Typinator 7 Update

Questions & Suggestions
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I can’t even fathom 50 or 500 snippets, let alone 50,000.

The only way I’d ever understand how you use them is if I could watch over your shoulder for awhile. It just seems incomprehensible to me!

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Hey Dan,

Figure somewhere around 45K are auto-corrections for spelling errors, and it might be easier.  :sunglasses:

-Chris

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I don't even know 45k of words!

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Dan, I think you make a typo there. Didn't you mean:

I don't even know 45 of words!

LOL! Just kidding, of course. :smiling_imp:

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I think I may know at least 45 cuss words, so there’s that…

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I'm torn. I love Typinator, and use it many times every single day, but I don't think I'll upgrade. I upgraded with no hesitation when v6.0 came out because I value it so much, but I don't think I'm really getting the power use out of it that I should. I probably could have stuck with v5.0, for that matter...

I am trying to see if KM will do the job now... I can always upgrade later. Or just go back to v6.x if I really don't need the new features.

  • Support for AppleScript and other scripting languages that run and produce a result in snippets.
  • Fillable forms – again compliments Keyboard Maestro.
  • Regular Expression triggers.
  • Auto-Correction.

I can do each of these in KM, without much effort. I don't have a huge amount of these, though, so maybe Typinator is better at volume. I like the popup forms in KM a little better - at least in Typinator 6.x

  • Many pre-defined packaged sets for the user to choose from.

KM is no slouch for this either!

One thing that might be a key feature is rich text expansions in Typinator. I have one snippet that explains in detail a feature of software to our clients that uses a few paragraphs and about 5 screenshots. Not sure if KM will do that.

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KM can probably handle that.
You can paste rich text and images into a Display text in a window Action.

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I think it's generally easier to run Automation JavaScript from Keyboard Maestro,
but it may be worth knowing that the "JavaScript" of Typinator inline scripts has access to the Automation object, so for a snippet that pasted the active URL of Chrome, for example, you could, if you wanted, write:

or

(I personally use Typinator mostly for plain snippets, and KM for everything else)

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Thank you @JMichaelTX and @ComplexPoint for helpful comments about Typinator.

After reading your comparisons, I understand the differences.
Since I have only a few dozen text expansions, KM handles that just fine.

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I used TextExpander first, then KM. When TextExpander announced a for-cost upgrade, I dropped TextExpander and put my expansions in KM. It wasn’t the money, I wanted to reduce the user interfaces that I have to know. Works for me, but I have only about 20 expansions. I noticed that KM is slow to do the expansions.

Thanks all for the discussion!

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BTW, I just noticed that Typinator is from Ergonis Software. That name sounds familiar… Oh, they make KeyCue, which I bought, use, and highly recommend. When you hold down the Command key, KeyCue displays all the currently available keyboard shortcuts.

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I found the same. Last time I tested, Typinator was the quickest of all of the expansion tools I tried.

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I am at the opposite end of the scale to you. I would say I was a power user but just barely. I am down to a similar set: I really streamlined recently. However my set is similar to yours along, of course, with native apps. Launchbar, Keyboard Maestro and keycue to help me with learning snippets. I appreciate the reasons for a dedicated text expander, but I really don't have enough, only about ten at present: I never think I will exeed 100, I use spell checks for typos really too.

I dropped textexpander, I quit it a few months ago, it is still there but I won't renew the licence, I have Karabiner for the hyper key, nothing else. I also use DEVONthink and Ulysses for everything nearly now and LaTeX suite with texpad. I keep a couple of things to write on. Mellel for example, I will see how long I keep them

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The possibilities to combine the apps you mentioned with TextExpander are large @tudor_eynon :wink:

Here are a few examples:

Create phone notes and save in DEVONthink:

My mails with the help of TextExpander:

This is how I write and create letters:

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Thank you @appleianer for going to that trouble for me. I will look at them carefully and the mail one looks as if it might be useful. I do have TextExpander on the old rate, 20$ a year which means it is not a big hit to keep it another year and see. Were I paying $40 I would be less inclined. I will let you know how it pans out for me and I really appreciate the trouble folk on this forum go to.

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I don't have many expansions so with that qualifier I will say that the main reason I went to KM instead was because the string triggers for expansions will show up on KeyCue so I can learn them or pull them up if I forget one very easily: so it is kind of ironic that it is another Ergonis product that pulled me off TextExpander rather than a direct choice in favor of their snippet app. It just works for me and I found the TE search for snippets that I could never remember clumsy and slow. KeyCue shows with two Command presses.

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Oddly enough @appleianer today I timed on my iPhone, how long it took to set up a new Ulysses note through Shortcuts versus the new hard press on Ulysses' icon. The hard press method was far quicker by my timing. I do and have had shortcuts and workflows in the past which though 'neat' have been really slower than just doing it 'by hand' as it were. KM is one of the things that keeps me on OSX.

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Love the post.

I've only been hearing great things about Typinator from veteran/power users.

I know this is an old post and Typinator is at version 9, but I couldn't find answers to the below questions. I was hoping and would appreciate if you could help me out with them so I commit to Typinator :slight_smile:

I have tried the trail version of Typinator but didn't find these features so asking.

  1. Can Typinator import snippets directly from Alfred? Alfred saves each snippet in JSON format.
  2. Can Typinator export snippets in a standard format, let's say JSON or something similar? In case I need to export out a few years later for whatever reason.
  3. Most importantly, I sync my Alfred snippets with iOS Text Replacement feature so I can use them on my mobile devices. How I do that is every time I have to add a snippet, I add that to Apple's Text Replacement and have a Python script query Apple's sqllite and create the JSON files in a specific directory in Alfred's preferences that Alfred auto-refreshes. Anything similar I can accomplish with Typinator?

Thanks :man_bowing:

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I have someone wanting to create Apple email templates that contain pictures, which Keyboard Maestro's mail template won't do.

Of the app here, would any allow/what would you recommend for creating Apple mail templates with pictures or any other path to creating and using Apple email templates?

I did find this > how to make a mail template - Apple Community, which suggests creating a mailbox for templates and dragging new or sent emails there and then using the send again command. This is workable and doesn't include placeholders for names and other filling info fields.

I'm trying TypeIt4Me and just let go of my subscription to TextExpander, which I may need to go back to for this particular usage.

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Siri Shortcuts is one of the better options for automating emails in 2023.

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