![]() ![]() ![]() Since the Snippet is intended to be used in email, you put it in a Group called Email.Say you have a Snippet with the abbreviation of thanks that expands into a two-paragraph “thank you” email.What is a Snippet Group prefix? It’s a set of characters applied to the shortcut of every Snippet in a group. For instance, you might set a Snippet so yt expands into “YouTube.” That’s fine for expanding short words and phrases-as long as you use a system that makes sense to you-but we’ve learned over the years that longer, more descriptive Snippet abbreviations are more likely to be used.įor longer Snippets, like email templates, it’s worth typing a few extra characters for the abbreviation in exchange for making the Snippet more memorable and user-friendly.Ī key feature for creating memorable Snippet abbreviations is Snippet Group abbreviation prefixes. The second cornerstone of TextExpander best practices-after organization-is making Snippets memorable and discoverable.īack in the day, many of us would try to make Snippet abbreviations as short as possible, usually with an obscure prefix to prevent accidental triggering. Not able to play the video? Click here to watch the video 2. This video teaches you how to create Snippet Groups: In time, you’ll likely come up with more Snippets that fit in that Group, so this saves you from having to find and aggregate them at a later date. When in doubt about where to store a Snippet, create a new Group for it! It’s perfectly okay to have a Snippet Group with only one Snippet. It’s a best practice to make copious use of Groups. However, there can often be times when you want a Snippet to expand after a character, like a colon or period. Expand When: By default, Snippets only expand when following whitespace.For instance, you may have a Snippet group of frequently visited URLs that you only want to expand in web browsers. Expand In: This lets you specify which applications the Snippet will expand or not expand in.Other than sharing, there are two important settings only available to Groups and not individual Snippets:.It makes them easier to share since you share a Snippet Group instead of an individual Snippet.It helps you take advantage of Snippet Group abbreviation prefixes to make it easy to create abbreviation patterns for related Snippets. ![]() It keeps your Snippets in shorter, easily scannable lists.It keeps your Snippets organized and offers other advantages: Take advantage of Snippet Groups to organize related Snippets. Organization makes your Snippets accessible, which also makes them maintainable. Many TextExpander users have built up collections of hundreds-or even thousands-of Snippets over the years, and without a good system in place, it’s all too easy to forget what Snippets you have. Organization is a cornerstone of TextExpander best practices. Keep related Snippets organized into groups Now that we’ve nailed down those basic definitions, let’s see Rex’s tips. To get a sense of everything you can do with TextExpander, check out our TextExpander 101 webinar. You can create Snippets with fill-ins, optional sections, and other customization options. In the example above, the Content is “TextExpander”. Content: What the Snippet expands into.In the example above, txp is the abbreviation. Abbreviation: This is the string of characters you type to trigger Snippet expansion.Label: This is simply the name of the Snippet you see in TextExpander and in inline search.From then on, whenever you want to insert the saved text, all you have to do is type the abbreviation.įor instance, you can create a Snippet so when you type txp it expands into “TextExpander.” You can save any type of text into TextExpander: words, phrases, paragraphs, codes, URLs, emails, and even entire book chapters.įor each text fragment you save, which we call a Snippet, you assign it a keyboard shortcut or abbreviation. TextExpander is a typing shortcut tool that helps you write faster. Until now, his knowledge has only been available through our regular TextExpander webinars, but we decided that these tips need to be written down!Īlso see the second part in this series, which covers creating and documenting Snippets. Rex Mann, one of our Customer Success Managers here at TextExpander, is a walking encyclopedia of these best practices based on his years of experience in psychology and productivity consulting. With TextExpander-or any productivity tool-customers often ask us if they’re using it “right.” How should Snippets be named? What abbreviations should you use? Should you use a prefix or a suffix for the abbreviation to prevent accidental expansion? The truth is, we often have the same questions ourselves. However, we’ve built up a lot of “best practices” over the years-little tricks that make using TextExpander more enjoyable and efficient. You have total freedom to create, organize, and name your Snippets however you want. ![]()
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