TextExpander: Your Secret Weapon for Typing Less

Even when you have a great keyboard, typing complex and rudimentary things can take a toll on your overall productivity. Sure, AI-powered speech-to-text tools are great, but they still need refinement. However, good text expansion tools can still make a huge difference.

If you don’t know, macOS comes with a built-in text expansion utility, but it is hardly enough. TextExpander for Mac, however, addresses the multiple issues with such built-in tools and offers a brand-new experience when it comes to auto-correcting and expanding text on your Mac.

About TextExpander

In its essence, TextExpander is a text replacement and keyboard shortcut management app. It’s available for macOS, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, and Android. It also offers a Chrome extension, which is available on multiple Chromium-based web browsers.

The idea behind TextExpander is simple. When you type something, TextExpander will replace it with content you have decided before. For instance, you can write something like “today”, and TextExpander can replace it with the current date.

This is a simple example, and the possibilities with TextExpander are virtually endless. Depending on where you work and what you do, you can customize TextExpander to suit your needs. But you can get a jumpstart with some resources as well.

Features Highlight

Here are some core features of TextExpander:

• TextExpander can help you save the time you spend on hitting keystrokes. You can use this feature to put your full signature or a cold mail template by typing a single word.
• TextExpander can also help you easily type letters or characters that are difficult to find on a normal keyboard, like the symbols for copyright (©) or infinity (∞).
• All keyboard shortcuts and expansions through TextExpander are 100% customizable. You get to edit not only the content but also how TextExpander behaves across your Mac or iPhone.
• You can download and set up different TextExpander devices for easy use. Then, when needed, you can enter the respective shortcuts to proceed. It could be an offer letter or thank you mail.
• Thanks to its support for fill-ins and macros, TextExpander can help you with form-filling and creating custom content without breaking a sweat.
• The TextExpander apps for macOS, Windows, and iOS integrate so well with the system and third-party apps like note-taking apps and project management suites.

From the TextExpander Team

“We have an exciting year planned, with new features and innovative AI-powered functionality designed to help you curate a valuable Snippet library, more easily access the Snippets you need, keep your Snippet library clean and up to date without lots of manual work, and more.

We’re currently working on features such as:

• Snippet change history and reverting changes
• Suggesting changes to shared Snippets
• Increased admin visibility into org member Snippets
• More powerful search across your library and within Snippets
• Library cleanup tools

We hope you’re as excited as we are for these enhanced curation tools!”

TextExpander Review

All features of TextExpander sound great on paper, but the reality could be different. We wanted to see how TextExpander performs in real life. So, we decided to set up everything and try TextExpander for Mac for an entire week. Here’s a brief review of what we found:

Getting Started

Installing and getting started with TextExpander for Mac takes only a few minutes. You need to download a setup file from the official site and complete the installation. During this process, TextExpander will ask for Accessibility permission, which is needed for text replacement and correction.

You will also have to log in using the TextExpander account. After these steps, TextExpander will run in the background, and you can access the main interface through the dock icon or the menu bar widget. It offers a few more ways to access the snippets and more resources.

You may also want to configure team-based collaboration options during the setup. For instance, you get to control who from your team can access which snippets. Depending on the business plan, you may have other options, such as custom domain setup as well.

UI and Navigation

Something we love about TextExpander is that it integrates well with macOS. So, when it runs properly, you don’t know there is a third-party app under the hood. Instead, you feel like the built-in text replacement has become far better.

When you install TextExpander, you get to install some public text expansion collections. Some of them are Accented Words, Contractions, Past and Future Dates, Symbols, and TidBITS AutoCorrect. When you finally open the TextExpander interface, you can see these collections on the left sidebar.

You can click one of the snippet collections, select a single snippet, and customize it accordingly. It is equally easy to add a new snippet or collection. As you can see above, I am adding a new snippet where the trigger word is “address”, and it will be expanded to the full address.

TextExpander also lets you seamlessly download and install snippet collections from its website. So, if you’d like to have some expansions that would help you in particular instances, you can download them instead of adding individual snippets.

Overall, unlike the many tools we have come across, TextExpander is easy to use and navigate. It does not expect you to be proficient with command-line interfaces or complex coding languages.

Let’s now look at how TextExpander for Mac fares in some important aspects.

Text Expansion and Correction

TextExpander for Mac does an excellent job with text expansion and correction. What makes it great is the amount of customization you can utilize. As we saw, you can customize all personal snippet collections like you want them to. These features can help you optimize productivity across your workflows.

For instance, you can decide the type of content you want to paste when you enter the trigger word. It could be plain text, rich text, Shell Script, Apple Script, and JavaScript. Choosing Rich Text means you can craft fully-fledged content as expanded text.

However, if you want to go a step further, you can use Apple Script or JavaScript.

The interface also lets you choose the case sensitivity of each snippet. We particularly loved the option called Adapt to Case of Abbreviation. It will intelligently alter the content text according to how you type the trigger word.

By the way, you can use a universal search function to access all the (public and private) snippets connected to your account. On Mac, you can use the Command + / shortcut to access the search menu. So, if you don’t want to type the trigger phrase, you can search for it and press the Enter key.

This option works great when you have too many snippets and want to have a preview of what you will be doing to the text.

Overall, text expansion and correction work great when you use TextExpander for Mac.

Personal Snippet Management

Categorization and labeling are two strong suits of snippet management using TextExpander for Mac.

You can have two categories of snippets on TextExpander: Just Me and Public. The first category consists of snippets that you can add and customize as per your choice. On the other hand, Public snippets are mostly read-only, and you can download these templates from the official TextExpander site.

For instance, here’s a snippet collection named CamelCase that I downloaded from the official site. This set of snippets can convert brand names into the correct case, like “car play” to CarPlay and “itunes” to iTunes. Though you can’t edit the snippets in this collection, you can duplicate the set and modify entries later.

You can also subscribe to snippet collections so that you get updates made to them. We also loved the ever-growing collection of ready-made snippets from Public Groups. The core developers make some of these groups, but third-party individuals are also involved.

Team Snippet Management

When it comes to an Enterprise setting, TextExpander offers additional options for snippet management. It has some positive impacts, too. For instance, you can auto-subscribe users to snippets and use organization-controlled snippet sharing.

As an admin, you get more control than ever before when it comes to snippet management. For instance, it helps to have a powerful snippet editor that can deal with images and other multimedia elements. You can also use the three-tier structure—Just Me, Organization, and Public—to manage the collection better.

The statistics you get from TextExpander will also help you analyze how the use of snippets is affecting your team’s overall productivity. We also loved the option of Usage-based billing, where inactive users will not rack up your monthly/annual budget.

Along with these, TextExpander also offers some additional security measures and Single Sign-on (SSO) with some advanced business plans. These features work great in ensuring that your teams follow the structures that you have designed for the organization, starting with how your brand name is stylized.

Macros for Personal Use

If you want to go the extra mile for productivity, you’d love how TextExpander lets you make use of macros and other scripting tools. The best part? You don’t need to be a hardcore coding expert to get this job done.

I will show you a simple example of how I have used these macros.

I want to keep a manual journal for my daily thoughts, and I prefer to use a markup editor, not a journal app. However, having to type the date and time manually isn’t all that fun. Instead, I created a TextExpander snippet, which uses the trigger phrase “timepicker”.

So, whenever I type this phrase, TextExpander will replace it with the current month, day, and time. In the same way, you can make use of other macros related to time, keyboard, special characters, etc. You can use this script to interlink two snippets as well.

Macros for Business Use

Let’s say that you are using TextExpander macros for your team. In this case, the possibilities are endless. I will take you through some examples.

At the base level, you can integrate macros into email messages and templates that you regularly use. This way, users across your team can send standard email messages without typing the same thing again. Because TextExpander macros draw information in real time, you need not worry about accuracy, either.

Another instance where TextExpander can help is with the management of SOPs and FAQs. Because a central authority can control these snippets and make users subscribe to them, you can modify settings once and make sure that all teams follow through.

As you can guess, you can use TextExpander to create and manage signatures. At a business level, you can use this feature to keep things consistent as well. For one, I can use the fill-in function to allow team members to insert a standard signature structure while also allowing them to customize it to an extent.

Overall, the custom macros and scripting options on TextExpander offer so much value for those who need additional options.

Pricing & Plans

We must add that TextExpander is made primarily for enterprise teams, but we have found it useful for both personal and professional environments alike. TextExpander for individuals has plans starting at $3.33 per month.

However, if you have a small team and want collaborative and sharing features, you can get its Business plan for $8.33 per user per month. You can also go for the Growth plan, which will set you back at $10.83 per user per month. Bigger teams may require the Enterprise plan as well.

Regardless of the plan you choose, you can enjoy a 30-day free trial for TextExpander. This free trial provides you with access to features and apps on platforms, including Windows, macOS, Chrome, Android, and iOS.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• It can save minutes, if not hours when configured properly
• Integrates so well with macOS; works across most applications
• You get impressive customization options for each module
• TextExpander offers an amazing collection of snippets and templates
• Increasing compatibility with devices like Android and iPad

Cons

• It would be nice to have a free version
• Some issues with macOS Terminal

Final Notes

Compared to the many text expansion apps available for Mac and other platforms, TextExpander is a value-adding solution for most people. It does more than replace text with something else. Its integration with macOS and other platforms makes TextExpander a must-have tool for boosting productivity.

As you have seen, TextExpander for Teams offers additional possibilities as well. The ability to manage and modify snippets at a team level is impressive, indeed. So, you may want to consider that upgrade if you can benefit from consistent text, FAQs, SOPs, and more.

More details, please visit offical TextExpander.com