We'll cover your macro options in-depth below.Ī Delimiter is a character that sets your snippet into motion. Macros are dynamic bits of built-in syntax that you can use to do things like pull in today's date, place the cursor, paste text from the clipboard, or execute certain key combinations. You set it up once, and your text expander will link it to its abbreviation-and will paste it instead of your abbreviation whenever you type one. Snippets are the chunks of text, code, or other info that you want to drop into your work via an abbreviation. Once you type one out, your text will instantly expand into the space your abbreviation once occupied. You'll see these phrases or concepts used throughout your text expansion tool of choice, and this article:Ībbreviations are the codewords that you assign to blocks of text you type often (or 'snippets'). Expanding Your Vocabularyīefore we get started, let's cover a few common terms so you aren't left scratching your head through this entire tutorial. If you spend more than half the day with your fingers resting on a keyboard, a text expander will help you reclaim typing time that you can put towards more important work. It's like comparing shorthand to word-for-word transcription: the former is faster when you stick to a system. Like a lot of productivity and automation strategies, text expansion is all about shaving seconds off of your most common tasks and racking up extra time. So far it's saved her 33.92 hours-almost a workweek of typing.īut you don't need to be a power user to see big benefits. She uses a text expansion app to drop common responses and links into help desk tickets, so our users get answers fast. The screenshot above is courtesy of one of our customer champions at Zapier, Vicky. Of course, minutes-saved will vary from person to person. But if you do that 20 times per week, your minutes spent clacking away grows exponentially. Sure, it only takes four or five seconds to type out your phone number. It might be something simple like your company name or email address, or a more complex message like a sales pitch.

There are hundreds of words and phrases you type out multiple times during the week, often without even noticing it.

Textexpander snippets library