The makers of TextExpander, a very clever time- and finger-saving snippet utility, have posted a nice tip 
on the company’s blog.
It explains how to make a “smart snippet” using TextExpander’s %clipboard variable, which is replaced by whatever is currently on the clipboard when the snippet is typed.
The original author of the tip uses it to create Amazon affiliate links for his blog on the fly, but obviously it has wider uses too.
For example, imagine you run a blog that attracts a lot of emails asking how to do this, that or the other thing.
You can quickly run up a snippet like this:
Then, when the emails start to arrive, all you need to do is navigate to the link, copy it to the clipboard and then type the snippet into the reply:
Suddenly more of your life is your own. Clever.
If I sat around here long enough I’m sure I could think of a dozen other applications for this tip, but you might have more fun thinking them up for yourself.
TextExpander costs USD 29.95 and is available from the developer’s web site .
Rubin emails to ask:
One of the things that most helps me to move quickly and efficiently through my email messages is the text snippet manager 
Ever wanted to add services, scripts and other things to your Contextual Menus to make them smarter about offering the options you need rather than the ones that Apple thinks you deserve? Here’s how.
TextExpander, the utility formerly known as 
Jim Correia of Bare Bones Software has posted a script to the Yojimbo mailing list that will pipe a selected email from Mail.app into Yojimbo.
One of my very favourite time-saving, finger-sparing, productivity-boosting apps is on sale at MacZOT! today.
