Text Expansion is a savior when you have to type a lot, especially when it's repetitive. That's why we test and review the 2018 best text expander apps for you. The text expansion utility is easy to use. All you have to do is assign a shortcut to insert or paste text snippets into any app of your choice. 10 Free Apps to Fix Common Mac Quirks and Annoyances. 10 Free Apps to Fix Common Mac Quirks and Annoyances. The screenshot above is courtesy of one of our customer champions at Zapier, Vicky. She uses a text expansion app to drop common responses and links into help desk tickets, so our users get answers fast. Alfred (Mac) Best for: Light text expansion plus a bunch of other Mac-searching functions.
The Text tab in Mac OS X 10.6’s Language & Text system preference lets you define keyboard shortcuts for text snippets. But third-party text expanders can do much more. The screenshot above is courtesy of one of our customer champions at Zapier, Vicky. She uses a text expansion app to drop common responses and links into help desk tickets, so our users get answers fast. Alfred (Mac) Best for: Light text expansion plus a bunch of other Mac-searching functions.
Strangely, Mac OS X has a wide variety of great text expansion apps and everyone does the job well. That said, aText is our favorite thanks to its comprehensive feature set, great performance, and reasonable price.
aText
Platform: Mac OS X
Price: $5 Download Page (Mac App Store) Features
Where It Excels
Despite the very low price for aText ($5), it's remarkably comprehensive. It offers mostly the same feature set as bigger apps like TextExpander for a fraction of the cost. Text expansion works as expected, you can specify when specific groups of snippets should expand, and you have the ability to include so many variables that one little snippet could, potentially, create a unique letter or document. If you use another text expansion app, there's a good chance aText imports its data. It doesn't cost much, it does practically everything, it's simple to use, and it's easy to switch from other popular solutions if you're interested.
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Where It Falls Short
While aText isn't short on features, one notable omission is the ability to sync snippets.
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The Competition
TypeIt4Me ($5) was our former top pick. It packs quite a punch for $5, too, but doesn't offer as many variable options (like fillable forms) as aText. It does offer a number of unique features like autocorrect, however, so it's worth a look if you want something a little different from most of the competition at a very low price.
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Text Expander ($35) offers a few more features than aText, and a mobile app that's crippled by iOS' rules and restrictions. While TextExpander is a fantastic alternative—and, in some ways, better—it's not a better value than aText. You'll pay seven times more for a very similar experience.
Typinator (24.99€) offers a similar feature set to the other text expansion apps but its price has only gone up. While it is, at the moment, slightly cheaper than TextExpander it doesn't work quite as well. When filling out custom form variables, for example, if the form window loses focus (i.e. Box gallery santa fe. you click outside of it) it just disappears. I contacted the developer about this issue and was told it's impossible to fix. TextExpander doesn't have this problem, and when I found the same issue in aText its developer fixed it in less than 24 hours.
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DashExpander (Free, $3 Premium) has an unusual interface and can be a little weird to use at first, but is nonetheless a solid text expansion app. It's also your only free option, so if you don't want to pay anything at all it's the only way to go. While we still really like it, when our first and second choices only cost $5 we highly recommend supporting these developers by paying such a small fee for their excellent work.
Text Expansion Apps For Mac
Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
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A handy, little utility, Text Expander for Mac lets you configure keyboard shortcuts that automatically expand into larger snippets of text as you type.
We installed the program without hassle, and when we ran it for the first time were presented with a basic tutorial, which got us working with the app quickly. Text Expander for Mac comes with several built-in 'snippets,' as they are called, for frequently typed bits of text, like e-mail and snail mail addresses, phone numbers, or the time and date. Snippets are highly configurable. We created a form letter that, when activated, launches a little dialog box with a blank field for the name. We typed in the name, hit 'OK,' and then the full text of the letter appeared in Word. We were able to generate a TinyURL on the fly, simply by copying a link to the clipboard and then typing '/tinyurl' in our document. The program then used a script to create the TinyURL at the Web site, and then pasted it directly where we typed. The possibilities seem limitless with what Text Expander for Mac can take on. The app offers a backup function for all your snippets, and a feature that allows for syncing with other computers and even iOS devices, as well.
Mac App Store
Text Expander for Mac, quite simply, seems to be one of the cooler and more original apps available. Anyone who finds themselves doing a lot of repetitive typing would do well to give the fully-functional demo a try.
Apps For Mac
Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of TextExpander for Mac 4.0.4.
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