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Entry tags:
Software recommendation
Fair warning: this software runs only on Macs running OS X 10.3.9 or later.
Like Merlin Mann, it took me about five seconds to fall in love with Textpander. I'll let him talk about it:
It's so cool. I type "ddate", and Textpander inserts "September 16, 2005". More to the point, I type "bq", and Textpander substitutes in <blockquote style="border: green 2px dotted; padding: 4px;"></blockquote>, and puts the cursor between the tags. If I wanted to, I could make separate snippets (Textpander's term for the substitution codes, like "ddate" and "bq") for green, blue, and red blockquotes ("bqg", "bqb", and "bqr", maybe).
Perhaps even more to the point, Textpander is a system function; you interact with it through the System Preferences, and it watches what you're typing regardless of what you have open. Even if you're working in an application in a Terminal window (like, say, vim), Textpander is watching, ready to substitute what you type with what you actually want to be there.
It's also easy to subvert; Textpander won't expand a snippet if you put another (non-space or -CRLF) character before it. So "bq" doesn't expand to "<blockquote..." - and if you want to just have the text, you can put a non-blank character before it - "bq - and then go back and delete the non-blank, leaving the non-expanded snippet.
Maybe I'm just weird. But this seems like a massive timesaver, and the fact that it's so unobtrusive is just an added benefit.
Like Merlin Mann, it took me about five seconds to fall in love with Textpander. I'll let him talk about it:
Like so many wonderful things in the world (*waves to Unix apps*) it does exactly one thing: it replaces text you type with other text (or images). So, how would you use this? God, how wouldn’t you? Here’s the bullets from the Textpander page:
- Insert standard greetings, text fragments, and signatures — including formatted text and pictures.
- Insert the current date and time in any format you prefer.
- Use editor-independent code templates and have Textpander position the cursor just where it needs to be.
- Type special characters without having to launch any special characters palette.
- Have Textpander correct typos automatically.
- Import text snippets from other typing utilities.
It's so cool. I type "ddate", and Textpander inserts "September 16, 2005". More to the point, I type "bq", and Textpander substitutes in <blockquote style="border: green 2px dotted; padding: 4px;"></blockquote>, and puts the cursor between the tags. If I wanted to, I could make separate snippets (Textpander's term for the substitution codes, like "ddate" and "bq") for green, blue, and red blockquotes ("bqg", "bqb", and "bqr", maybe).
Perhaps even more to the point, Textpander is a system function; you interact with it through the System Preferences, and it watches what you're typing regardless of what you have open. Even if you're working in an application in a Terminal window (like, say, vim), Textpander is watching, ready to substitute what you type with what you actually want to be there.
It's also easy to subvert; Textpander won't expand a snippet if you put another (non-space or -CRLF) character before it. So "bq" doesn't expand to "<blockquote..." - and if you want to just have the text, you can put a non-blank character before it - "bq - and then go back and delete the non-blank, leaving the non-expanded snippet.
Maybe I'm just weird. But this seems like a massive timesaver, and the fact that it's so unobtrusive is just an added benefit.