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Review: TextExpander Touch 2 a typing timesaver for iOS
   



   
TextExpander touch 2 now lets you insert macros and fill-in fields within your snippets, similar to the Mac version.

For those familiar with the TextExpander 4 for Mac utility, it may come as no surprise that Smile Software offers a $5 iOS version of the app called TextExpander touch. While some may have been disappointed by TextExpander touch version 1’s limited feature set when compared with the Mac version, Smile has recently released TextExpander 2, a huge upgrade that has added support for more advanced “macros” and “fill-in” fields, putting it nearly on par with the latest Mac version.


In TextExpander’s terms, a macro is a placeholder that inserts variable information (like the current date, the contents of the clipboard, performing a math calculation, or moving the cursor) into an expanded snippet. A fill-in field tells TextExpander to pause while expanding the snippet so that you can fill in variable information yourself. TextExpander’s macros allow you to build some very powerful snippets.


Here’s one small example from my snippet library. I store just about everything on my Mac in plain text files that sync to Dropbox, where I can access them from my iPhone and iPad using any of a variety of Dropbox-powered text editors. I store my business expenses in one of these files, and I use the following snippet to enter an expense:


Date: %Y-%m-%d%| Project: %filltext:name=project% Amount: $%filltext:name=amount% Mileage: %filltext:name=mileage% miles Purpose: %fillarea:name=purpose% Billable: %fillpopup:name=billable:default=Yes:No%
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