Typinator - Version 1.3
reviewed by Wayne Lefevre
Developers: Ergonis Software distributed under Macility brand. http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator Released: June 15th, 2006 $20 [USD], 2 pack $35, 5 pack at $80 and 10 for $150. Volume licensing of more than 30 contact customer service for quote. Macility Productivity Bundle List Price for $45 USD Free updates for 2 years included. Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. Power PC and Universal Binary Audience: All user levels It’s localized in English only. Help is in English only Strength — Typinator enables users to rapidly insert text or graphics into any type of application, and does so easily and as advertised. Weakness — Only one I ran into was no cursor placement on text expansion. The software was tested on a 1.6 GHz dual processor Intel Mac Mini 2 GB DDR SDRAM running under OS X 10.4.7. Product and company names and logos in this review may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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Typinator is one application in a "Macility Productivity Bundle" by Ergonis Software GmbH, out of Hagenberg, Austria. The bundle includes PopChar X, KeyCue and Typinator, though you can purchase each separately out of the bundle.
Those familiar with the programs TextExpander and TypeIt4Me will be familiar with Typinator. Typinator is an easy-to-use automatic text software that helps you to quickly insert phrases or pictures into any type of document. If you find yourself needing to repeat the same text, formatted text, or pictures, over and over again, Typinator will be for you.
After you install Typinator, you can define your abbreviations.
The included abbreviations include "typurl." which, when entered into application will automatically replace the phrase into the home-page of ergonis' website, http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/. Also included is "dt." automatically entering the date, and "typeicon." which places the Typinator logo into your document. Like so:
Here you can make your own abbreviations for anything imaginable. Imagine my frustration when typing this review, and trying to type in the abbreviations! This is especially appreciated, though, when typing in HTML codes, or any coding text for that matter. Imagine just typing in "cb", short for say, "Color Black", and having [COLOR="Black"][/COLOR] phrase pop up automatically. Inserting the date and time is very easy, and it offers many ways to set up different templates for doing so.
For personal use, I found it easy to set up expansions for smilies and oft used phrases in e-mail, insert different signatures, pictures, and the like. For business users setting up standard customer e-mail responses would be a breeze, and as mentioned before, would be a boon for coders setting up blocks and templates..
This, perhaps, may be more of a shortcoming I have come across in Typinator then other applications of it's like. I have not come across a way to re-position your cursor on text expansion the way TypeIt4Me or TextExpander will. The trigger options on TextExpander let you use the space bar, return, or tab key. Typinator will not let you use these as expansions, but I have not seen a problem with that. I can use the "." or period key as the trigger, and it works just as well. It's also case sensitive, expanding the text to how you type the abbreviation. "Btw" will result in "By the way" and "btw" will expand as "by the way".
Typinator is also less expensive than it's alternatives, making this a great buy. It's only offered in English, odd it coming from a Austrian company, but it's a great piece of shareware, well in the affordable range for it's abilities.
Whether your a web coder, student or even an author, it definitely makes short work of the long word.
