Auto-complete fields in Edit pane - Links

[kbarnes70]

Hi Conor,

I wonder if it is possible to add auto-complete to the 'Name' field in Links in the Edit pane? I have lost count now of how many times I have had to type 'Roger Ebert Review" or "Blu-ray.com Review' and so on when I drag a review from Safari to the entry. I add reviews to all my movies, sometimes several for each movie, and I generally use the same dozen or so sites so auto-complete would be terrific. Very few sites put anything meaningful in that field - the Roger Ebert site at Chicago Sun Times invariably puts '1023' there for example.

Kind regards,

Keith

[sitenoise]

You might look into a program like TEXTPANDER, I believe it's called. I use a program called iKey, but I don't recommend it. Something that will let you trigger a key-command to type frequently used text snippets. There are also "clipboard on steroids' kinds of programs that might help. I feel your pain.

[sjk]

I originally used TextExpander (formerly Textpander) and switched to Typinator when they had free registration promo through MacHeist. Both are functionally comparable, with probably a slight edge to TE. Some of the feedback on MacUpdate and VersionTracker is informative, plus you can find alternatives there.

I'd pick Keyboard Maestro over iKey.

[kbarnes70]

Thanks for the feedback guys. If Bruji can't mod the program any time soon, I will give these suggestions a try.

Kind regards,

Keith

Edit: Gee!! TextExpander is 35 bucks - I think that is more than DVDpedia isn't it? This either shows what great value DVDpedia is, or how expensive TE really is

Edit again: Well TE is certainly easy to use and works great. And I can use it everywhere, not just in DVDpedia... so maybe it's a good investment anyway

[Conor]

It sounds like a useful feature, but it's not likely to make it into an immediate update as we are working on other features. We use TextExpander ourselves as it comes in really handy for entering repeated URLs such as the links to the program pages and downloads. Once used to autofill it becomes hard to use another computer without your own shortcuts. A tip, Nora uses a comma before all shortcuts to make them short to type and will not get confused with a regular abbreviation; ",dl" would be the DVDpedia's download link.

[kbarnes70]

I originally used TextExpander (formerly Textpander) and switched to Typinator

Hi sjk - I trialled both of your suggestions and just bought a licence for Typinator - only reason being it's a bit cheaper than TE. Not only does it do the text expansions for me such as 'Roger Ebert Review' which is what I originally posted about, but it comes with a ready-made dictionary/dictionaries of about 3000 words in *British* English, many of which I routinely type incorrectly and which are now auto-corrected for me. Thanks for the great suggestion.

@ual - thanks also for your initial suggestion.
@Conor - thanks too for Nora's tip of using a comma to begin each expansion - neat!

Kind regards,

Keith

[sjk]

… just bought a licence for Typinator - only reason being it's a bit cheaper than TE.

On Snow Leopard, cheapest would be to use simple Symbol and Text Substitution that's bundled with the system. But that doesn't upscale well, especially for something like:

… about 3000 words in *British* English

No import/export support, etc. So TE, TY, etc. can have value even without using their fancier features.

I prefer[red] TE's UI and licensing model but TY's price (initially free) was more influential. Plus some of TE performance-related bugs at that time were biting me. Upgrade pricing seems similar. Hard to go wrong with either choice.

[kbarnes70]

I prefer[red] TE's UI and licensing model but TY's price (initially free) was more influential. Plus some of TE performance-related bugs at that time were biting me. Upgrade pricing seems similar. Hard to go wrong with either choice.

Yes, I agree. I too preferred TE's UI but it's not something I expect to see very often anyway - and TY was 30% cheaper. I am now a happy bunny

Kind Regards,

Keith