TextExpander – Essential Writers Tool for the iPad

TextExpander icon

On of the best applications on the Mac is TextExpander. Textexpander Mac is such a time saver and I believe that Smile Software also make a version now for the poor saps that are Windows users. What they have done to make their application totally useful is to allow other applications hook into the functionality of it. So if you have Text Expander Mac on your iPad you can use another application and have the features that save so much time on the iPad too. Applications such as TwitbirdPro and TwitterlatorPro for the twitter apps. A number of task management applications such as 2Do, Things and MyTask Pro. There are loads of note taking applications of course, such as my current favourite one right now Nebulous Notes, as well as MarkdownMail, PlainText and Writeroom. There are connections from Tap Forms Database, iThoughts, Outliner for iPad and a whole lot more too.
The Amazing iPad

I was using Simplenote and it was a paid version but then I noticed that they wanted more money for the pro version that let me use TextExpander in the app. That was one of the reasons I was so pleased to find Nebulous Notes. TextExpander has this thing on the Mac version which tells you how many times you have used it and how much time you have saved by doing so. Handy to know how many characters you have saved yourself from typing. So I am sure you are getting the picture about how good that is going to be when you are using the on screen keyboard, however good you get with it.

Just in case you have not worked out yet what TextExpander does yet, let me explain. A simple example is with this article. What I did because I knew that I would be typing in the word TextExpander a lot of times was to type into on the screen once and then to save that word as Textexpander snippets. Now all I have to do is to type in “TE” , just the two letters there and it fills in the complete word for me. It doesn’t have to be just one word, it can be a whole block of text. It could even be pages and pages of text if that was what you needed.

On the iPad it doesn’t do exactly the same as on the, expander for Mac but is still very useful. Doesn’t seem to be possible to select some text and choose to make a snippet where ever you are. You have to go into the TextExpander Touch application and hit the plus button and fill in the content part of the snippet and also the keystrokes that you want to use as the trigger for that content. You can so syncing from either the Mac to the Textexpander Touch on the iPad or iPhone, or in the other direction. To get the snippets from the Mac I initiate it from the iPad in the Snippet Groups area by tapping the plus icon, choosing the Add via Local Network. I only have to confirm on the Mac and the snippet group is sent in its entirety to the iPad.

In TextExpander Touch you can create groups to organise your snippets and you can also add Predefined Snippet groups such as CSS, HTML and Symbols. If you have a URL for a Snippet group you can enter that to bring in more. On the whole I think that every computer should have TextExpander and of course that includes the iPad also. Textexpander iPad is excellent expander software.
The Amazing iPad

3 thoughts on “TextExpander – Essential Writers Tool for the iPad

  1. Melissa says:

    I love this blog.:) I just got my first iPad 3 days ago. Your blog will be so helpful to me. I can’t wait to follow it.

Comments are closed.

Social

Previous article

Where do you use the iPad most?
Games

Next article

Games on the iPad