Tag: TextExpander

TextExpander Wish List: (Learn) Multiple Abbreviations for the Same Snippet, Plurals, Contacts, Conventions

There are some features I have long wanted one of my favourite apps, TextExpander, to have. Some of them are motivated by the fact that, although I do have conventions for naming my abbreviations, I can’t always remember the abbreviation. Moreover, I sometimes repeat the same typing mistake. But more generally they are motivated by the idea that a modern text expansion should know my intentions.

To pick some of the items from the top of my TextExpander wish list, I’d like Continue reading TextExpander Wish List: (Learn) Multiple Abbreviations for the Same Snippet, Plurals, Contacts, Conventions

Surfing Tips: Using Text Expansion Utilities and Launchers to Quickly Access Project Documents

I’ve blogged about this before, but given that the Surf Strategically principle of my recently published e-book contains many tips on the subject, I thought the following would be worth repeating.
Continue reading Surfing Tips: Using Text Expansion Utilities and Launchers to Quickly Access Project Documents

How to Quickly Access Your Pinboard Bookmarks Using LaunchBar, TextExpander and Related Apps

You can use launchers and/or text expansion apps to quickly access Pinboard bookmarks (and Pocket bookmarks, for that matter). This post shows you how. Continue reading How to Quickly Access Your Pinboard Bookmarks Using LaunchBar, TextExpander and Related Apps

The Value of TextExpander Snippet Conventions: Web Addresses, Citations, Bibliographical References, Markdown and More

Smile Software’s TextExpander is the productivity app I use the most. It allows one to define and expand abbreviations for frequently used content (text and images). For example, suppose you frequently need to refer to me in text. You might create a snippet whose abbreviation is “@luc” (without the quotes) and whose target content is “Luc P. Beaudoin“. (See the section on name abbreviations.) That’s particularly handy for long or foreign names. (Mine is a French name).

TextExpander provides statistics that quantify its benefits. From the screenshot below you can see that I’ve expanded nearly 212,000 snippets, saving me 2.8M characters. Continue reading The Value of TextExpander Snippet Conventions: Web Addresses, Citations, Bibliographical References, Markdown and More

Cognitively Potent Software Is Mightier than the Pen in the Hands of Able, Motivated Knowledge Builders: Response to Mueller & Oppenheimer (2014)

Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer recently published a peer reviewed article in Psychological Science provocatively titled “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking”.[1] Their claim would herald a significant discovery if it were true. For there are many important reasons to believe using a laptop, at least in certain ways, can increase cognitive productivity: Delving, assessing, comprehending, understanding, knowledge building, retention, learning, mastery and even mental development (deep learning). We need not retreat to the to lab refute their titular conclusion. This post, I believe, does the trick.

Continue reading Cognitively Potent Software Is Mightier than the Pen in the Hands of Able, Motivated Knowledge Builders: Response to Mueller & Oppenheimer (2014)