The MacLitigator, an excellent blog for Mac Lawyers, has an interesting post about using TextExpander for your signature on mail that requires you to lick a stamp.

I love hearing from readers and listeners with interesting questions. Recently, reader Teri wrote asking about how to make clickable links using TextExpander for an e-mail signature. I have been doing this for some time by using the entire link. For instance up until very recently, part of my e-mail signature looked like this:

Teri’s question was whether, using TextExpander, she could put a link in without spelling out the link specifically. Turns out you can.
The trick is:
1. Enable Formatted Text and Pictures with the snippet:

2. Type out the entire Link:

3. Context Click and Create URL

4. Go Into the Created Link and Edit the Text

5. Customize the Text
Set your fonts and colors. Here is my final product.

Thanks to the gang at SmileOnMyMac for helping me sort this out and for their continuing effort on TextExpander.

SmileOnMyMac has been putting in overtime on TextExpander lately. They released version 2.1 recently followed very quickly by version 2.1.1 and now they are releasing 2.2. The newest version adds a snippet group for common CSS code for all the web design jockeys. It also limits “Adapt to Case” to lowercase snippets and to abbreviations with two or more characters to avoid problems with those expansions.
I’ve been using the upgraded version today for awhile and still occasionally run into a problem when typing fast and the text gets jumbled into the snippet. That frustration aside, TextExpander is still one of my all time favorite applications on the Mac. Lets hope they figure a way to put their magic onto an iPhone where this application could be extremely useful.

Text Expander is one of my favorite applications. I use text snippets for everything from email to legal briefs to applescript code. If you do any sort of repetitive text entry, you owe it to yourself to give Text Expander a try.
The new version 2.1 includes several improvements. According to the developer version 2.1 adds the following:
– Allows single character abbreviations
– Improves performance and reliability for fast typists
– Remembers open groups in Preference pane
– Preserves format when creating snippets from selection or Clipboard
– Fixes problem expanding when there are multiple nested snippets
– Minor fixes and improvements
I’m most interested in increased reliability for fast typists. Occasionally, Text Expander stumbles when I type too fast which can be frustrating. I’m interested in what the users are using Text Expander or any of the other text snippet applications for. Sound off in the comments.