Smile estimates that enterprise team members generally save 4 hours of time per month by using the service, and it’s not uncommon for active TextExpander users to save double that, or a full work day per month. The enterprise attractiveness of Smile’s TextExpander service was further enhanced by the successful introduction of TextExpander for Windows.Īll that is driven by the utility of TextExpander. Smile reports that a typical team is about 12 people, but it hosts teams that have nearly 1000 members. Such teams share common snippet libraries, turning the TextExpander service into something of a low-rent content management system through which, for example, all the members of a customer support team can have access to -hosted support documents and links literally at their fingertips. More interesting, and boding well for TextExpander’s future, is that the TextExpander service provides the management capabilities to build snippet-sharing teams in businesses and organizations. The regularly updated TextExpander Blog provides users with tips and information about new shared groups. For TextExpander users who are not part of a team or organization, currently offers almost thirty shared snippet groups, including text shortcuts for the names and birthdates of Renaissance composers, for Apple trademarks, for Keyboard Maestro clipboard history scripts, and for accessing parts of a self-hosted WordPress site. Shared snippets have also begun to blossom. And the promised frequent app updates have come: Smile delivered 17 updates to the macOS app last year compared to only 7 the year before. According to Smile, about a third of the TextExpander customer base has moved to the subscription service, which gives Smile the income to pay for continued app updates and to keep the lights on in the server room. Were there enough people willing to sign up for the plan? Was there really a demand for shared typing shortcuts?Īs it turns out, there were and there was. At the time, I thought that Smile had put itself into an awkward position: in order to defray the costs of running the TextExpander cloud service the company had to charge a subscription fee, but all Smile could offer customers at the service’s introduction was the promise of more frequent app updates and vague hints of new capabilities. Full disclosure: Smile isĪ longtime TidBITS sponsor, and I have written books about both previous versions of TextExpander and Smile’s PDFpen.Īlthough I had worked closely with Smile while writing about TextExpander and PDFpen, I was as surprised as anyone when I heard about the subscription model and the tethering of TextExpander to a cloud-served snippet library. The mandatory subscription model provoked cries of dismay among many users, and within days, Smile had responded as we described in “ Smile Brings Back Standalone TextExpander, Reduces Subscription Price ” (13 April 2016). 1647: Focus-caused notification issues, site-specific browser examples, virtualizing Windows on M-series MacsĪs I write this, it has been one year since Smile introduced TextExpander 6 for Mac and TextExpander 4 for iPhone and iPad, along with the bombshell news that the new versions would be free but require a paid subscription at (see “ TextExpander 6 Adds Teams and Subscription Billing,” 6 April 2016).#1648: iPhone passcode thefts, Center Cam improves webcam eye contact, APFS Uncertainty Principle.#1649: More LastPass breach details and 1Password switch, macOS screen saver problem, tvOS 16.3.3 fixes Siri Remote bug.#1650: Cloud storage changes for Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive quirky printing problem.
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