From noob to nerd in ten easy steps Two blokes just showed up and told me to piss off. They’re noobs, though. Should I kill them? Cory Doctorow – Andas Game Being a noob, an absolute beginner, is never any good. The following ten blog-posts will help you to get started with TextExpander, and help you to be more productive. Starting out – low hanging fruit Creating snippets Working with email Adding and removing snippet libraries Working with html Working with Markdown What about our cousins? (Windows alternatives) Scripting TextExpander Using TextExpander to organize your file-system TextExpander as a writing tool Have fun!
Public Repositories
Smile software libraries Smile has quite a lot of examples to use with TextExpander. You can find them here. Some more libraries: Brett Terpstra Here is a mirror of Brett Terpstra’s impressive TextExpander snippet library (original and explanation here): CSS3 iOSMarkdown Tools Random%20Lipsums Lipsums Filesystem Characters
How to add TextExpander Libraries?
TextExpander can import remote libraries. This makes it possible to share your snippets, and look at all the cool snippets other people use, straight from within TextExpander. It is very simple to do this. To add a library: Copy the link of the library (1.) Open TextExpander Choose Add group from URL… (or ⌘L) (2.) Paste the link (3.) The library will be added to the end of your libraries (4.), under the name the provider used (5.), but you can change that if you want. It is possible to auto-update the library (6.). This page has a list of public TextExpander libraries. (if you know more, please leave them in the comments!) Solving conflicts Especially if you add other peoples libraries, you might end up with conflicting abbreviations. The conflicting abbreviations will show up in orange. The first abbreviation will take precedence, which might not be what you need. The simplest way to solve a conflict, is renaming the [...]
Writing snippets
Creating (and using) snippets is what TextExpander is all about. Let’s go over the process to create new snippets, using all the different possibilities TextExpander has.
Bookmarks for March 19th
These are my pinboard links for March 19th: TextExpander snippets for Google Chrome – All this – Copy urls from chrome and safari Financial statements, TextExpander, Hazel, and you – Using TextExpander to easily store pdf all over the filesystem, with a bit of help from hazel [Mac] TextExpander Snippets: English Abbreviations | zHome – Abbreviating words you use a lot (english) Govan/textexpander-sequence – GitHub – A Snippet and supporting Ruby Scripts for generating sequences via TextExpander – Roman numerals etc (esoteric much?) TextExpander Snippet Group for Pastie — elweb – Pastie short urls with TextExpander WBP SYSTEMS / Weblog » Blog Archive » TextExpander Snippets for Torch Project Management – Here are a couple of TextExpander snippet groups you can use when you e-mail Torch Project Management. WBP SYSTEMS / Weblog » Blog Archive » TextExpander Snippets for Heap CRM – Here are a couple of TextExpander snippet groups you can use when you e-mail Heap CRM My Favorite [...]
j.mp URL Shortener for TextExpander
MacLemon has a nice applescript snippet for http://j.mp/, you can find it here. J.mp supports the bit.ly API, and the script can use an API key, so you can track your links. Commenters say it works great!
How to start using TextExpander
Post 1 in the series «TextExpander from noob to nerd in ten easy steps» TextExpander is a productivity tool. Productivity tools always have a curious trade-off. They take time to invest in, to set them up and tweak them, but in the long-run you should start getting that time back. So, how to start working with TextExpander so it actually makes you more productive, instead of less? Start with the low-hanging fruit After installing TextExpander, the first thing you should do is set shortcuts. Most people, especially when working, use the path of least resistance. That means, when you have an idea about a new text-snippet, it should be completely effortless to add it to your setup. Using the mouse to hunt for your TextExpander window is not effortless. Setting shortcut keys ALT+TAB to TextExpander (get used to using the keyboard, actually using the keyboard for as many things as possible makes you a lot more productive then using TextExpander), [...]
For the network admins (wannabees)
Greg Ferro wrote a TextExpander library for handling Subnet Masks and Inverse Subnet masks for IPv4. If you notice you write 255.255.255.0 often, then this one is for you. The post: OSX: Shortcuts for Subnet Masks With TextExpander has both a library and an explanation.
Brett Terpstra’s TextExpander repository
TextExpander is only as powerful as the snippets you put in it. A great place to start for inspiration or just plain copying is Brett Terpstra’s repository. You will find some simple things, characters as ⌘, ⌥, ⇧, etc. Also several Lipsums, filler-text. Next to that there is some css3 stuff, shortcuts for transitions, shadows, rounded corners, etc. These are advanced TextExpander snippets (at least some of them), and great examples how to use ruby and shell-snippets to go way beyond your simple text replacement. It is a great resource, and you might put him in your RSS reader as well. Links The repository Several great posts about TextExpander
If you took away 1Password, TextEdit, and TextExpander, I think I would become completely non-functional as an employee.
Erin Doland erdoland@twitter — link