Texter – A Must Have Productivity Tool

Originally posted 2010-05-20 07:06:00.

I have known about this little utility called Texter for a very long time through Lifehacker. But, until today I never gave it a shot.

I was tired of typing repetitive things throughout the day, day in and day out every week. Be it, my site urls or email signatures, some keywords, phone number, address, etc.

I have used a few different ways to improve my productivity

• Using Wisestamp Firefox extension for Gmail HTML signature
• Using Inform Enter firefox extension for filling out forms
• Using Windows Live Writer with frequently used phrases with links saved automatically

As you can see my efforts are totally fragmented and everything is out of the door when I switch computers to work on. I have tried and failed to maintain this setup consistency in all my computers (work laptop, work desktop, home desktop, home laptop).

So, now I am paying attention to a little gem of a utility put together by Lifehacker called Texter.

It is not a pretty tool or an eye candy by any means. If you are into that, you will be sorely disappointed. But, it’s a lightweight functional workhorse!

What is Texter?

Texter is a tiny tool that lets you assign hotstrings and text assigned to it. With a keystroke, it can replace the hotstring with the text you assigned to it.

For example, you can store your complete signature in a hotstring called ‘sig’ and assign tab as an activator. Then anywhere you want to type your signature, just type sig and hit the tab key. Voila!

That is Texter at it’s simplest!

You can also do a but of scripting in Texter if you are adept at it.

Here are a few videos to get started and this Lifehacker post has a lot of good details about this tool

Texter Basic Use

Texter Advanced Use

I am just scratching the surface with Texter and will follow up with more tips and tricks as I learn them.

Texter is based on the open source AutoHotKey and is Windows only. If you are on Mac, check out TextExpander. Texter can be installed or run as a portable app.

Download texter