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” Third, it takes this greeting, adds your name and some formatting and stores it in the variable “ finalOutput.

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Second, it uses a random generator to choose one of them and assign it to the variable “ selectedGreeting. First, it defines a list of greetings to choose from. You don’t have to understand all the details of the script to use it, but it basically has four steps. Every time you call the snippet it will expand into a greeting that will be randomly chosen from a set of predefined phrases to close your email. You can tell TextExpander to treat it as a script by clicking on the drop-down list “Content,” which reveals the options “Plain Text” (default), “Formatted Text, Pictures,” as well “AppleScript,” “Shell Script” and, since version 5, also “JavaScript.”įirst simple example: say goodbye in random waysĪn easy snippet to start with can be found on the webpage of Smile Software, the home of TextExpander.

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If you don’t do that, it will simply produce the code lines without doing actually what you want. The first step is to tell TextExpander that your snippet is not simple text, but should be interpreted as a script.

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How to tell TextExpander to start a script Because of this, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of using TextExpander for things that could have been implemented more easily with other tools like Apple Services, Alfred 2, KeyboardMaestro or others. While this sounds obvious, there are almost no limits to what you can do with scripts. So before you start coding a complex script, I suggest that you have a look at these default functionalities of TextExpander and see if you can implement a solution with them.Īnother point to consider is that TextExpander is primarily about expanding text. you can set the cursor to a user-defined position.you can carry out simple date/time manipulations (e.g., adding five days to the current date).you can get time and date in different formats (e.g., October 1, 2019 or 10/01/19).you can define drop down or pop up menus to choose from user-defined options.

you can format the output using rich text format.

you can access the current content of the clipboard with %clipboard.

As I mentioned earlier, TextExpander itself has already a number of powerful built-in features that can help you in a wide range of cases. When Does a Script in TextExpander Make Sense?īefore we jump into the nitty-gritty, let’s have a look at when it makes sense to use scripts. Try to make changes and adapt them to your needs.Įven if you don’t have any experience with coding, you’ll find it super easy to make your own power snippets. I encourage you to have a look at the code and play around with the scripts. The scripts I show in this blog post will use basic code blocks that you can use to build your own snippets. Here I will show a couple of simple but powerful examples of how to use this feature. This adds another level to the already excellent TextExpander experience. You can use snippets to initiate your own scripts. For an extensive video guide on all TextExpander features, have a look at this Asian Efficiency post.īesides these standard features, TextExpander can do even more. You can even carry out basic date manipulation and use text from the clipboard. You can expand them into email signatures with logos and contact information, as well as predefined complex text structures (e.g., canned email responses, contracts, FAQs, etc.) that include drop-down lists to adapt the snippets for individual cases.

It can be used to easily access special symbols like €, £, ⌘ or ↑. You can define shortcuts for your address, email or telephone number. TextExpander is an incredibly useful tool that expands user-defined text abbreviations (called snippets) into more complex pieces of text. He is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Robotics at the University of Bristol (UK), a father of three little boys, and a productivity geek. He shares his tips and tricks on how to work smart and be remarkable from his view point as an academic on his blog and you can find him on Twitter.