20 Jul 2022
Tried
TextExpander
https://textexpander.com/
My first proper text expander app. Used it for years.
I had some issues though (snippets blocked) and at $40/year, looked for an alternative in 2019.
aText
Have been using it for the last couple of years.
Though it has some hiccups (needs restarting/rebooting sometimes) so change of computer is an opportunity to re-explore alternatives.
Alfred
Since I discovered Alfred, I can't use a Mac without it anymore. It is so powerful and convenient.
It has text expander capabilities (Snippets) and it would be ideal to manage my snippets there too.
However they do not seem to work in most cases (file dialogs, VS Code, etc.. ).
See Nic Note: Alfred
To test
Espanso
Open source!! https://github.com/espanso/espanso
Getting started: https://espanso.org/docs/get-started/
Looks amazing at first read of doc 😍. Though 165 bug issues open on Github (297 closed) - 32/53 for bugs on macOS.
https://github.com/espanso/espanso/issues/1155
Developer looks responsive.
Innovative use of it: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovating-tech-fluency-language-learning-james-clark/
Espanso Hub: https://hub.espanso.org/search
a few interesting packages for me, eg:
- basic-emojis: https://hub.espanso.org/basic-emojis
- git: https://hub.espanso.org/git
- mac-symbols: https://hub.espanso.org/mac-symbols
- foreign-thanks https://hub.espanso.org/foreign-thanks
- french-accents: https://hub.espanso.org/french-accents
- markdown-shortcuts: https://hub.espanso.org/markdown-shortcuts (note a lot of keystrokes saved though)
- espanso-get-ip-pack: https://hub.espanso.org/get-ip
Pondering going down the rabbit hole..
I wonder sometimes if the time spent troubleshooting text expanders does not nullify the time benefits of using such an app 😂 🤓