When using TextExpander in Excel, TextExpander seems to keep the abbreviation that was typed in a cell and then enter the snippet four cells over from where the abbreviation was entered. Seems to work the came whether or not the “restore clipboard” option is selected. Is there another preference to help with this problem? TextExpander Support (in this case, Greg) stumbled onto the answer:

Try triple-clicking the empty cell rather than single or double clicking and see if the snippet expands correctly.

David confirmed it does work, and even explained why:

You are correct, triple-clicking does work. I have had to use this technique for other things, and it didn’t dawn on me to use it here. Instead of inserting text into a cell (which is what happens if you just click on the cell), you are editing a cell (which is what triple-clicking does) and then entering the information. This now works like you would expect.

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new external snippet file for TextExpander. This file features over 60 HTML tags and special characters that can be inserted using short abbreviations. If you like to do your HTML code, this file could save you lots of time. Once you install it, you just have to type ,h1 and TextExpander will automatically insert

The cursor will even be positioned in the right place! It was an interesting challenge to put these snippets together. The AutoCorrect snippet file was easier to do. All the “abbreviations” are common misspellings. For the HTML tags, it was necessary to come up with an abbreviation system that would be memorable and useful. We decided to use the comma as the leading character for all the HTML tag abbreviations. Why? Because it’s the same key as the left angle bracket (<)! Another subjective factor is which tags to include and exclude. We didn't want to file to be huge, so you might find your favorite HTML tag is not on the list. So this is a work-in-progress. All feedback is welcome! Thanks to everyone who helped me pull this together, especially TJ, Edward, and Frank!

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do want the actual abbreviation, no expansion, thank you. Here’s a down-and-dirty way to keep the “pop” in check: 1) Type the first letter of the abbreviation. 2) Press the left arrow key, followed by the right arrow key. 3) Finish typing the abbreviation. Arrow keys clear the key log–that’s why it works! (Thanks to Greg for passing this tip along!)

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As I’m switching from a German keyboard to a US keyboard but I still need to write in French and German text, so I set up TextExpander abbreviations, like these: /ae becomes ä /oe becomes ö /ue becomes ü /ah becomes á /aw becomes à /c becomes ç Same goes for uppercase. To avoid much thinking I set the French ones up to be close to the sound of their most common use. I set these up as I go, whenever I need one I create the new snippet first. That takes a few seconds each time but in the end saves me more than it costs me. It’s one of these practices that need dedication the first few times till you’re accustomed to doing it. I’m going to set up these abbreviations in my own TextExpander snippet library. I may not need them as frequently as Frank does, but it would be great not having to wade through the Special Characters palette when I do. Update: As Frank pointed out to me, this approach only works if you are using a delimiter character to trigger your expansions. Automatic expansions only happen at the beginning of a word. If I typed “Fahrvergnuegen” in order to get “Fahrvergnügen”, the “ue” would NOT turn into “ü” in the middle of the word when TextExpander is set to automatic expansion. Alles klar?

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