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TextExpander and How I Saved 63 Hours

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text-expanderSo my wife and I are big fans of the whole GTD (Getting Things Done) craze and we’re always looking for ways to simplify and hopefully automate the things we do every day. Whether it’s posting photos by email to our photo blog (via Posterous) or adding items to our to-do lists by just forwarding an email, if there’s a shortcut out there we’ll spend nearly as much time trying to find it as we’ll save by implementing it :) So thankfully I’ve found one that works remarkably well for what I do: TextExpander.

TextExpander (for Mac and iPhone only but I’ll have a list of Windows versions below) is very simple in what it does but serious in the ways it strives to simplify your time typing. It works like this: find a bit of text you type repeatedly – say an intro paragraph to a weekly report or the signature for your weekly payroll reports – and copy and paste it into TextExpander with a handy abbreviation/snippet. The next time you type that abbreviation/snippet (or macro) TextExpander will replace it with the full contents of your original text. You can use it for anything and in any program where you type. I use it for lorem ipsum text filler, stock photo keywords, email signatures, order confirmation letters, phone numbers – you name it. In the last 4 years I’ve saved over 63 hours of typing (at 80 WPM) by using this. Plus you feel like you’re really pumping out the emails without sending curt replies.

Screen shot 2009-12-15 at 1.55.14 PM

Another bonus feature of TextExpander is its ability to sync via .Me/.Mac or iDisk. You just check the box in the settings panel and it automatically syncs your “snippets” so that all computers tied to your .Me account will now share the same shortcuts. Very nice. When I was switching machines from home and office I really noticed the difference when I didn’t have TE on there. I can’t speak about the iPhone app first hand though. It syncs your snippets as well but only to certain iPhone apps and the overall appeal for me is using TE anywhere I type. I notice it too much when it’s missing.

The downside: Cost. TextExpander is $29.95 and that’s a pretty hefty chunk of change for a specialized tool. However, think about those 63 hours and make a decision based on that. The software does come with an extensive library of built in snippets to give you a good head start on HTML shortcuts and to auto-correct common spelling errors on the fly.

I highly recommend TextExpander for anyone working on a Mac and can honestly say it’s been worth every penny to me. There are regular free updates and the customer service from Smile on my Mac has been good when I had questions. Okay – on to the other options ( I haven’t tried any of these FYI):

Mac:

Windows:

Linux:

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Dec 15, 2009 / Blog / , ,