The big difference I noticed when I switched a while back was speed. Expansion in Typinator was just much faster. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but I’m still happy with Typinator, and it does everything I used TextExpander for.
1 Like
I hear ya. I don’t particularly care which text expander a person uses (or if they use one at all). But it almost comes across as a “flagrant foul” that the hosts don’t even mention/realize what a good product Typinator is. Just weirdly unobservant of what’s going on out there. For other folks it would be fine, but being aware of the competition for key products is something that should be part of their job. God forbid if anyone crosses the line with the big O (obsessing over obsidian).
1 Like
Well the show is not really “Mac” Power Users anymore. They spread the focus through iOS as well, so at the risk of sounding like a broken record, TextExpander is the only one at this moment to check all of those boxes.
The problem is lack of awareness. Text Expander has the early-mover advantage and they also do aggressive marketing.
But agree with you, Typinator is often an overlooked gem in the tech circles.
Sure, got it. But if “does it work on all 3 platforms” is the standard for their discussions that leaves out a lot of good products. I can certainly see why they’d prefer TextExpander to Typinator (or other options) for this reason. It’s just sad the lack of communication/awareness of other products.
… based on your criteria (which may be their criteria also) then you start leaving out Bike, Curio, and lots of very good products. Of course they can do anything they want, but in more and more cases now I find I have to really hold back “believability” of their suggestions based on a clear lack of trying to be comprehensive or even aware of other products. It just downgrades the value of the show for me.
But even with Obsidian, alternatives are mentioned. For ages David spoke about Roam and then, even now, still talks of Craft due to its collaboration potential. Stephen is even on record as not being a huge Obsidian fan (I think he tried it when studying in the last 12 months, but took its use no further).
Typinator is just ignored.
I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that. If that were the acid test, then Keyboard Maestro and Better Touch Tool would never be mentioned. And they (rightly) are. Extensively.
Typinator and the others were last discussed in the MPU episode #203, titled TextExpander, back in 2014. But since David Sparks is a heavy user of TextExpander he mentions it frequently. They aren’t going to be mentioning products they don’t use, especially with their recent emphasis on workflows.
Congrats. I’ve dumped TE many many years ago.
I used TextExpander when it was Texpander. I switched to Typinator when they went subscription. Typinator is a capable text expansion utility. I did miss not having text expansion on iOS. But given the battery life of the M1 Mac book air, I rarely type on an iPad.
Since we are using computers for records at work, I am using Typinator heavily. There are so many features power features that I do not use on Typinator.
The one thing I wish to see would be keyboard maestro conflict pallets in Typinator. This could be simulated in Typinator, but it is conceptually easier to use a conflict pallet. Of course I use keyboard maestro for that.
I was always puzzled with the heavy emphasis of textexpander and pdfpen. Pdfpen never quite worked right for me. Typinator works faster that text expander did and I do not need to keep windows and Mac machines in sync.
The advantage of this MPU forum is that there is great exposure to other viewpoints.
I am speaking of Text Expansion apps only… TextExpander is the only one right now that covers both macOS and iOS and yes there are some macOS apps that can do it but nowhere near the level of TextExpander. If they meet your needs, thats great but even Typinator is a distant second as far as versatility for me.
As far as subscriptions go, I am the biggest complainer of subs. But Smile gave original purchasers a $20/year deal which is better than any other dev I have seen… So I pay them.
Does either Typinator or Textexpander have a “Deconfliction Menu” system where entering a prefix to activate the app puts it in “listening” mode and shows me a menu of all expansions matching my partially typed word as it proceeds.
If I understand your question, the iOS version does. they appear right above your keyboard.
The macOS version will show them in the menubar dropdown…
I totally agree. Neither piece of software has ever worked well for me, and I was always unimpressed by Smile’s customer support, and confused by the good reputation they had.
This is what I was looking for. Staring me in the face the whole time. Thanks for pointing this out. Just used this a ton today.
1 Like