Loading...If you work in an office where you need to type a lot, you might get annoyed sometimes if you need to type the recurring phrases again and again. Or if you are a programmer, you get tired of having to type the basic code snippets that occur most frequently which you think are faster to type rather than look out for them and then copy/paste. So, is there an end to it? Why not? With Texter, you can save your numerous keystrokes replacing abbreviations with the phrases you use most frequently.
Texter is a very powerful text-expanding software and you’ll be amazed to know how much time you can really save yourself while typing. This is a software from Lifehacker and the author is Adam Pash. Its not that you need to type in the code into Texter first and then copy/paste it into some another one. This piece of software works on any text editing application.
If you are a Java developer, you must have typed in the following line of code a number of times:
public class myfile{
public static void main(string[] args){
}
}
How much does it take for you to type this piece of code? Ok lets assume that it only takes 5 seconds of your precious time. But imagine writing it some 500 times. If that is the case, you are already spending 2500 seconds i.e. around 40 minutes writing it. This is just an example, many such phrases can appear on your text document that can suck up a whole lot of your time in hours.
Well specifying the phrases in Texter that you’ll be using most frequently is not a difficult job. Texter gets minimized in the system tray once it gets activated. Now right click the icon and select “Create new hotstring”. You will now see a box like this:
In the Hotstring define the shortcut for your phrase. In the adjacent text area, copy and paste the phrase that you’ll be using frequently. Then select the key to trigger your shortcut, select one from Enter key, Tab, Space bar or Instant. Finally hit OK. You can also edit your hotstrings or the phrases from “Manage Hotstrings” option. Now open up your text document and type in the hotstring and hit Tab(or whatever trigger that you’ve defined). The phrase will instantly appear in the document. In the above example of a basic Java code, if I define a hotstring “javastart” for it and hit my trigger tab, I’ll get the above lines of code instantly. Isn’t that great?
Here’s a video from Lifehacker showing the use of Texter and see how a text expander like Texter saves your time typing your codes or anything else.