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Help: Guided Tour – Preferences Tab

preferences pane

Enable TextExpander

Check this box to enable TextExpander. Uncheck it to disable TextExpander.

Note: For TextExpander to work, you must have support for assistive devices enabled in the Universal Access System Preference. For more details, see "How Do I Install TextExpander?".

Set Hotkeys...

Click this button and these options will appear in a new window:

  • Use Hotkey to enable and disable TextExpander
  • Use Hotkey to create snippet from selection
  • Use Hotkey to create snippet from Clipboard

To set a hot key, click the "Push to set Hot Key" button, then press the desired Hot Key combination (for example, Control + 1, Option + S). Hot Key combinations must include Control, Option or Command.

If you use hot keys to create snippets, the Snippets pane will open, and the selected text or Clipboard contents will be pasted automatically. You will then need to create an abbreviation for the snippet. See "Creating and Editing Snippets" for more detail.

Expand abbreviations:

TextExpander expansions can be triggered three ways:

  • immediately
    When you type an abbreviation, the expansion will occur immediately
  • at delimiter (keep delimiter)
    You must type a "delimiter" key (such as space or tab) to trigger the expansion; the delimiter will remain after the expansion
  • at delimiter (abandon delimiter)
    As with the previous option, a delimiter must be typed to trigger the expansion, but the delimiter will not remain in place after the expansion.

If you choose to use one of the delimiter options, click the button Set Delimiters... to select the desired delimiter key. There are over 30 delimiters to choose from, including most punctuation keys, as well as space, return, tab and esc.

When inserting a snippet:

You can specify what happens when a snippet expands in TextExpander by checking the boxes in this section.

  • Play sound
    You can choose the default sound that TextExpander makes when an expansion is triggered. (You can also specify a sound for individual snippet groups in the Snippets pane; see "Grouping Snippets and Importing Groups.")
  • Restore clipboard
    TextExpander uses the Clipboard in the expansion process. With the option checked, TextExpander will restore the Clipboard to the contents it had prior to the expansion.
  • Use cross-platform compatible images (PNGs)
    If you use images in your snippets, TextExpander will always paste the image in PNG format when the snippet is expanded. Some programs, like Microsoft Entourage, work much better with PNGs. Uncheck this option if you want your images to be pasted in their original file format, such as JPG or GIF.

Default Snippet Format:

TextExpander snippets can have one of two formats: Plain Text and Formatted Text, Pictures. You can change the format in the snippet editor. (See "Creating and Editing Snippets")

Default Abbreviation Mode:

TextExpander has three options relating to case sensitivity:

  • Case Sensitive (aB, Ab, ab, AB differ)
    Example: "YT" will expand to "Yours Truly", "yt" will not.
  • Ignore Case (aB, Ab, ab, AB same)
    Example: either "YT" or "yt" will expand to "Yours Truly"
  • Adapt Snippet to Case of Abbreviation
    Example: "YT" will expand to "Yours Truly", "Yt" will expand to "Yours truly"

Default is to expand snippets in:

You can customize which applications will work with TextExpander

  • all applications
    By default, TextExpander is enabled for all applications.
  • all applications except...
    Excludes specified applications from working with TextExpander.
  • only these applications...
    Specifies which applications will work with TextExpander.

Show TextExpander in menu bar

Here you can specify the width of the list of snippets that appears when you click on the TextExpander icon in the menu bar. You can also choose the style of the TextExpander icon itself.

 

 
 
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