Texter review

[Homepage and Download]

Here’s an application that covers all my requirements for a slick piece of software - simple to use and efficient. Texter, from LifeHacker, is, at heart, a macro recorder. I’ve tried many in the past, but most of them seemed to require more work than the work it was meant to simplify!

The idea is very simple - define some text you frequently type, for example your email signature. Give that text a shortcut, such as #sig and a “Trigger”, such as the space key. Then, when you need to enter that text, simply type #sig, hit the space bar and there’s your text. You can enter Script as well as plain text. So, let’s expand on the email signature example. The screenshot below shows the script for the signature I use when emailing about my Flight Simulator site (which you can find here, in case you’re tempted to look!):

So now, when I press #fsig and the space bar, I get the following on screen:

Cheers,

Mark

—
FlightSimX - http://www.flightsimx.co.uk
Join the Flight Simulator Network - http://.flightsimulator.ning.com

Now, how many key presses a year is that going to save me?

You can write scripts for just about anything you can use the keyboard for. This program really is a godsend. I do a lot of coding in my day-to-day work, and this is great for code-snippets etc.

Texter also supports clipboard support. Simply place %c anywhere in the script and it’ll be replaced with whatever’s in your clipboard at the time you execute it. You can also insert %| in the script and the cursor will be positioned to that point once executed.

Texter sits unobtrusively in the Windows Task Bar and can insert text into any Windows application. If you find yourself constantly entering the same text, you owe it to yourself and your keyboard to give this application a try.