Beyond emailĪlthough I’ve focused exclusively on email here, TextExpander is system-wide, so you can use it for any program that accepts text entry, which means it’s perfect for correcting typos! If, like me, you’re constantly typing ‘teh’ instead of ‘the’ and ‘thnaks’ instead of ‘thanks’, those days are over. It feels like it’s been years since I last actually typed my name. With TextExpander, I have ‘ssig1’ trigger my personal signature (a simple ‘Best, ~ Elliot’), ‘ssig2’ trigger my professional one (as above), and ‘ccheers’ trigger a signature I use when all the response needs to say is this: I used to find myself having my full, professional signature on every email, and then manually deleting the links and what not when writing to friends and family. Although Mail and other apps allow multiple signatures, it’s much, much easier to generate your signatures using TextExpander. In the example above, you will have noticed my mention of signatures. And this is the email TextExpander has composed for me: So, to summarise, I’ve typed ‘eenquiry’, ‘bbudget’, and ‘ssig2’, plus two words for the fill-in fields: ‘Jon’ and ‘Mapalong’. Now, I want to sign off with my professional signature, so I type ‘ssig2’ and out comes the signature with my links and what not. (A client forgetting to mention budget and timeline? Surely not!) Then, I place my cursor just before the last sentence, type my trigger text ‘bbudget’ and TextExpander renders ‘Do you have an approximate budget and timeline in mind for this project?’ Perfect. Let’s say our fictional potential client has forgotten to mention his budget and timescale. The TextExpander content for that response looks like this: The name fields are linked together because they both use the ‘ fill:Name’ variable, so once I’ve inputted ‘Jon’, for example, in the first name field, the second one will automatically be populated. Typing ‘eenquiry’ will trigger a pop-up that has my message pre-written, as you might expect, but with text fields for filling in the client’s name and project title, like so: For instance, typing my ‘ssorry’ trigger will render:īut where it really comes into its own is with dynamic ‘fill in’ fields. At its simplest level, it can save time and typing by pumping out commonly-used phrases. But TextExpander is much smarter than that. Google Mail has recently introduced a canned response feature, and although useful, I find it resembles my old system of saving multiple draft emails, the content of which can be copied and pasted into new emails. It’s in these subtle differences that TextExpander excels. About 90% of each message is usually the same, but requires some element of personalisation (which is important to good customer service, anyway). I’m not talking about ‘canned responses’ per se there’s usually something a bit different about each instance, whether that be responding to new client work requests, asking potential clients to clarify timeline and budget, or respond to 8 Faces customers whose copy never arrived. Like many people, I find myself writing the same thing over and over and over again, with very subtle alterations. In other words, it’s the law of averages. My completely non-scientific research has found that the number of times one writes the same thing is explicitly tied to the number of emails one receives. So, for the benefit of those who have never considered it - and for Sarah, for whom I promised to write this article - I’m going to explain why this is an essential app for anyone who receives a high volume of email, or regularly has to write similar responses, or makes dumb typos, or just wants to get a bit more time for the important things in life, like quaffing delicious Belgian beers. From the first hour of using the app, I knew it would change the way I write and - most importantly - allow me to finally conquer email. I only came across it properly when reading Frank’s post about his Mac set-up. I think in the back of my mind I was aware of it, but had assumed it was something to do with a code editor. It’s been around for years and I’d managed to completely miss it. I’ve been using it for just over a month and I honestly don’t know how I could now live without it. Without a doubt, TextExpander is that tool. So when a tool comes along to help me get email out of the way a lot quicker, I’m excited. ![]() It’s nothing to do with the way email works it’s purely down to the volume of email I receive. I despise it because it eats up so much of my time. It’s not that I have any particular problem with the medium in fact, I’m not even one of those people that believes it should be replaced with a radical alternative. ![]() Let me get this out there right away: I hate email.
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