The Typing Timesaver

Every time you type something — an email, a web page address, a report, captions in your photo album software — you probably need to use certain words and phrases relevant to your organisation and the work you do.

All that typing takes time, and if you’re not the world’s best typist, you probably make typos that then take even more time to fix.

Software such as Microsoft Word gives you macros and auto corrections that can save time, but that doesn’t help you in your email program, when you design a presentation, or if you don’t use Word.

Typing Expander software

Typing Expander software can quickly repay every cent you spend on it. This type of software allows you to set up shortcuts that automatically expand to words, phrases, or even whole documents, just by typing a couple of letters.

I use software called TextExpander, only available for Macintosh. Some quick research suggests that FastFox Typing Expander does the same kind of thing on Windows, and perhaps Autokey for Linux, although I haven’t tested them.

You could, of course, Google for other alternatives.

Example macro: long names

Back in around 1990 I worked for the National Resource Centre for Adult Education and Community Learning, otherwise known as the NRC. Typing that full name was a chore.

These days, with typing expander software, I’d simply type NRC (if I’d set it up) and the whole long name would zip in to replace the abbreviation, whether I’m using email, Word, a text editor, filling in a form on a web page, designing a brochure, or whatever.

Example macro: dates and times

Whenever I do a piece of writing, such as these Tips, I work in a text file. When I begin I add a note with the date and start time. When I stop work I add a note with the finish time. Each takes a couple of keystrokes.

For example, with TextExpander I type the abbreviations ddate and ttime (spot the doubled letters at the start that allow me to still use the words ‘date’ and ‘time’ without problems), and they expand to the current date and time.

Example macro: fix typos

Fix typos automatically: I often need to enter details on web pages, or into my photo album software. I live in Hataitai, Wellington, a fine suburb, but one whose name I routinely mistype. So I’ve given up, and let my text expander software handle it. I type htai and it automatically replaces it with Hataitai.

Example macro: long text

Sometimes I need a page or two of ‘dummy’ text. I type ‘lipsum‘ and 450 words of ‘lorem ipsum’ text fill the page. You know it, you’ll have seen it before, it starts like this: “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit… ”

I could just as easily type a whole standard letter or email, web page template, or invoice template.

Enjoy your free time

TextExpander on one of the 2 machines I routinely use informs me I’ve saved around 7 hours of time by using it. It’s expanded 9,750 snippets, and saved me 172,350 characters of typing.

That’s around a day’s work. Impressive!

If you ever type anything on a computer I’d suggest you explore this type of software for yourself. Then maybe you can stretch out that summer holiday to be just slightly longer.

Written by Miraz Jordan for, and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, December 2008. This article has been modified for publication here.

Tagged as: timesaver, typing

1 comment

You may also like -

My third page – a basic HTML recipeThey’re smart: QRCodesWant publicity? Be a blogger’s friend.Use text macros on your iPhone and iPad with iOS 5MacTips.infoTap and Hold in iOS and Lion reveals unexpected choicesMacTips.infoQuit and Discard Windows in LionMacTips.infoHow to Track Friends with your iPhoneMacTips.infoCommand click the Title Bar in Safari to go HomeMacTips.info