Comments on: TextExpander and TypeIt4Me, Round Twelve

By: TextExpander 2.0 | NSLog();

TextExpander 2.0 | NSLog(); — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:08:39 +0000

[...] unresponsive at this time and TextExpander's feature set has surpassed TypeIt4Me's. They've made my previous comments about TypeIt4Me [...]

By: Erik J. Barzeski

Erik J. Barzeski — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 14:30:50 +0000

And TypeIt4Me 3.x includes all the TextExpander features I ever wanted.

In fact, I'm not even sure why the TextExpander folks have this comparison chart on their site - it doesn't present a "win" for their product.

By: Peter Maurer

Peter Maurer — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 14:00:46 +0000

FYI: TextExpander 1.4 supports customizable delimiters.

By: Erik

Erik — Tue, 30 May 2006 22:03:15 +0000

delimeter - those things they weigh your ham and turkey on when you're buying cold cuts.

By: Erik J. Barzeski

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 25 May 2006 21:09:05 +0000

I use delimeters because I don't like to have to think of things that don't always fit inside other words. Like "hts" on my system expands to "http://thesandtrap.com" when I type the "/" character. "hns" expands to "http://nslog.com" and so forth. In these cases, I'll almost always want the "/" character. And since TypeIt4Me offers so many, including end-of-sentence things like periods, etc., it always works out.

You're forced to use "double letters" - you're not saving any typing over having to type an expansion trigger.

Agree, though, that people should use one or the other. They're both wonderful.

By: Rob Griffiths

Rob Griffiths — Thu, 25 May 2006 19:01:14 +0000

I agree - there are times when I don't want expansion. That's why I only define snippets that will expand when I want an expansion.

It works really well to use double letters -- ddiv and ttig and hhref and ppre, for instance, all do very useful things on my machine, and will never be typed accidentally.

But if you prefer delimiters, I guess that's a good reason to prefer TypeIt4Me. Regardless of which app one uses, anyone who isn't using one of these is missing out on a great timesaver.

-rob.

By: John C. Welch

John C. Welch — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:33:30 +0000

because sometimes you don't want expansions, and sometimes you do. By allowing me to pick the conditions that trigger the expansions outside of the expansion itself, you have more flexibility.

Besides, I'm ex-military and a sysadmin. For me to rely on someone never using a TLA is dangerous.

By: Rob Griffiths

Rob Griffiths — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:21:58 +0000

Why do you need an delimiter key of any sort for your snippets? With Textpander, I just create my own definitions, and as soon as I finish typing, that's it, the snippet appears. No need for any expansion key. Just use unique definitions, and it's a snap.

If you like it the other way, then yes, you can set an option and have it only expand after the delimiter. But why bother? isn't the whole point to save typing? So just define your abbreviations such that they're unique, and you don't need the delimiter at all.

For instance, typing 'ttt' (which won't appear in any real word) on my machine gets me this (but with angled brackets, obviously)

[tt style="color:blue"][/tt]

The cursor is in the middle of the tag, ready for my typing, and I didn't have to hit any delimiter. So what am I missing? What's so cool about delimiters?

-rob.