- Typinator boosts your productivity by automating the process of inserting frequently used text and graphics and auto-correcting typos. Drag-and-drop import from Textpander, TextExpander, TypeIt4Me, and Spell Catcher makes migration to Typinator a no-brainer.
- Typinator for Mac streamlines the reuse of commonly used phrases, terms, and images. With quick setup, compatibility in a number of different pieces of software, and the ability to define numerous.
Perhaps nothing is more irritating than trying to set up some time-saving software, having problems, and wasting lots of time resolving them. That's one reason why I found OS X so compelling when I first started using it; for the most part things just worked. Rather than fighting with the computer just to get the proper tools in place, I could actually get things done.
For reasons I'll go into some other time I have been searching for quite a while for ways to speed up my text input. My most recent endeavor was based on the idea of using text expansion to minimize the number of keystrokes I have to enter. As a special education teacher I had worked with the application Co:Writer by Don Johnston software, which does a fine job of text prediction as letters and sentences are typed. Unfortunately, a single license is $325. Since that is far too rich for my blood, I decided to set up a system of abbreviations myself. That can't be too hard, right? Guess again.
I found three programs that work as text expanders for OS X, Typinator, TypeIt4Me, and TextExpander. All are available as free trials with full licenses costing 19.95 Euros, $27, and $29.95, respectively.
All three programs work the same way. They run in the background watching your keystrokes. When you type a space, punctuation, or other defined key, the programs compare the keyboard buffer to the list of abbreviations you have defined. If there is a match, they backspace over what you have just typed, copy the expansion onto the clipboard, and paste its contents. A sound can also play when this happens.
To give you an example, I have 'ty' defined as a shortcut for 'thank you'. When I start a new word with 'ty' (typing it right after a space or other delimiter) and then type, say, a period, the text expansion program backspaces three times, deleting the delimiter and the 'ty'. Then it copies the expansion and the period onto the clipboard and pastes it into place, effectively replacing the 'ty.' with 'thank you.'. It may sound complicated, but it's really not.
The product pages for each program tend to emphasize the use of abbreviations for larger snippets of repetitive text like form letters. My usage goal was a little different. I wanted to use very short abbreviations for very common, but sometimes also very short, words. According to teacher school, if you take the 100 most common words in the English language, you can read (or write) 50% of all elementary text. One of the popular lists of words by frequency is Fry's First 100, named for its creator, Edward Fry. I figured that would be a good starting place for my abbreviations. Of course that is where the trouble started.
For reasons I'll go into some other time I have been searching for quite a while for ways to speed up my text input. My most recent endeavor was based on the idea of using text expansion to minimize the number of keystrokes I have to enter. As a special education teacher I had worked with the application Co:Writer by Don Johnston software, which does a fine job of text prediction as letters and sentences are typed. Unfortunately, a single license is $325. Since that is far too rich for my blood, I decided to set up a system of abbreviations myself. That can't be too hard, right? Guess again.
I found three programs that work as text expanders for OS X, Typinator, TypeIt4Me, and TextExpander. All are available as free trials with full licenses costing 19.95 Euros, $27, and $29.95, respectively.
All three programs work the same way. They run in the background watching your keystrokes. When you type a space, punctuation, or other defined key, the programs compare the keyboard buffer to the list of abbreviations you have defined. If there is a match, they backspace over what you have just typed, copy the expansion onto the clipboard, and paste its contents. A sound can also play when this happens.
To give you an example, I have 'ty' defined as a shortcut for 'thank you'. When I start a new word with 'ty' (typing it right after a space or other delimiter) and then type, say, a period, the text expansion program backspaces three times, deleting the delimiter and the 'ty'. Then it copies the expansion and the period onto the clipboard and pastes it into place, effectively replacing the 'ty.' with 'thank you.'. It may sound complicated, but it's really not.
The product pages for each program tend to emphasize the use of abbreviations for larger snippets of repetitive text like form letters. My usage goal was a little different. I wanted to use very short abbreviations for very common, but sometimes also very short, words. According to teacher school, if you take the 100 most common words in the English language, you can read (or write) 50% of all elementary text. One of the popular lists of words by frequency is Fry's First 100, named for its creator, Edward Fry. I figured that would be a good starting place for my abbreviations. Of course that is where the trouble started.
Typinator 8 325 Chevy
I began simply enough. I had a text file of Fry's List with one word per line. The programs all had options for importing text files, so I started typing abbreviations after each word, with a comma in between. If a word was only one letter (like 'I') or not easily abbreviated (like 'in'), I deleted it from the list. For very common and short words I used one-letter abbreviations ('t' for 'the', 'n' for 'and', etc.)
![Typinator 8 325 Typinator 8 325](https://ismh.s3.amazonaws.com/Screenshot-2019-12-30-at-12.12.22.jpeg)
Downloading Typinator. If your download didn't start. Create Account and Enjoy ad-free MacUpdate experience forever. Apps you might also like. Completes partially typed words for you.
Unbeknownst to me, there were several problems with this. First of all, the programs would accept tab-delimited but not comma-delimited text. I had to search and replace all my commas with tabs, but not too big of a deal. Next, however, I discovered that the order I had put the abbreviation and expanded text were reversed. I didn't want to retype all of that (though it probably would have been faster in the long run), so I found a simple Java program that read in a comma delimited file and wrote it out differently and modified it to fit my needs. Unfortunately, after all of this I still had a problem with the encoding of the text. The text expansion programs would not accept Unicode, so I had to resave the file.After all this conversion I finally had my abbreviations loaded into TextExpander. The program installs itself as a System Preferences pane and has a nice interface with some advanced features. You can decide on a 'snippet' by snippet basis whether to type the delimiter and how to treat upper case. I started using the program while doing emails and blogging. As I encountered a new word that I use a lot, I would add a snippet if there was not one already. It was gratifying to hear the little beeps as I typed, knowing that I was saving keystrokes each time the sound played.
But my troubles were not over. For some reason my one-letter abbreviations were not working. It turns out that TextExpander and Typinator set a minimum of two letters for an abbreviation. While TextExpander correctly highlighted my snippets in red if I accidently created duplicates, it did not flag the one-letter snippets. This limitation eliminated much of the benefit of text expansion as I was using it. Fortunately TypeIt4Me allows single letter abbreviations, but changing programs led to another problem.
I had used TextExpander for a while and added some 50 new expansions. Once again I had new abbreviations that I had to transfer into a program. TypeIt4Me's 'Open File..' would allow me to choose the TextExpander file, but no new words would appear. I took a look at the two programs' abbreviation files, both plain text XML. Both are standard Apple plists, even using the same name for most attributes. However, TypeIt4Me capitalized the first letter of each, while TextExpander did not, and XML is case-sensitive. In this case close did not count.
In my stubborn refusal to do data entry when something is already in a computer, I ended up with another time consuming solution. I took the TextExpander XML file and used XSLT to parse out each abbreviation and expansion and write them to a tab-delimited text file for import into TypeIt4Me. I'll try to be an optimist and imagine that maybe somewhere all this foolishness of mine will be useful to someone else.
I have since gotten TypeIt4Me set up to my liking. I have a shortcut key to toggle it on and off, and another to add a new abbreviation. My abbreviation file has grown to over 200 items. I have also learned not to type too fast after a replacement is triggered, or sometimes I end up typing in the middle of the copy and paste.
TypeIt4Me has a nice feature where it tracks the number of expansions done and keystrokes saved. As you can see below, it will be a while before I make up the hours spent mucking around with these programs, but I did get to polish up my Java and XML knowledge and eventually solve my problems.
TypeIt4Me shows how many keystrokes have been saved.
Tyme 2 1 4 0. Developer: Ergonis Software
Typinator 8 325 F
Price: €20 (about $28)
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4. Chief architect premier x8 18 3 2 2. Universal.
Watermarkspell 1 9 2. Trial: Feature-limited (five shortcuts).
Computers are supposed to make us work faster and more accurately. However,there are times when we find ourselves typing the same text over and over,slowly and tediously. In some cases, it is possible to avoid the redundant workvia templates. In other cases, mail-merging skills or fancy programming know-howare needed. Luckily for the casual user, in some situations specializedsoftware like Typinator is all that you need.
Installation
Installing Typinator means mounting the disk image and dragging the applicationicon into the Applications folder, or wherever you want to keep it. Typinator’sdocumentation consists of a PDF file that also shows up on the disk image. (Toobad it’s not built into the application.) My personal preference is to create aTypinator folder and keep the PDF and the application itself in that folder.Once you enter the license number, you are no longer restricted to having onlyfive abbreviations. Lastly, you’ll probably want to select “Automatically startTypinator at login” from the Preferences window.
Usage
I use my Mac mostly for e-mail and Web surfing, with some dabbling withPhotoshop and other specialized software that makes photos artsy. Untilrecently, I was lucky not to have to deal with repetitively typing the sameblocks of text. Late last year, I became involved with my high school’s reunioncommittee and all of a sudden found myself sending the same e-mail messages tomany people. It has been over 24 years since I graduated, and even though themany social networks out there are useful, not everyone keeps the same namesince high school. Many of the women took on the husbands’ last names whileothers, perhaps for fear of identify theft or running away from the law, havenames that don’t match the yearbook. I would tell these people about thereunion, then ask them what their names were in high school. Reaching out viathe social networks means filling out some Web forms, so using mail stationeryis out of the question. Typinator comes to the rescue!
Define an abbreviation then Typinator will save you keystrokes.
To use Typinator, you first setup an abbreviation, say NHS, short for “NewtownHigh School.” As shown in the screenshot, I enter the text equivalent of theabbreviation in the Expansion box and the type of expansion to plain text. Thenext time I need to reach out to someone who might be interested in the reunion,I would go through the usual mouse-clicking to get to the e-mail Web form,just typing “NHS” and the whole form would be filled with the expanded text.Typinator has been lurking in the background watching every keystroke andpounces when a recognized abbreviation is seen.
To be exact, I could have entered “nhs” and the expansion would still happenbecause I selected “Case does not matter (~)” in the Typinator window. Note alsothat I checked off “Whole word,” so that should I try to type the abbreviationfor Nathaniel Hawthorne State University (a name I just made up), the “word” is“NHSU” and not “NHS,” so the expansion won’t happen.
Another nifty feature of Typinator that I made use in our example is theplacement of the cursor. After the introductory greeting, I had the special code{^}. I didn’t type that but rather chose Cursor from the pop-up menu to theright of the expansion text. Not only is the text inserted, but the cursor isalso placed after “Hi ” so I can type in the person’s name. Other options arepictures, formatted text, and clipboard, although for my simple need of fillingout Web forms they were not used. Typinator wisely supports the use of prefixand suffix to indicate when to expand text.
Back to my example, to avoid expanding text whenever I type “NHS,” I enabled theuse of the forward slash (/) as a suffix, so that “NHS” no longer inserts anytext, but “NHS/” does. Prefixes and suffixes can be applied to any one entireset so you don’t need to update each entry manually. If I want to have aone-time suspension of Typinator, I can choose Pause from its icon in the menubar.
Use Prefix or Suffix to avoid having text mistakenly expanded.
You can have multiple Abbreviation Sets, and Typinator comes with a fewpredefined sets, too. With these extra sets, Typinator not only functions as atext expander but also as a system-wide spellchecker. There are AutoCorrectionsets for American English, British English, French, and German. For those whotype in English, there is also the TidBITS AutoCorrection set in American and British English. Thestandard AutoCorrection sets contain only 831 entries. With 2,302 entries, theTidBITS set greatly reduces the chance of making common typing mistakes, likeentering “10-BaseT” instead of “10Base-T” or “anser” instead of “answer.” If youalready use a text expander like TypeIt4Me or TextExpander, you can import setsfrom those applications
![Typinator 8 325 Typinator 8 325](https://www.ergonis.com/press/2019/20190514/keycue-finder-tenaya.png)
With Predefined Sets, Typinator can serve as a system-wide spellchecker.
Crowded House
The market that Typinator is in is a crowded one. Features and price play animportant role in influencing the buyers. Price-wise, Typinator holds its ownwell against TextExpander and TypeIt4Me. Typinator can be bought alone for €20or about $28, at the time ofthis writing. Both TextExpander and TypeIt4Me cost in the neighborhood of $30 aswell. Typinator can also be bought as part of the Mactility Bundle, which runsat €44 or about $60. The bundle includes KeyCue, PopChar X, and Typinator.Depending on how you value PopChar X and KeyCue, Typinator may cost less thanthe competition. I just reviewed PopChar X in the July 2009 issue of ATPM.
While Typinator runs bug-free, has a decent set of features, and iswell-documented, what it really needs is a way to expand text by selecting froma list. I only use a few abbreviations so I have no problems memorizing them. IfI use multiple sets with each set having many entries, I am sure I will easilylose track of what the abbreviations expand to. I would need to bring theTypinator window forward to read the abbreviations and their definitions, butthen would go back to my document and type the proper keystrokes. Why not justallow me to click on the entry and carry out the expansion right from theTypinator window? TypeIt4Me already has the feature. While it may be true thatTypinator has other advantages over TypeIt4Me, for Typinator not to haveclickable expanding is a serious omission.
Conclusion
Typinator works well as a text expansion utility. Creating abbreviations iseasy, and Typinator is flexible in executing the expansions. It can becase-sensitive and can detect whole words. The use of prefixes and suffixesmeans you can change all the abbreviations in a set together and not have toedit one by one. The inclusion of predefined sets like TidBITS AutoCorrectionis a plus. Unfortunately, Typinator is in a crowded market and lacks a crucialfeature that a competitor already offers, namely the ability to expand text byclicking on items in a list. The best rating I can give Typinator is Good.
Copyright © 2009 Linus Ly, [email protected]. Reviewing in ATPM is open toanyone. If you’re interested, write to us at [email protected].