Application for turning a little work into a lot of text?
July 20, 2010 7:35 AM
Are there any (preferably free) applications that will turn a few keystrokes or clicks into a large, predefined phrase?
I'm looking for a way to quickly enter common phrases into emails, documents, etc. The method isn't too important to me - I'll describe one text-based method I've seen before, but some kind of inventive point-and-click strategy is fine as well. Programs for Windows or Linux would be acceptable.
For instance, I've seen a program that allowed you to define lengthy phrases and give them shorter placeholders. For instance, you might type the placeholder, "&thanksem", and the program automatically gave you your predefined phrase: "Thank you for your email. We will respond to your inquiry within 2 business days." Or "&standletter" could generate an entire predefined multi-paragraph letter that you could modify.
The power of that system is you could have hundreds of phrases and placeholders. With the number of phrases I'm trying to store, copy-and-pasting the phrases out of a document is potentially time-consuming. Some of the phrases will be short enough that copying isn't really a time saver. And frankly, it was nice to be able to insert a phrase without taking your hands off the keyboard.
So - have you seen any similar apps? Or any alternate ways of turning a few clicks/keystrokes into a lot of text?
I'm looking for a way to quickly enter common phrases into emails, documents, etc. The method isn't too important to me - I'll describe one text-based method I've seen before, but some kind of inventive point-and-click strategy is fine as well. Programs for Windows or Linux would be acceptable.
For instance, I've seen a program that allowed you to define lengthy phrases and give them shorter placeholders. For instance, you might type the placeholder, "&thanksem", and the program automatically gave you your predefined phrase: "Thank you for your email. We will respond to your inquiry within 2 business days." Or "&standletter" could generate an entire predefined multi-paragraph letter that you could modify.
The power of that system is you could have hundreds of phrases and placeholders. With the number of phrases I'm trying to store, copy-and-pasting the phrases out of a document is potentially time-consuming. Some of the phrases will be short enough that copying isn't really a time saver. And frankly, it was nice to be able to insert a phrase without taking your hands off the keyboard.
So - have you seen any similar apps? Or any alternate ways of turning a few clicks/keystrokes into a lot of text?
You are looking for a text expander - have a look at this one.
posted by Brent Parker at 7:39 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by Brent Parker at 7:39 AM on July 20, 2010
If you're willing to use the best text editor EVAR, vim, then you can setup "abbreviations" in your .vimrc:
ab shortIdentifier "thing you want expanded, blahblahblah"
So whenever you type "shortIdentifier" (no quotes), it will be automagically exapanded to "thing you want expanded, blahblahblah"
It's great because you can also include various functions and system calls and program output (simple example is a timestamp).
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:08 AM on July 20, 2010
ab shortIdentifier "thing you want expanded, blahblahblah"
So whenever you type "shortIdentifier" (no quotes), it will be automagically exapanded to "thing you want expanded, blahblahblah"
It's great because you can also include various functions and system calls and program output (simple example is a timestamp).
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:08 AM on July 20, 2010
For linux, you could try Autokey, available for both Gnome and KDE.
posted by Invoke at 8:17 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by Invoke at 8:17 AM on July 20, 2010
Also if you use Emacs, META + slash runs dabbrev-expand which searches through open buffers to complete the current word you're typing. If you have similar boilerplate documents open in other buffers, you could grab words from them. It doesn't, to my knowledge, work on whole phrases, though, so you'd have to go word by word.
posted by ubermuffin at 8:20 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by ubermuffin at 8:20 AM on July 20, 2010
Perfect! Follow-up: does anyone know of a text expander for Android?
posted by Tehhund at 8:24 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by Tehhund at 8:24 AM on July 20, 2010
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posted by royalsong at 7:39 AM on July 20, 2010