As we have increased our screen time this year, it’s become ever more important to make our technology experience more efficient so we can draw our eyes away and rest. To do so, there are some text tools that can add significant value to our engagement.

Two in particular I want to introduce are TextExpander and the venerable clipboard manager.

What is TextExpander?

TextExpander is special application in which you can define abbreviations you type that expand into longer snippets. These can be anything from your name or phone number to an email signature to an entire email template.

Once defined, TextExpander keeps its eye on the keyboard and waits for you to type an abbreviation. Then it replaces it with the text and/or images you specified.

macOS and iOS also offer text replacement shortcuts but the implementation is very barebones, supporting only single lines of text. TextExpander’s offering is way more sophisticated, even typing keyboard keys (such as Tab to go to the next field) and making space to fill in blanks or select from popup menus.

Can You Give Me an Example?

Think about the things you type repeatedly. It could be as simple as your name or email or street address. It could be a form letter or boilerplate response you send to a series of people. What about the link to your Zoom personal meeting room you find yourself always copying from somewhere else?

I use TextExpander quite often in my work for Wilderness Torah when I’m sending instructions for how to register for a program or to summarize a new installment plan where I have to specify several names and dates to go with the template text of the email. I also use it to type the names of various programs so I don’t have to type them manually every time.

Clipboard Managers

It’s also good to never leave home without a good clipboard manager, because why should you be limited to pasting only the one thing you most recently copied. The basic action is: press a predefined shortcut and choose from a list of items you have recently copied.

Imagine you’re drafting an online profile, responding to a series of prompts in your word processor. Your normal approach might be to copy and paste your responses on the website one at a time, tediously switching back and forth to your web browser.

Instead, you can copy the whole sequence of text blocks, switch to the browser once, and paste them in sequence in the fields of the website.

Such As?

There are slew of apps to choose from in this category. Here’s a list to get you started. Personally, I have been a long time user of LaunchBar, an app that lets me type an abbreviation to open an application, find and navigate folders in my file system, and more. LaunchBar also has a clipboard manager.

Again, I press a universal keyboard shortcut (in my case, Command+Backslash) and have instant access to the last bunch of items I’ve copied so I can easily paste them.

Every little bit of increased efficiency can help you make the most of this condensed time and give you a little more time back to focus on the things you love. As always, let me know if you want help finding or getting started with any of these tools.