I’m always looking for ways to improve my writing speed and accuracy. One way is to use specific keyboard shortcuts for tasks that are repetitive and prone to inaccuracy. So, using Cmd-C / Cmd-V for for Copy and Paste makes a whole load of good sense as it’s faster & more accurate than using the mouse to click through multiple menus, and put the cursor where it needs to be.

However, keyboard shortcuts are kind of limited. A more flexible approach is to use a program that can substitute short sets of text into much longer pieces. To do this, I use a program called TextExpander to keep a library of ‘snippets’ for expansion into a range of useful actions.

For example, I have a text snippet etmd and whenever I type these four letters, it is automatically expanded to EtherealMind.

The possibilities are endless, and I’m hoping to share a few different ideas and get feedback from you to help me build my collection of useful shortcuts.