Keyboard Maestro or Textexpander

[stumccly]

Hi Folks, Haven’t really got a chance to delve into david’s keyboard maestro course yet in any detail. As my textexpander sub is due for renewal in a few weeks my question is this , can keyboard maestro perform the same tasks as textexpander , my needs are simple insert dates, times, email addresses etc. If I can ditch textexpander and just use keyboard maestro for everything ??? Any thoughts, Thanks guys

[Christian]

I suggest that you dive into this topic:

Textexpander Disenchantment

When Textexpander decided to move to a subscription model, I begrudgingly subscribed because I use a ton of snippets and it was the only tool that was cross-platform compatible with iOS (to a degree). Since I’ve subscribed (early 2017), there haven’t been any real updates to Textexpander other than bug fixes. Other Apps that moved to a subscription model have been a lot busier - Drafts, Day One and Ulysses all seem to be earning their keep with frequent updates and new features. But Textexpan…

In the course of that thread you will find a discussion about Text Expander replacements. One option is Keyboard Maestro.

A lot can be found in the Keyboard Maestro forums:

Search results for 'text expansion' - Keyboard Maestro Discourse

Regarding the insertion of dates and times:

Multiple (~30) Text Manipulation (Case Change) and Text Expansion Macros

Almost everything can be done with Keyboard Maestro. The only question is if it should be done with this powerful automation tool.

I think that it comes down to the question to what extent you use text expansion and if you are using it on a Mac only.

To my mind, nothing comes close to Text Expander if you are a multi-platform user.

If you use TE exclusively on your Mac and if you are a heavy user of text expansion, Typinator might be a non-subscription alternative.

[JKoopmans]

Or aText, also mac only, and just 5 dollars

[lsieverts]

I switched from TE to KM about a year ago and have been perfectly happy. It took me a bit of time to recreate my macros, but since I used the same abbreviations, my use experience has been transparent.

I have about 100 simple macros. I don’t miss the fancy form filling macros of TextExpander — I’d only made a few and was happy to save a few dollars by ditching TE.

[marius]

It’s also worth mentioning that text expansion functionality exists in Alfred too, so if your needs are mostly in that vein then you may not need to bother with a separate app if you already use Alfred.

I was using aText until I realized this, but since I use Alfred anyway this is a more elegant solution for me.

[dfay]

And you can do things with keystroke triggers and script filters in Alfred that go well beyond the capabilities of Other tools.

[tonycr]

I was thinking about moving from TE but then I watched the Screencastsonline video on TextExpander. I realized how much capability that I could really use and was not taking advantage of. So now I am a user of both apps, each in their own niche.

Tony

[Rob_Polding]

I use keyboard maestro for things such as the link to email and date insertion, and Apple text replacement for everything else so replacements work throughout iOS. I use replacements a lot in iOS Safari, so TE is no use to me.

[stumccly]

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread , some really great advice and links in there. All help appreciated, many thanks

[majorgear]

Does Keyboard Maestro sync snippets across Macs? ie if I automate something on my iMac, will the same automation be copied to macbook?

[Christian]

If you enable syncing: yes.

https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/manual/Macro_Syncing