![]() ![]() Shared snippets have also begun to blossom. And the promised frequent app updates have come: Smile delivered 17 updates to the macOS app last year compared to only 7 the year before. According to Smile, about a third of the TextExpander customer base has moved to the subscription service, which gives Smile the income to pay for continued app updates and to keep the lights on in the server room. Were there enough people willing to sign up for the plan? Was there really a demand for shared typing shortcuts?Īs it turns out, there were and there was. ![]() At the time, I thought that Smile had put itself into an awkward position: in order to defray the costs of running the TextExpander cloud service the company had to charge a subscription fee, but all Smile could offer customers at the service’s introduction was the promise of more frequent app updates and vague hints of new capabilities. Full disclosure: Smile isĪ longtime TidBITS sponsor, and I have written books about both previous versions of TextExpander and Smile’s PDFpen.Īlthough I had worked closely with Smile while writing about TextExpander and PDFpen, I was as surprised as anyone when I heard about the subscription model and the tethering of TextExpander to a cloud-served snippet library. The mandatory subscription model provoked cries of dismay among many users, and within days, Smile had responded as we described in “ Smile Brings Back Standalone TextExpander, Reduces Subscription Price ” (13 April 2016). #1682: Apple’s “Scary Fast” announcement, X.1 updates to 2023 OS versions, Microsoft Word’s 40th anniversary, 5G wireless InternetĪs I write this, it has been one year since Smile introduced TextExpander 6 for Mac and TextExpander 4 for iPhone and iPad, along with the bombshell news that the new versions would be free but require a paid subscription at (see “ TextExpander 6 Adds Teams and Subscription Billing,” 6 April 2016).#1683: New M3 chips in updated MacBook Pros and iMac, record Apple Q4 profits on lower revenues, no more 27-inch iMacs.#1684: OS bug fix releases, Finder tag poll results, Messages identity verification, blocking spambots, which Apple services do you use?.#1685: Hidden secrets of the Fn key, Emergency SOS via satellite free access extended, RCS support in Messages, Rogue Amoeba icon evolution.#1686: Please support TidBITS, OS security updates, Apple services poll results, biking with an iPhone.If you purchased the previous version via the Mac App Store, you’re eligible for the upgrade price ($15) TextExpander 4 will recognize your Mac App Store-purchased version and offer you the discounted price. No longer available from the Mac App Store. [Note: Because of Apple’s sandboxing rules, TextExpander is ![]() And if you’ve never used TextExpander or a similar text-expansion utility, you might want to check out TextExpander to see how much time it can save you. But if you’re a heavy TextExpander user-and especially if you use fill-ins-it’s a nice improvement for $15. If you’re running OS X 10.7 Lion or earlier and don’t need the new fill-in features, you may not see much benefit from upgrading. The aforementioned features aside, TextExpander 4 is quite similar to version 3. Version 4 is officially compatible with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, too, and the company has added a number of other minor features and tweaks. This is a much more powerful feature than can be explained in a paragraph-and though fill-in snippets can require some work to create, they can save a huge amount of time if you often type or paste this kind of text.Īnother improvement in TextExpander 4 is that I didn’t encounter any of the performance shortcomings I noted in my review of version 3. You can even use pop-up menus to choose from a list of values. For example, you can create a form-letter snippet that prompts you to fill in fields with the name of the recipient, as well as specific information that varies from letter to letter (such as a price, date, or product name). The most significant new features in TextExpander 4 are additional options for “fill-ins,” which are complex snippets offering fields that you can fill in on the fly, or which can contain multiple choices. ![]()
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