of note on TextExpander's new features list at VersionTracker is 'Mac OS X 10.4 required,' but I don't know if that's a new feature in this particular version or of the actual product switchover from the old Textpander.Either way, this is a free upgrade and is available from SmileOnMyMac, as is a fully functional 30-day demo.[UPDATE: Jean from SmileOnMyMac let us know in the comments that this new 1.4 version is, in fact, Tiger-only. The 1.3.1 version which still works on Panther (10.3.9) is still available from their site. Thanks Jean!]
SmileOnMyMac Releases TextExpander 1.3, the Customizable Typing Timesaver Tool
Earlier in May, SmileOnMyMac acquired Textpander, a really handy (and free) text insertion utility. Today, they released their first official version update in which they changed the name to TextExpander, added a few snippet-creation features and are now charging a lump-in-throat inducing price of $29.95. The new features include the ability to create snippets from selected text, snippet nesting and the ability to limit usage to an application list.A 30-day demo is available, but I have to say: I'm really happy I backed up the disk image of the latest version of Textpander. I haven't installed this new retail version of TextExpander yet, but slapping $29.95 (without any warning) on a utility that was previously free donationware stings quite a bit (Fraser Speirs, I would argue, handled this transition a lot better with the FlickrExport 2.0 beta introduction). If any enthusiastic users of Textpander make the leap, feel free to share your impressions with the new features and whether you think it's worth $30.[UPDATE: Peter Maurer makes a really good point: Textpander wasn't free, it was donationware. Unfortunately, the donation system clearly wasn't working, as Hawk Wings points out that many donationware-centric developers lament that only 1-2% of downloaders actually donate anything for the app. Let TextExpander serve as a good lesson for what happens when you don't show some donation love to hard working developers.]
SmileOnMyMac acquires Textpander
Textpander, an application we have blogged about before, has been acquired by SmileOnMyMac. SmileOnMyMac plans an update for the application that will add features to this program that let's you save time by typing in a kind of short hand. They will also be renaming the application TextExpander (just so people get what it does, I suppose).[via MacTech]
