I use this rather than starting with the default : symbol because 1) I find it easier to remember, and 2) it doesn’t require me to use the Shift key (so it’s fast). So html expansions all start with hh, R expansions start with rr, python with pp, etc. The time savings don’t come from avoiding the extra keystrokes – they come from avoiding typos! It’s all too easy to miss a tiny symbol or letter in a chunk of code which then results in several minutes (if not longer) of searching for the bug.Īs a convention, I decided to start all of my “code” triggers with a double letter of the first letter of the code language. I write lots of common code snippets for a wide variety of use cases, and the ability to automate these globally (i.e. not just in a code IDE) on my computer is an incredible help. This is where things start getting really helpful. For example, to get to my GitHub page, I just type //gh:īy far my most used url expansion this year was //zoom to expand to the url to my personal zoom room! □ Code Now I can just type a few keys □! I start each of these with "//". Before, I had to open up my browser, navigate to the site, then copy the url. "George Washington used to rely on bookmarks for lots of common sites I visit, but I often need to copy-paste the actual url to those sites (e.g. if I’m sending the link to someone else). "Engineering Management and Systems Engineering" Note: It’s probably a really bad idea to put passwords you use in your espanso settings, so don’t do that! I probably have to do this once a week or so for one reason or another, so coming up with some quick expansions for common personal information is extremely satisfying. I can’t stand having to type my name, address, email, etc. I’ll spend the rest of this post highlighting a few use cases, but for reference I also included a copy of most of my settings at the end of this post (I took out some snippets with personal information like the link to my personal Zoom room, etc.) Personal information After using it for just a few weeks, I have already come up with several dozen expansions that I now regularly use. With just a few lines you can define a wide range of custom expansions. What I really love about this interface is it’s simplicity. Now anytime I type :test, the text will expand to Hello World!. # Simple text replacement - trigger : ":test" replace : "Hello World!" You can find it’s location with this in the terminal: To set a text expansion, all you have to do is edit the default.yml file. It’s really simple to get it up and running – check it out. because it’s all there in the espanso documentation. Note: I’m skipping a lot of details about installation, etc. In fact, I have become such a fan of espanso that I decided to sit down and write a whole post highlighting some of the ways I use it. So far, it has integrated quite nicely into my day-to-day workflow. More than anything, I started (and kept) using espanso because I found it to be remarkably simple to use and easy to customize. Of course if you’d like to support the project you can donate here. But I prefer to use open source software whenever possible (the espanso source code is on GitHub), and especially when using software that tracks the text you type (imagine how easy it would be to grab passwords with this type of software). There are lots of these programs out there, such as Typinator, or the creatively-named “ textexpander” (macOS even has a build-in expander). Text expander programs “expand” short text “triggers” into longer / more complex strings of text, like this: This is easily one of the best pieces of software I used daily.I recently discovered a wonderfully useful little program called espanso – a “text expander” that I now use on a daily basis. Simple software like this saves your life from the monotony. So can text in some controls to use flags for icons, to create font styles. What I'm also starting to do is to create these greeked text blocks formatted in Balsamiq's text syntax, which is kind of like markdown or wiki editing syntax. For instance, I have single paragraph, single sentence, title/description/author, etc. The email response stuff is cool, but what I've been using it for most is for all the different kinds of Lorem Ipsum greeking I use. Years ago, pre-OS X, used something called TypeIt4Me to handle this and am stoked to have this kind of a tool back in my aresenal. Peldi and Val handle the volume by using Typinator, a Mac utility that lets you define text shortcuts that you trigger to complete these answers. Part of that work is repeatedly referencing the same URLS and instructions for frequently asked questions. Since starting work at Balsamiq I've been doing customer support every day.
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