TextExpander - productive AND fun [Sponsor]

Thanks to TextExpander for sponsoring BrettTerpstra.com again this week! They sponsor me every month, and they’re one of my favorite sponsors¹, but they’re behind on getting me copy this week. It’s totally ok, I have stuff I want to tell you anyway.

I recently added a MacBook Pro back to my computing lineup. I kind of hate starting with a blank machine. I go to hit shortcuts and trigger scripts and snippets and nothing happens. So begins the days-long process of setting up my favorite utilities and system hacks. There are two things that come before everything else: 1Password, and TextExpander. I need my passwords and license codes, obviously, but I need my snippets just as much. There are so many things that I type with TextExpander that I wouldn’t have a clue how to type manually. The front matter for this post, for example, is a TextExpander snippet where I just fill in the title and tags and it generates a perfect block of YAML for me.

My email signatures are all snippets. When I finish an email, I type one of my sign-off shortcuts (which vary based on my relationship with the recipient) followed by ⇧⌘D to send the email. When I forget that TextExpander isn’t loaded, I shoot off emails with bizarre character combinations instead of any kind of signature. It’s not a terrible thing to do, but it makes me realize how ingrained in my habits my snippets are.

Productivity is great, but there’s room for fun, too. I recently updated and published my Cursed snippet group. It lets you generate shortcuts using swear words as triggers, outputting random “censored” versions, e.g. “Holy s#@%.” It’s not terribly useful, but it’s a great example of the power of shell scripting in TextExpander snippets.

I’ll be publishing more of my favorite snippet groups as I have time, so keep an eye out. If you’re not already a TextExpander user, this is a great time to give it a try. In less than a day you’ll be wondering how you survived without it. BrettTerpstra.com readers get 20% off their first year by visiting this link. I swear you’ll thank me.