Tip #3961 - Texter
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Texter
If you thought about
it, I think you'd be surprised at how often you type the same things everyday.
Now, wouldn't it be much easier to have the computer type those things
for you? That would be so useful, don't you think?! It would save a lot
of time too. Well, it just so happens that an application I'm going to
show you today will do just that!
The program we will
be working with today is very simple, yet very powerful and it goes by
the name of Texter. Adam Pash of Lifehacker, Inc. developed
Texter himself. So, what does it do? Well, it allows you to program a
hotstring and a replacement phrase. When you type the hotstring and hit
a certain trigger key, the entire phrase will appear for you. For example,
if the keyword is ''add" and I programmed the replacement phrase
as my address, I would type "add" and then hit the trigger button.
Once I do that, my address would appear. That can save a whole lot of
time. Pretty cool, huh?!
To get it for yourself,
just follow these directions:
1.) First, you'll
need to download the Texter program from this link.
Run the installer and when prompted, accept the default installation folder.
Also, select Yes when asked to check for updates at each
startup.
2.) Now, go to Start
and click Run. Then copy and paste this line: C:/Program
Files/Texter into the textbox and hit Enter.
3.) The Texter directory will then appear. Right click the Texter icon,
scroll to Send To and click Desktop.
4.) A shortcut will appear on your desktop. Texter should be open already
and in it, you should see your taskbar. Here’s what the program
in your taskbar looks like, magnified: 
If you don't see it
in your taskbar, click the shortcut on your desktop and it will then appear.
5.) Next, double click
the icon and the program will open up.
6.) To add a new hotstring, click the + button and the
window above will open.
7.) Type in the hotstring
(for example, "add"). Then type in the replacement text in the
large box. Finally, select the trigger(s). The trigger key is the key
you press after typing in the hotstring to make the replacement text appear.
Choose Enter, Tab or Space.
Click OK and you've just made your first hotstring!
8.) You can try it out by going into your e-mail service. Type in the
hotstring, click the trigger key and the text will appear! Now, let's
go into some of the features of Texter.
There are also some
special code words you can use in your replacement texts. Enter the code
word and when you use the hotstring, the output will be what is listed
below. Check out this table of all the keywords for more help:
| Code
Word |
Output |
%c |
Whatever is on
the clipboard. |
| %ds |
Short date (i.e.
7/12/2007). |
| %dl |
Long date (i.e.
Thursday, July 12, 2007). |
| %t |
Time (i.e. 4:30). |
I use these, because
on my Web site, I enter the date in which the page was last updated. So,
I created a hotstring with this replacement text: "This page was
last updated on %ds at %t." Works like a charm!
And boy, that's just one example of how you can use Texter to your advantage!
You can also use Texter
as a universal auto corrector (to find out more about this, click here).
To do so:
1.) Create a new hotstring,
with a typo or misspelled word as the hotstring and the correct spelling
as the replacement text. Also, after the replacement text, hit the Spacebar
once.
2.) Finally, set the
Spacebar as the trigger key.
3.) If you mess up when typing, right after you misspell the word and
click the Spacebar, it will be fixed! Other useful applications
of Texter include using it to hold your HTML codes for things like Web
banners and e-mail icons. Or, if ur obsessed w/ srt hand, use Txtr
to fix that 2! : )
If you have trouble
remembering all of your hotstrings (like I do), you can print a list of
them out to keep on hand. To do that:
1.) Right click the
taskbar icon, click Preferences and then select the Print
tab.
2.) Click the Create
Printable Texter Cheat Sheet button and the list will be sent
to your browser.
3.) You can print it from there by selecting File, followed
by Print.
Now, just to show you how much time and energy Texter saves you, check
out the Stats tab in the Preferences
window. There you can see how many snippets have been expanded, the number
of characters replaced and finally, the hours that have been saved. After
you see that, you'll wonder what you ever did without Texter!
If you want to have easier access to Texter, set it to open at each startup.
To do that, right click the icon in your taskbar and click Preferences.
Then select Run Texter at Setup. Also, if you want to
run Texter off a USB drive (flash drive, for instance) so that you can
just plug your USB drive into any computer and use Texter on that computer,
you will need to install this program
onto your drive. To read more about running applications on a USB drive,
click here.
Cool, huh?!
Note: WorldStart
is not the developer of this software and cannot offer technical support.
Now, go on and enjoy
your texting!
~ Neil Patel
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