Hawk Wings » textexpander

Using Snow Leopard’s built-in text snippets in Mail.app

Tim Gaden — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:12:29 +0000

Text snippet apps like TextExpander or TypeIt4Me or Typinator can boost your productivity enormously, saving time and wear-and-tear on fingers. After Mail Act-on , TextEpander is the most valuable tool I use in order to Get Things Done fast.

Not many people know that Snow Leopard now offers a system-wide “text substitution” feature that does the same job as those snippets managers.

It doesn’t work in all apps (like, sadly, TextMate in which Hawk Wings is written and its code tweaked), but it works in mail.app, although it is turned off by default.

To turn it on, you need to open a new Compose window in Mail. Then select the Substitutions option from the Edit menu:

The “Show Substitutions” option opens a dialogue with all the options:

“Smart Dashes” will automatically replace two hyphens with an em dash; Smart Links automatically hyperlinks email addresses and URLs; “Smart Quotes” makes your quotation marks curly.

The “Smart Copy/Paste” option in the Edit menu automatically decides whether a space needs to be added or not to anything you paste into a message.

Text Replacement is what we are interested in. Check it and then click the “Text Preferences” to open up the options in System Preferences:

Here you can select some pre-made snippets and insert your own. I’ve added some of my email addresses, and my work email signature.

There are two ways to get the line breaks that you need for longer snippets like email signatures. Either press Option-Return at the end a line, or type it first into TextEdit, and then cut and paste the text into the expansion field on the right.

From now on, every expansion you trigger when typing an email is saving you time.

Enjoy the feeling. Use the extra time to get your inbox to zero , then go and spend some time with your kids. Or failing that, drinking buddies.

UPDATE: In the comments, Phil provides a link to a macOSXHints tip that lists some Terminal commands to unlock text substitution in more Coca apps. (Sadly, not TextMate though.) Thanks! productivity, mail.app. apple mail, text snippets, snippets, textexpander, text substitution, text replacement, working to live not living to work

[This post was much improved by reading Rob Griffith's post on MacWorld ]Similar Posts:

TextExpander: 20% Discount for Hawk Wings readers

Tim Gaden — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:37:15 +0000

The good people at Smile on my mac, who make TextExpander, have made a kind offer.

The company are providing a special discount of 20% for Hawk Wings readers, which brings the price of the app down from its usual price tag of USD 29.95 to USD 23.96.

Further, they are willing to extend the discount to the TextExpander Family Pack, for up to five users in one household, bringing the price of that bundle down to USD 35.96 (usually USD 44.95)

To get the special, just click on this link: http://www.smileonmymac.com/hawkwings/

The offer expires at the end of the month, 31 July 2008.

What do you get for your money?

Above all, you get your life back, as the snippet manager and typing expander saves me (and my fingers) ten or fifteen minutes a day. Getting that back for a one-off charge of USD 23.96 is a bargain indeed.

See these Hawk Wings posts for more TextExpander goodness:

1. How to boilerplate frequent email replies
2. HTML snippet file for TextExpander
3. Clever TextExpander clipboard snippet trick
4. TextExpander auto-corrections list
5. TextExpander: Update, Tips and TricksTextExpander, snippet manager, typing, time-saving, productivity, mail.app, apple mail, html, appleSimilar Posts:

How to boilerplate frequent email replies

Tim Gaden — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:15:47 +0000

Is there a fast way in Mail.app for replying to frequent repetitive requests?

Hawk Wings reader Greg Bentz emails to ask:

I need to be able to save and email with information in it to be resent out repeatedly. I am in real estate and get the same questions over and over. I can do it outlook express but cannot figure out to do in Mail.

I know of two sensible ways to get this done fast and efficiently.

1. Use the MailTemplate plug-in

MailTemplate is a plug-in for Mail.app and Entourage that is designed to do this, and it does it well.

You can quickly access it from the Contextual menu in Mail.app.

It comes with a Template editor in which you can write your frequent replies. For example:

The fields enclosed with double carets (^^) are “smart fields”, that is, they pick up the information from the email to which you are replying.

So, when I get an email that needs one of these quick, repetitive replies, I just right-click on it, and select the right template from the Contextual menu:

And as if by magic, MailTemplate creates the reply:

One keystroke and the email is sent. All done. Productivity gurus like Merlin Mann of 43Folders swear by it.

MailTemplate is shareware (USD 14.95) and a demo is available from the developer’s web site

2. Use a text snippet manager like TextExpander

Snippet managers offer a different way to skin the same cat. There are loads of them around — here’s a list of some from MacUpdate. I prefer TextExpander (Shareware, USD 29.95—but see special offer for Hawk Wings readers in the comments) which, after Quicksilver, is the best thing in my time-saving toolbox.

Snippet Managers allow you to store text and images that you often use and to spit them out again with a few keystrokes. For example, if I type “hwnts” (Hawk Wings is Not Tech Support) into an email I am composing, I get the same text as the MailTempate reply.

Well, almost the same text. The downside here is that TextExpander doesn’t have smart fields. I need to reply to the message, type the person’s first name, and then type “hwnts” to get the same result.

But there are two upsides which make up for this. First, text snippets are available system-wide. If I want to use this boilerplate text in TextMate or in a Safari form or in some other app, it’s just the same few keystrokes away. MailTemplate isn’t. This is a bit plus for me.

Secondly, you will soon find that there are more things that frequent email replies that you want to store.

Typing “tss” produces my work signature with all the bells and whistles (and no mistakes) in Mail.app and anywhere else that I need it. All the HTML in this blog post, written in TextMate, was produced by the same time-saving, error-free text snippets.

I prefer Option 2 but either will do the job. mail.app, apple mail, templates, plugins, productivity, getting things done, text snippets, TextExpander, MailTemplateSimilar Posts:

HTML snippet file for TextExpander

Tim Gaden — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:32:17 +0000

20/20 hindsight is a marvellous thing. One of the biggest mistakes in my life, in retrospect, was taking Latin instead of typing at school. I didn’t see the Internet coming.

I may well remember that all Gaul is divided into three parts (Mr Thompson, I salute you!), but it takes me a long, long time to tell anyone else about it in an email or document.

Luckily TextExpander saves my bacon hundreds of times a day. After Quicksilver and MailTags, it is the third biggest time- and finger-saving app on my Mac.

With just a few keystrokes, I can (at lightning speed) dump my mail signatures, frequently-needed URLs, often-typed chunks of HTML code, torturously long institutional titles and much more into almost anything I am typing in Mail.app and elsewhere. (Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame has some actual examples to hand.)

The PR department at SmileOnMyMac kindly emails to tell me about a new ready-made collection of HTML snippets.

When you have imported them, typing “,a” will automatically expand to . As you can imagine, this kind of thing saves bucketloads of time every day.

You can get hold of these 60 snippets either by themselves or rolled into an earlier collection of 100+ common typos that TextExpander can recognise and correct on the fly.

TextExpander is not the only way to do this nor the cheapest (shareware — USD 29.95) but for ease of use — res ipsa loquitur!textexpander, textpander, productivity, snippets, saving time, text, HTML, mail.app, apple mailSimilar Posts:

Clever TextExpander clipboard snippet trick

Tim Gaden — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:20:32 +0000

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 .textexpander, textpander, productivity, snippets, shortcuts, tips, helpful apps, clipboard, mail.app, apple mailSimilar Posts:

TextExpander auto-corrections list

Tim Gaden — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:14:33 +0000

One of the things that most helps me to move quickly and efficiently through my email messages is the text snippet manager TextExpander which handles all my signatures, pre-formatted replies, reply templates, impossibly long and complicated names, frequently-needed URLs and so on and so on.

SmileOnMyMac, the app’s developer, has just released a list of over 100 snippets for common typos. When imported into the app, these work as “auto-corrections”, replacing words you might mistype.

Download the free file from SmileOnMyMac and install it with the “Use additional snippets from:” option in TextExpander’s preferences pane.

If you make mistakes when typing (like me) but don’t want to part with the cash for a dedicated on-the-fly spelling corrector like Spell Catcher X (unlike me), this list will save you time and energy. mail.app, apple mail, snippet manager, shortcuts, productivity, textexpander, autocorrect, PEBKACSimilar Posts:

TextExpander: Update, Tips and Tricks

Tim Gaden — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:45:57 +0000

TextExpander, the utility formerly known as Textpander, has been updated.

The new version (1.4.1) fixes problems with abbreviations involving the Option key, describes named delimiters (space, tab, return, esc) properly in languages other than English and includes several other minor bugfixes.

Merlin Mann at 43 Folders uses this update as an opportunity to share some tips on the ways in which he uses the app to save time and fingers.

Also, TextExpander’s developers have posted a great suggestion from Timothy of Ohio on grouping shortcuts into contexts with distinct initial characters. Clever.

TextExpander costs USD 29.95 and is available from the developer’s web site .textexpander, textpander, productivity, snippets, shortcuts, tips, helpful appsSimilar Posts:

Textexpander 1.4: Flexible delimiters, old logo

Tim Gaden — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:24:07 +0000

TextExpander, formerly known as Textpander and my third favourite time-saving app in Mail.app and elsewhere, has been updated.

The new version includes an option to use the old Textpander menubar icon, which according to the release notes has “quite a few vocal fans”.

User-definable delimiters (the keystroke which triggers the expansion) help you to simplify your workflow:

For example, I currently use spacebar for TextExpander expansions and the tab key for TextMate snippets. I could now change the TextExpander delimiter so that my “muscle memory” only has to remember one key for all expansions.

TextExpander 1.4 also offers better importing of snippet lists and the ability to sort snippets by the date they were created or last modified.

TextExpander is shareware (USD 29.95) is available from the developer’s web site .productivity, mail.app, apple mail, snippets, text, textpander, textexpanderSimilar Posts:

TypeIt4Me 3.0: Loads of new features

Tim Gaden — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:40:28 +0000

TypeIt4Me is a snippet and text expansion utility like TextExpander (once Textpander).

These utilities speed up the typing in Mail.app and elsewhere to an unbelievable degree, and save me more time than anything else except, perhaps, Quicksilver.

Version 3.0 which was released yesterday is a major update. It is now a universal binary and its user interface has been completely rewritten in Cocoa.

Major new features include support for Rich Text Format in snippets and the clever ability to make individual snippets active only in particular apps.

The interface is clear and can be grasped as once by anyone who has used TextExpander. The preferences pane shows some of the app’s other features:

It can now import clippings files from TextExpander and Typinator and offers nested snippets, the ability to wrap the contents of the clipboard within a snippet improved support for images in snippets and more.

Devoted productivity nuts will be glad to know that they are no longer restricted to 2,700 abbreviations.

I noticed something else excellent straight away; TypeIt4Me does not suffer the occasional one or two second delay that afflicts TextExpander. Nice.

TypeIt4Me is shareware (USD 27) and a 30 day unlimited demo is available from the developer’s web site .snippets, text, productivity, typing, give your fingers a break, textexpander, typeit4me, text expansion Similar Posts:

TextExpander bargain today on MacZOT!

Tim Gaden — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:18:11 +0000

One of my very favourite time-saving, finger-sparing, productivity-boosting apps is on sale at MacZOT! today.

You can pick up a copy of TextExpander, the text snippet manager, at a 33% discount.

Nothing else helps me whip through my inbox as quickly (I don’t use MailTemplate) or manages my signatures as well in Mail.app and elsewhere.

On sale. Just for today. USD 19.95 instead of USD 29.95.

Drop everything. Go get it .

[Thanks, Marcel]textexpander, productivity, snippets, apple mail, mail.app, text, shortcuts Similar Posts: