Text expander and clipboard enhancer tools

Posted by Dr Andus
Oct 21, 2013 at 05:59 PM

I’m still working up to my PhraseExpander review but I just wanted to point out that the latest version (3.9.6) released today has a new algorithm which optimises its “SmartComplete” feature (drop-down selection box at the cursor) for two types of users:

1) those who want to keep typing and keep narrowing down the list that way, until the desired word is at the top (and then use the confirmation key), through perfect (as opposed to fuzzy) front-end matching of letters;

2) or those who want to type a couple of letters, and then type the last (or any other) letter of the word already showing up somewhere in the list, to make the desired word jump to the top of the list.

E.g. I can type “con” and the list “concept, conception, conceptual, conceptually” shows up in a drop-down box. Now I could use the arrow key to go to “conceptual”, or click on it with the mouse.

But with option 2, I could also type “conl” (first 3 + last letter of “conceptual”, and that word jumps to the top of the list, and then I just hit the confirmation key (Tab key for me).

This solves the only problem I’ve had with PhraseExpander so far (otherwise it’s been working great): it didn’t have perfect front-end matching, as the fuzzy matching tried to guess the whole word on the basis of the first few letters typed, and displayed not so relevant matches (e.g. typing “con” would bring up “competition” at the top of the list), as the software was geared towards users who memorise shortcuts.

But this new feature now relieves me of the cognitive burden of having to remember hundreds of shortcuts (or having to keep typing more letters for better matches). I have 536 phrases in my main glossary and there is no way I’d want to memorise that many shortcuts…

Of course it’s still possible to use the memorised shortcuts method as well, so I guess that would be the 3rd type of user.