![]() We also added snippet preview and improved the presentation of statistics. Fill-in fields could be instructed to appear at the top of the fill-in window to make filling lengthy snippets easier. We added support for cross-platform JavaScript snippets. Version 5, released in May 2015, added suggestions as well as sync support for iCloud Drive. ![]() We also retired MobileMe sync, as Apple retired the MobileMe service. We added default values for fill-ins, the ability to expand snippets when filling a fill-in, and the ability to switch apps while filling a fill-in. We introduced three new types: multi-line text fields, popup menus, and optional text sections. TextExpander 4.0, released in June 2012, focused on enhanced fill-in support. We introduced single line fill-ins, Dropbox sync, capitalization correction, and hotkeys to create new snippets and to edit the last expanded snippet. Version 3, released in March 2010, marked TextExpander’s escape from the confines of System Preferences into a full-fledged application. Now, we’re able to make basic TextExpander expansion available in any app. The real game-changer on iOS was when Apple introduced custom keyboards in iOS 8. Today, some of the best productivity apps for iOS, including OmniFocus, Drafts, and Bear, include native support for TextExpander. On one of our BART rides into San Francisco, Peter suggested developing an SDK so that third party apps could add support for TextExpander directly in their apps. He attended WWDC 2009 and stayed at our house. One of the greatest side effects to our acquisition of TextExpander is that I became good friends with Peter Maurer. Initially, it could only expand snippets in the Notes section of the app. We built TextExpander for iPhone, which debuted on August 26, 2009. I wasn’t entirely sure they were joking, so we got on it. At our WWDC Smile party, Dave and Roustem from AgileBits, makers of 1Password, told us that if we did not produce TextExpander for iPhone, they would. Check it out in all of its stripey, System Preference pane glory, and note the example email address from aol.com: TextExpander 2.0Īt WWDC in 2009, Apple announced support for cut/copy/paste in iOS 3. TextExpander 2.0, released in October 2007, began to flesh out the product, adding: snippet groups, group import, hotkeys, printing, AppleScript snippets, and MobileMe □ sync. But, that app’s updates weren’t reliable, so we decided if we were going to have an app that our company needed, we could make it ourselves. One of the ways we found to help was through the use of a text expansion tool. We were a very small team at that time, and having to be full time developers and full time suport and run a company was challenging. One of the instigating factors of producing TextExpander was, in fact, our need of it, similar to PDFpen. ![]() Our original blog post does a good job of telling the origin story. Smile shipped TextExpander 1.3 on May 23, 2006. Originally called Textpander, it was developed by Peter Maurer, now of Many Tricks. TextExpander was Smile’s first acquisition. In this series we’re looking back at some of our history. They have a free trial but I think it’s a wisely invested $34.95. If you don’t have a Mac, but have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get their TextExpander Touch app instead.On June 12, 2018, Smile celebrates our 15th birthday. I definitely recommend checking TextExpander out ( note: for Mac OS only). How much time has TextExpander saved me? Luckily, I don’t need to wonder as they tell you directly in the app how much time you’ve saved. I often mistakenly overwrote them by clicking “Save” instead of “Insert.” And the truth is I’m not always in Gmail when I need those snippets. I used to keep a bunch of predefined emails in Google Canned Responses, but the interface is clunky and can get unwieldy if you have more than 15 or so. I have entire emails / predefined responses that can be called up with a short letter sequence (I think my longest one is somewhere around 500 words). Plm = Please let me know if you have any other questions.īut TextExpander is not just for short phrases. In addition, I have shortcuts for my email addresses (how about every time you log in somewhere or leave a comment on a site?), frequently-referenced URLs, and other email sign-offs like: Mysig = my work signature (how many times have you written yours?) My shortcuts are usually 2-6 characters long. You insert a snippet, phrase, or entire text and then insert it into any program on your Mac (email, document, anywhere there’s text insertion) with a special character sequence shortcut that you decide on. I’ll just cut right to the chase: I love, love, love TextExpander.
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