typing
Work
AutoKey Does Customised Text Replacement For Linux
1:05AM Kevin Purdy | Linux: Looking to get the kind of text substitution powers of Texter or TextExpander on Linux, but don’t know where to look? AutoKey, an automatic, tray-sitting text expander, is a good place to start. More »
Work
CopyPasteCharacter.com Makes Special Characters Easy To Paste
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | If you switch between systems frequently, or just have a lousy memory for special character codes, CopyPasteCharacter.com is an ingenious little page that automatically copies special characters you click on to your clipboard. More »
Work
TypingWeb Offers Free Typing Lessons
8:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Whether you’re an able but slow touch typist, or you never graduated beyond hunting and pecking, TypingWeb is a free and easy to use online typing tutor that will help you hone your keyboard chops. More »
Fix
Safari The Only Sure-Fire Way To Update iPhone’s Auto-Correct Database
9:50AM Kevin Purdy | The foul-mouthed folks at Ars Technica wondered why their iPhones weren’t updating and recognising their, um, custom verbiage. Turns out there’s only one way to make sure an iPhone/iPod touch learns the words you use. The iPhone’s custom auto-correct dictionary (located at /private/var/mobile/Library/Keyboard/dynamic-text.dat for all your jailbreaking, SFTP-ing types) doesn’t update itself when you’re using, say, Notes. Using Mobile Safari’s Google search box, however, seems to instantly refresh the file: … Clearly, not every iPhone application can “learn” words. Notes seems to be brain-dead in that regard. At the same time, using Safari’s Google text entry field worked every time, expanding the database and adding new items to my keyboard dictionary. At the same time, Notes and other type-friendly apps will pick up whatever additions you make with Mobile Safari. Whether that information is worth spending some time creatively searching in Google to train your device is up to you and your time constraints (and finger thickness). What the duck? Train your iPhone to (truly) learn new words [Ars Technica] More »
Work
PhraseExpress Text Replacement App Updates, Better Than Ever
8:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Free text replacement application PhraseExpress updates to version 6.0, sporting a handful of new time-saving features and stability improvements. If you’re unfamiliar with text replacement apps like PhraseExpress, they’re like digital shorthand for your computer; the user defines small text snippets that expand to larger pieces of text, so when you type ,sig, for example, a text replacement app can expand that text to a full text signature. We’ve developed our own text replacement app here at Lifehacker, Texter, which was inspired by the Mac-only TextExpander, but PhraseExpress has a ton to offer in its own right. Among new features, PhraseExpress 6 supports HTML formatting, faster load times, advanced options for triggering text replacements, application-specific replacements, and autocompletion of words. As an added bonus, the new version can also run off your thumb drive, so you can take advantage of your PhraseExpress timesavers no matter what computer you’re using. I’m partial to Texter for obvious reasons, but PhraseExpress is undeniably awesome. PhraseExpress is free for non-commercial use, costs $US50 for a professional licence. PhraseExpress More »
Fix
TouchType Adds Landscape Typing To iPhone Email
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | iPhone/iPod touch only: TouchType, an iPhone utility that costs 99 cents, allows for landscape mode typing when composing or replying to email. It’s definitely a function Apple should have included in the firmware, but, for whatever reason, email remains a portrait-only affair. You can start an email in TouchType and send it to email for addressing, or start a reply, hit the home button, open TouchType and finish the reply there. Whether you feel you should pay for a software fault, TouchType does make it easier to type with your thumbs, and to generally peck through longer messages. TouchType costs 99 cents, and is available for iPhones and iPod touch models running at least the 2.0 firmware. TouchType [iTunes App Store via TechCrunch] More »
Work
Improve Your Computer Note-Taking Skills
7:00AM Adam Pash | Improve your note-taking and dictation skills with web site Listen and Write. As opposed to most most typing applications, which ask you to copy words you see on the screen, Listen and Write plays back audio clips of current events and asks you to transcribe the content. Sometimes the application is a little too stingy on spelling—especially of proper names—but it could be a great tool to gear up for taking better and faster notes in lectures or meetings. On the other hand, if you’d like your computer to dictate what you are saying, we’ve got you covered there, too. More »
Avoid Ten Typos (Almost) Everybody Makes
12:15AM Kevin Purdy | Being on top of your grammar is a skill that takes years of practice to refine into unthinking craft, but even the most word-minded among us can trip up when it comes how keyboards transpose our thoughts. Blogger Christopher Phin releases his inner copy editor and points out 10 errors one sees everywhere in digital writing, mostly due to not knowing what characters go exactly where. As someone who over-uses the “m-dash” a bit, I was glad to get schooling in the finer points of horizontal lines: More »
QuietURL Makes Mistyped URLs Clickable
10:34PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Save yourself the time of copying, pasting, and fixing mistyped links with QuietURL, a free Firefox extension that converts URLs with typos or bad formatting. QuietURL comes with a standard set of common fixes, but users of regular expressions can get ultra-specific on what gets fixed. If you’re a regular browser of a forum or site that willfully obscures URLs by messing with the link code (as in “hxxp:// …”), QuietURL can automatically fix those as well, or pull the reverse. For those looking to fix their own fat-fingered URLs, try URL Fixer or switching your router to OpenDNS. QuietURL is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. QuietURL [Firefox Add-ons via gHacks] More »
