Typinator is a relatively cheap, but not free, text expander program. FastKeys is a $19 license to bring you all of the benefits of AHK with none of the need to learn scripting. Open source software is typically free, but the apps built on top of it don’t have to be, and this is no exception. Of course, this accessibility comes at a price. You can still create complex macros and scripts that include mouse movement and other advanced features, it’s just all made a little easier. It is, specifically, built to make the text expansion features of AHK much more accessible. That’s what FastKeys is it’s essentially a GUI for AHK. Fortunately, since it’s open-source, other developers are able to build their own platform using it as a base. FastKeysĪuto Hotkey is a very powerful scripting language, but it’s also tricky to use if you’re not script-savvy. I highly recommend that you give it a try if you can. On the other hand, if you’ve literally ever written a line of code before, you can figure out AHK pretty quickly. If you’re not a code junky and just want something you can configure in a few seconds, this probably isn’t for you. While it’s free and extremely light-weight, AHK is also a scripting language, which means you need to actually learn the basics of how to use it for scripting. I’ve seen people use it for simple text expansion and replacement, and I’ve seen people use it for automating entire tasks to the press of a button. AHK is open-source and is basically a free scripting language that can do, well, basically anything. Unlike Phrase Express, it is not cross-platform, which is unfortunate, because it’s extremely powerful. Auto HotkeyĪuto Hotkey is one of the more popular text expanders for Windows. Pricing ranges from about $50 to about $200, one-time fees for lifetime licenses, with additional costs for “maintenance”, which includes program updates. In addition to a free limited version, they have three versions licensed for commercial use with escalating ranges of features. One of their more clever features is the ability to translate entire phrase trees into different languages for cross-language work. In addition to a huge array of snippets, you can sync snippets across platforms and even share them with team members. Phrase Express is one of the more robust entries on this list, with a ton of features that make it great for personal and for business use. That’s why I’ve put together this list fifteen different options for text expansion apps you can use to put those clever hacks into use. Textexpander is a good app, but it’s not the right choice for everyone and every purpose. Many people also use preconfigured text blocks to insert things like your name, address, and phone number, turning a full NAP block into something as simple as typing and hitting Enter. Higher tier usage allows you to use common commands to add symbols you’d otherwise need to look up and copy-paste into a document. They all have varying capabilities and pricing levels, but they all do basically the same thing they allow you to type a short word or key-phrase and have it automatically replaced with a full block of text.Īt the most basic level you have an autocorrect feature that capitalizes words and acronyms for you. Textexpander is one of many text replacement tools available on the web. You can install the Typinator Set that I use to make this expansions in a repository here alongside few other Sets I have made that you can read more about in an article here.Elsewhere on this site, I covered a variety of different hacks and tricks you can implement using a tool like Textexpander. It actually makes me use my calendar more often which is great. Write them out once in your favorite text expansion app and enjoy your saved time. Here are some more that I use:Īnd the list goes on. I hope you are starting to get a point in how easy it is to make these expansions to make sense phonetically. i2w = in two weeks ( i for in, 2w for two weeks).nfri = next friday ( n for next, fri for friday).tfri = this friday ( t for this, fri for friday).Here is a list of expansions I have and use frequently: And you can make these kind of expansions for every other kind of date you can get. So instead of typing the whole : ”breakfast in two hours for 1 hour /foo”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |