

Cannot be inadvertently activated in normal typing.I wanted macro shortcuts to meet three criteria: Now I type four characters and the whole thing unfurls.įour characters, by the way, is a deliberate choice on my part. I include directions for public transit, cycling and driving, and the whole thing amounts to seven paragraphs. An example is giving visitors our address and directions. Many of us will need to send the same text relatively frequently. So when I spotted PhraseExpress, a Mac app which works in the same way as TextExpander but is free for personal use, or offers a one-off cost for commercial use, it seemed worth taking a look. In practice, that’s of limited value as iOS doesn’t support the macros, so the best you can do on an iPhone or iPad is to open the app and manually copy and paste the text. In principle, TextExpander gives you something worthwhile in return for the subscription: cloud storage of all your macros (‘snippets’ in TextExpander terminology) so you can access them on any device.

On the other, multiple app subscriptions can easily stack up to a hefty annual amount … On the one hand, I do appreciate that recurring revenue is good for app developers, and increases the likelihood that an app will continue to be supported and improved. TextExpander has been a game-changer for me, but it’s a subscription app, something about which I have mixed feelings.
#Phrase express for mac review full
You type a macro shortcut of your choice, and the app replaces it with a full block of text – with can be multiple paragraphs. Both apps can be thought of as autocorrect on steroids. PhraseExpress is a Mac app that does the same thing as TextExpander, which I reviewed back in 2017.
