Textpander: Save your fingers, type more efficiently
Textpander is a great utility. It allows you to save time and effort by storing frequently typed text, which you can then insert with a user-defined abbreviation.
I use this in Mail all the time. Typing “bblack” inserts “Blackman Research Fellow in Early Christian Studies”, “ddate” inserts “Sunday, September 25, 2005″, and so on. Of course, there are no typos in text inserted like this, so I gain the extra efficiency of not needing to go back and correct things.
Because it can store graphics as well, you can place a jpg of your signature or some other picture in the snippet. You can store special characters that you use often and then insert them without needing to open the Character Palette. Store your most common typos and it will auto-correct them for you!
You can also use it quickly to generate “proforma” replies to emails that require a generic response. Typing “rreply” at the start of a reply, inserts this:
It comes in the form of an easily-installed preference pane, in which you can store the snippets you need and set a number of preferences. It is donation-ware and available from the developer’s website.
Added bonus: it also works in other apps, even Microsoft Word.
UPDATE: New version (1.2) released 28 October 2005.
UPDATE: New version (1.2.1) released, 9 December 2005.
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October 29th, 2005 at 8:29 am
[...] Textpander has been updated with some nifty new features. This time-saving (and finger-saving) utility stores snippets of text and images that you can insert in your typing with user-defined shortcuts. It’s one of my favorite OS X add-ons and saves me lots of time in Apple Mail and elsewhere. [...]
November 23rd, 2005 at 12:52 am
[...] Like Textpander, this app offers predefined keyboard shortcuts for inserting blocks of frequently used text. This is faster, of course, but also reduces the amount of errors in your typing. Further spelling errors are reduced by its ability to correct common spelling errors on the fly like Microsoft’s “autocorrect feature”. [...]
December 4th, 2005 at 8:44 am
[...] So I am very interested in anything that promises to make working with text in Mail.app and elsewhere easier and more efficient. I’ve blogged here before about snippet utilities like Textpander and CopyPaste, and apps that manipulate text more generally in useful ways like TextSoap. [...]
December 10th, 2005 at 12:56 am
[...] Textpander is an app that saves time and effort by storing frequently typed text (or snippets), which you can then insert as you type with a user-defined abbreviation. [...]
December 22nd, 2005 at 3:22 am
[...] Peter Maurer, creator of Textpander, Witch and other productivity gems, has released a utility that helps you manage your Services menu. [...]
January 20th, 2006 at 10:12 am
[...] Textpander is an app that saves time and effort by storing frequently typed text (or snippets), which you can then insert as you type with a user-defined abbreviation. [...]
August 16th, 2006 at 8:24 am
[...] TextExpander, formerly known as Textpander and my third favourite time-saving app in Mail.app and elsewhere, has been updated. [...]
September 6th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
[...] TextExpander, the utility formerly known as Textpander, has been updated. [...]