For example, previously I told you about a snippet I created for one of my favorite quotes titled “Fail to Plan” that says “those who fail to plan, plan to fail” that is expanded by using the abbreviation “xplan”. This is useful when you want to use a quote within a standard email message. To add a snippet inside a snippet, just select it from one of your snippet folders using the “Insert” drop-down in TextExpander and selecting “Snippet”, or by using the macro %snippet:(snippet_abbrev)% where (snippet_abbrev) is the abbreviation of the snippet you want to use. Nested Snippetsĭid you know that you can actually put snippets inside of snippets? This is called a Nested Snippet and allows you to use a snippet in more than one place without having to type it out again (or even the abbreviation). ” would add 14 days from the current date. For example, “Make sure you file your expense reports from the conference by %e, %Y. Date/time math macros begin with and are followed by a “+” or “-” and then the unit of time you want to add or subtract (i.e. To do this, simply put the date/time math prefix BEFORE the unit of time you want to modify (you can do this through the insert menu as well – please see the video example). You can also do date/time math to add or subtract units of time in Text Expander. filenames (especially when going paperless).Here are a couple examples of things that could benefit from date/time stamps: Zachary recently wrote a post on the importance of dating everything. Here are a couple more examples of standard date/time format snippets that you can add to TextExpander:Īdding date/time stamps like this to your notes and information is extremely helpful. The TextExpander Insert menu in all it’s glory. You don’t need to memorize these macros, however – you can actually select these from inside the insert menu. Trimmed 24-hour clock number (“2” for 2 am, “14” for 2 pm)įor example, a snippet that would expand to Friday, Aug– PM would be written: Trimmed 12-hour clock number (“2” for 2 am or 2 pm) Here’s a table with all the different macro options for displaying date & time information:Ģ digit 12-hour clock number (“02” for 2 am or 2 pm)Ģ digit 24-hour clock number (“02” for 2 am or “14” for 2 pm) You can use TextExpander to put in times and dates using different macros for different formatting options. One of the most practical applications of TextExpander’s macros is for date & time stamping. In the rest of this post, I’m going to break these macros down individually and there’s a video example associated with each. Here’s a list of the different types of macros that are available in TextExpander: Keep in mind that you don’t need to actually memorize these macros as they can all be inserted using the Insert menu in TextExpander: The insert menu in TextExpander gives you access to the macros. There are several different types of macros in TextExpander. This is where the macros we’re going to discuss in this post can really come in handy. However, many times the text you end up typing repeatedly has variable or optional content. And if this was the only way you ever used TextExpander, the app would still be well worth the $35 list price because it would still save you a ton of time. So at its core, TextExpander is exactly what it sounds like – a program that expands text. For example, I have an abbreviation “xplan” that expands to the snippet of one of my favorite quotes, “those who fail to plan, plan to fail”. For example, an abbreviation like “tyvm” might expand to the the snippet “thank you very much”.
In TextExpander terms, a “snippet” is what is displayed when you type the assigned TextExpander abbreviation. Thanh recently wrote about the basic features of TextExpander and how he uses it on a daily basis, and in this post I want to dive in a little deeper by showing you how you can use the different macro types that are available in TextExpander to create your own (and more complex) “snippets”.
#Textexpander snippet library mac
TextExpander is just one of several text expansion apps available for Mac, but amongst Mac nerds that I respect, TextExpander is widely considered the most popular and the most powerful.
#Textexpander snippet library for mac
TextExpander is a text expansion app for Mac created by Smile Software.
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