What Is Text Expansion and Can It Help You Type Faster on Mac?

What Is Text Expansion and Can It Help You Type Faster on Mac?

Doesn’t matter how fast you type but many phrases and sentences are long and If you use them frequently, then won’t you like them to appear while typing to avoid typing it over again. Well, it is established that nobody likes typing long phrases, again, it is not only boring but time-consuming, isn’t it? Therefore, we will let you in on a secret, text expansion system that can save your time while typing long paragraphs.

In this blog, we will see what Text Expansion is, and how to enable it to save your time.

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What is Text Expansion?

You are familiar with the auto-completion or auto-correction process in cell phones. Text Expansion is a type of predictive typing that allows you to type a long string of text by entering a shorter string. To understand it better, you can relate it with the keyboard shortcuts which are used to form words, phrases, or sentences.

The Text Expansion app monitors your typing style and stores it in its memory so that next time whenever you type any specific alphabets or a sequence of the alphabet then it can replace those entered alphabets with its predefined piece of text.

For example, you type your email address regularly. Now imagine if you have quite a big email address that you have to type frequently, then it becomes quite boring but do you have another option rather than typing the complete email address. Well now that you know about Text Expansion, you can make use of it. As you type the first letter or email address, you will get a complete email address as a suggestion that you can select to type automatically.

Apart from this, Text Expansion apps also allow you to autofill the forms by inserting your basic details like name, address, email address, etc.

Read more: Best Text Expander Tools For Windows PC

Is Using Text Expansion Useful?

Text Expansion apps trace your typing style and store all the important words in their memory so that it can suggest related words based on your typing style on every alphabet you type. Text Expansion can surprise you by its ability to suggest words and therefore you can save a lot of time while typing on your Mac. When you start using a Text Expansion app then in the initial phase it takes some time to set up but when the app is accustomed to your typing habits and the words you use.

Text Expansion is useful for those professionals such as content writers, or students for dissertations and research.

How To Set Up Text Expansion?

In macOS, there is inbuilt text expansion capability. To initiate the process navigate to System Preferences> Keyboard> Text. Here you will be able to create basic text expansion options. For example, if you use the phrase “Let me know what you think” then you can create a rule that will replace “;lmk”. Now every time you want to use the phrase “Let me know what you think” then you do not have to write a complete sentence and you can just write “;lmk” to replace it. Isn’t it time-saving? Indeed it is. Similarly, you can add as many phrases as you want that you use frequently to save your time.

Keyboard

Steps to create a new rule:-

  • Double click on the new blank line of click the plus (+) icon
  • Remember to keep your shortcuts simple and that you can remember when you want to type the phrase then you can quickly recall.
  • Add your shortcut text into the Replace column and then type the full text that you wish to expand to into the With column

This is a great way to increase your typing speed and make your work more productive. You can add as many shortcuts as you want for the phrases you use regularly it will in turn boost your typing speed.

Also Read: How To Fix the macOS Could Not Be Installed on Your Computer Error

Conclusion:-

Text expansion is a great way to increase typing speed by choosing some shortcuts for your most repeated phrases or sentences so that you can type long paragraphs in just a few clicks and make your work and time more productive.

Try text expansion in your Mac and let us know in the comment section below what difference you experiences after enabling text expansion.

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