Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Automate Text Expansion
Even if you're a great typist, you can save time and increase your accuracy with software that
watches what you type and dynamically replaces abbreviations you've previously specified
with longer chunks of text. (And if you're
not
a great typist, such software can increase your
effective typing speed!)
I mentioned earlier that whenever I type
dtpo
, my Mac automatically expands that into
DEVONthink Pro Office. That's just one of dozens of abbreviations I use in my own work.
I also use
TCo
to produce Take Control of,
syp
to produce System Preferences, and so on.
The longer and more complex the text in question, the more useful automatic text expansion
becomes.
Text expansion isn't just for names and short phrases. You can use it for addresses, phone
numbers, URLs, boilerplate text for common email replies, HTML code snippets, and so on.
Depending on which software you use for text expansion, your snippets might also include
styles (such as bold and italic), graphics, the current date or time, variables, AppleScripts or
shell scripts, the contents of the clipboard, and more.
The great thing about text expansion is that you don't have to do anything special to use
it—you simply type. You don't need modifier keys like Command or Control, and you don't
need to hunt for menu commands. And it can be used nearly anywhere.
One catch, however, is that you must be careful when choosing abbreviations—since text
expands as you type, you might end up making a lame mistake if you're not paying attention.
For example, I thought I'd use
km
as an abbreviation for Keyboard Maestro, but then I tried
typing a distance in kilometers and got a surprising result! So be sure to use abbreviations that
will never occur on their own, or even as part of another word. One technique many people
use to solve this problem is to double the first or last letter, as in
kmm
for Keyboard Maestro.
Note:
Although I say “text expansion,” the very same feature can be used for simple
replacements, even if the replacement isn't longer. For example, if you frequently
mistype “the” as “teh,” you could use text expansion to replace the latter with the
former—or you can correct “MacWorld” to “Macworld” and “PhotoShop” to “Photoshop.”
