There’s an app I’ve been using on Mac for a while that makes working online infinitely easier.
For most people, typing is never going to be as fast as dictation, but you can get pretty close.
The thing that slows us down is when it comes to capitalising weird words, writing your physical address, trying to find the right emoji etc.
This app is a life saver.
It’s called Text Expander.
Here’s how it works:
- You enter words/sentences/snippets of code/emojis/addresses/lorem ipsum text/canned email responses into the app
- You choose a hot key that triggers this word to spawn
For example, I love this emoji: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But he’s a pain in the ass to type. It’s also a pain in the ass to copy and paste it from somewhere.
So I set up a Text Expander for him.
Just remember to use the delimiter (the semi colon 😉 before your abbreviation.
This guy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ looks like he doesn’t give a shit and is saying “whatever bro”, so my abbreviation for him is “;whatever”.
Note that Text Expander won’t work unless you have a blank space before you type your abbreviation or if it’s at the start of a new sentence.
Here’s a list of things you can set up Text Expander to expand for you:
- Snippets of code
- Email responses
- Email signatures
- Your full name
- Physical address
- IRD/SS number
- Emojis (go to Emojipedia and copy the emoji into Text Expander)
- Prebuilt templates with bullets, italics, bold, underlines etc.
- Today’s date (swear I use this 25 times every single day) by using “;date”
- Sweet arrows ← → ↑ ↓
Whatever.
Go forth and save ye some time and become a level two interneter.