Full instructions on how to use TypeIt4Me can be found in file 3-TypeIt4Me User Manual in this distribution folder. In the unlikely event that it should be missing, you can also find them by clicking Help… in the TypeIt4Me Control Panel or in the About TypeIt4Me dialog.
Instructions can be printed in full or in part by selecting the text and copying it via the Clipboard into your word-processor. To print out the instructions including the screen illustrations, click on Save as TeachText. Save the file to disk then double click it to open it with TeachText or SimpleText and Print it.
Please make a note of our new address:
Riccardo Ettore
37 Winn Road
London, SE12 9EX
United Kingdom
(Phone/fax:+44 181 857 1372)
Internet email:
72277.1344@compuserve.com
REttore@aol.com
REttore@hebel.net
http://members.aol.com/rettore
http://www.hebel.net/~rettore/
The above WWW sites always carry the latest version.
Release History
(in reverse chronological order)
New in version 4.7.0:
Released on Sunday, March 23, 1997
• fixed cosmetic bug in Menu Preferences dialog.
• updated Registration Form to reflect new pricing policy
New in version 4.7.0beta2:
Public beta released on Sunday, March 9, 1997. This is also Final Candidate for Golden Master release on March 16 if no further bugs are reported. Other feature requests will have to wait for next release.
New features:
• Rich said:
I would like to be able to override the "Displaying this many entries in the
popup menu would take forever" dialog box. Sometimes I wouldn't mind it
taking forever; I'd rather see my list that way.
DONE as follows:
user can now set the number of abbs after which the Don't append abbs to menu check box is ticked automatically to avoid a long delay in popping up the menu. It defaults at the previous setting of 200.
• Pär said:
>If I tell the program to write "cd swedish:charlotte_r:robur", I do NOT
>want the program to write "Cd swedish:charlotte_r:robur" which it does if
>the name has a capital first letter. Make that change and I will register!
DONE as follows:
changed Ignore Caps Lock to Don't match Abb Case to make it clearer what this setting now does: if checked, it will turn off the feature whereby the first letter of the expanded text will be typed in UPPER case if the first letter of the abb was typed in UPPER case or the whole text will be typed in CAPS if the abb was typed in CAPS.
• George said: I don't know if this is possible, but couldn't you add something to your code that would automatically copy the text that the user highlights to the
clipboard?? This would eliminate a keystroke, as you would copy and then
access TypeIt4Me in one step. Of course I'm not a programmer, so this is
probably much more difficult than it appears. :)
DONE.
• Snuey said: After selecting New and entering the trigger, it would be handy if the right hand pane of the dialog were already selected, so I didn't have to click in it before entering the expansion text.
DONE.
Bug fixes:
• Dale said:
Here's something I noticed with the beta of TypeIt4Me. I have always changed the date format which is currently abbreviated 'adl' to 'dt' (it displays in the form 'January 14, 1997'). When I attempted to enter this change in the beta I was met with a series of irrelevant notices that similiar, not identical abbreviations existed for other date forms. After answering 'Keep It' to all but the one abbreviation, the list still failed to display the updated abbreviation next to that form. Strangely typing the abbreviation 'dt' does produce the desired result.
FIXED: date/time abbs are again displayed properly in the preferences dialog (this was only broken in 4.7.0beta1 and was fine in previous versions)
• Snuey said: I just wanted to mention that according to Conflict Catcher 3.0.4, TypeIt4Me 4.7.0beta1 sets aside 72K of ram at startup, but uses 93K.
FIXED by changing sysz from 72K to 100K
• Richard reported a problem where an abb in the pop up menu was being displayed in outline style (because it contained the characters < and S)
It's FIXED.
• I also fixed it so abbreviations expand when typed after a shift-space or ctrl-space (this was only broken in 4.7.0beta1)
New in version 4.7.0beta1:
Public beta released on Sunday, January 12, 1997
New features:
• It is now possible to display the abbs/entries in the menu in a custom order instead of alphabetical order only. This option is controlled by 2 new radio buttons under the Menu... dialog in Preferences.. To arrange abbreviations in custom order, press the option key (labelled alt on most keyboards) as you click in the list in Edit entries. You will be able to move the selected abbreviation up or down the list.
You can even create menu separator items by defining abbreviations named (-x. The x will be a number from 1 to n of your own choice which will not appear in the separator but is needed since you cannot define multiple abbreviations with the same name). You must set these "abbreviations" to "expand" to something or they won't be saved in the list. Anything will do, including a single space.
• A new option in Preferences... Menu... allows users to have the menu display:
• abbreviations only (default and only choice in previous versions)
• abbreviations->first 20 characters of the expanded text
• expanded text only (first 20 characters)
NB: Any carriage returns in expanded text are displayed as ¬
• You can now slow down the automatic typing. This was requested by a user who was having problems in AOL chat areas due to TypeIt4Me typing too fast.
• Expansion... preferences dialog is now split into 2 parts (it was getting too crowded):
Expansion Triggers... (no changes)
Expansion Settings...
• Radio buttons allow user to choose ctrl- instead of shift-space to inhibit expansion on a one-off basis.
• Abbreviations will no longer trigger when user backspaces over a space or other trigger typed by mistake. An example will make this clearer:
in previous versions, typing a<space><backspace>re would result in aRiccardo Ettore instead of are (assuming of course that you defined re->Riccardo Ettore. You will naturally still get aRiccardo Ettore if you click next to an a (as opposed to backspacing to it while typing).
• A persistent reminder after 30 days of use will politely remind users to register. They will then be issued with a user name and matching ID code to personalize their copy.
Bug fixes:
• Typing invisible characters (such as ctrl-u or one of the arrow keys, ESC, etc) will no longer inhibit an abbreviation typed straight after them from expanding. The set of invisible characters is defined as ASCII 0x0 to 0x20 and 0xCA. It can be changed with ResEdit so email me if you have a special requirement.
• If you define an abbreviation using diacriticals it will now only expand when you type the diacriticals. In other words, typing aa will no longer expand in lieu of an abbreviation defined as åå, nor will spa expand if spà is defined. However, you will not be able to define two abbreviations that differ only in their diacriticals (so you cannot have spa and spà).
New in version 4.6.1:
Released on Friday, August 23, 1996
New features:
- none
Bug fixes:
- A bug that only strikes when the options Expand via Clipboard and Don't append trigger are both turned on was fixed.
New in version 4.6:
Released on Thursday, August 1, 1996
New features:
- it's now possible to issue command-shift menu equivalents by prefixing @^ instead of @@ before the character listed in the menu (@@ still works as before)
- it's also possible to issue any ASCII character by including its HEX code prefixed by @$. This is obviously only useful for invisible characters such as the backspace, the arrows for cursor control, etc.
For example, @$08ing would type out a backspace (ASCII code 08) plus the letters ing. This could be useful if you defined it to be triggered by the single letter g, which would then add the ing suffix to the last word you typed (assuming of course that you only typed one space between it and the g).
@$1C would type a left arrow character (i.e. it would cause the cursor to move left one space). @$1D types the right arrow, 1E is up and 1F is down (I've no idea when these would come in handy, but that's not the issue <grin>).
Please note that Expanding via the Clipboard will NOT translate any @@, @^ or @$ sequences. This is not a bug, but an unavoidable technical consequence of going via the Clipboard.
Bug fixes:
- fixed a problem that prevented abbreviations whose name is longer than 15 characters from being editable or removable (the limit is now 50)
- fixed a cosmetic problem where abb names containing a / would cause a (non functional) menu equivalent letter to appear
New in version 4.5.1:
released on Sunday, 20 August 1995
- identical to 4.5.0 except for address changes to reflect our move to London.
New in version 4.5.0:
released on Wednesday, 26 April 1995
New features:
- A new option in the Expansion Preferences allows you to "Expand via Clipboard". What this does, is copy the full text corresponding to the abbreviation to the Clipboard and then issue a cmd-V to trigger a Paste operation.
The advantage of this method is that the expanded text will appear much faster in the destination document (especially when the text is very long).
Be aware that when you turn on this option, any contents of the Clipboard will be replaced by the expanded text of the latest abbreviation that you type.
Also note that you may come across some programs where this method may not work. In such cases, just turn this option off and use TypeIt4Me as you always did in the past.
Bug fixes:
- abbreviations typed after a Carriage Return, a Tab or a Hard Space will now properly expand, even if the corresponding check boxes are not checked in the Expansion Triggers dialog box. In other words, this fixes the reported problem where abbreviations typed at the beginning of a new line (immediately following a Carriage Return), or after a Tab, would not expand.
- TypeIt4Me 4.5.0 was tested and found to work under systems 4.2, 6.0.5 and 6.0.7, running on a nine-year-old MacPlus with 4 meg of RAM but no hard drive.
New in version 4.4.1:
released on Sunday, 9 October 1994
New features:
- none
Bug fixes:
- fixed bug where it was possible to access the TypeIt4Me menu while its help dialog was up, causing a crash
New in version 4.4:
released on Thursday, 6 October 1994
New features:
- installs "fat" patches on Power Macs (thanks to Tom Thompson's book "Power Macintosh Programming Starter Kit" and to Metrowerks Code Warrior).
Bug fixes:
- fixed inverted alternate dates in the pop up menu
New in version 4.3.1:
released on Sunday, July 17, 1994
New features:
- none
Bug fixes:
- fixed problem that caused several programs to lose their support files (e.g. Quicken failed to display Help, CheckFree transactions would fail)
- fixed scroll bar updating in the Edit dialog (when going from long text to short)
New in version 4.3:
released on Sunday, June 5, 1994
New features:
- hide menu bar is now distinct from disabling the hot spot
- added All and None buttons in Expansion triggers dialog
- no longer expands in all caps when abb is a single char or is not a letter from a-z
Bug fixes:
- fixed conflict with Control Strip
- handles alternate short date and times correctly
New in version 4.2.2:
released on 8, May, 1994:
New features:
- none
Bug fixes:
- the last hot key is now properly remembered after a restart
- a "/" in glossary file names no longer messes up the menu
- fixed a couple of problems related to ALL CAPS expansion
New in version 4.2.1:
released on Friday, March 25, 1994:
New features:
- none
Bug fixes:
- now expands correctly when carriage return is typed
New in version 4.2:
released on Saturday, March 12, 1994:
New features:
- TypeIt4Me now sports a Control Panel (cdev) interface
- user can now choose to have case sensitive abbreviation expansion. Please note this does NOT mean that two abbreviations can differ only by their case. It only means that if you define an abbreviation with a given case, it will not expand if typed in a different case.
- when popping up the menu we now automatically disable appending abbreviations to it if there are over 200 in the file
- redesigned preferences dialogs
- eliminated compulsory New file/Open file when path to file is lost
- when Hide menu bar icon is selected, the menu no longer pops up from the (invisible) hot spot. (Naturally, this means that unless a keyboard combination to pop the menu up anywhere on the screen has been selected, the only way to access the TypeIt4Me menu is to change the Prefs via the Control Panel)
- added a dialog to allow user defined "trigger" characters for automatic abbreviation expansion
- the typing in ALL UPPERCASE when CAPS LOCK is engaged is now a user option
- entries are typed in ALL CAPS if the abbreviation is typed in ALL CAPS using shift (previously this only happened when the CAPS LOCK key was engaged)
- it's now possible to assign an abbreviation to the two alternate date formats
- shift-space replaces enter as the way to avoid expanding an abbreviation
Bug fixes:
- fixed bug where putting the icon on right via the checkbox in the Prefs was not being remembered through a Restart
- no longer forces new entries to lowercase
- worked around conflict with MacCIM by opening a tiny window in the upper left corner of the screen just below the menu bar, before calling our modal dialogs
New in version 4.1.2:
released on Tuesday, 7 December 1993:
New features:
None.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug (which only affected the very short lived version 4.1.1) that would cause crashes or other unpredictable behaviour when accessing the Edit entries dialog with an odd number of entries in a file. Hope this didn't aggravate too many people. Sorry!
New in version 4.1.1:
released on Thursday, 2 December 1993:
New features:
If you hold the command key down and click on TypeIt4Me's icon, you can drag it to whatever position on the menu bar you prefer.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug that would prevent very large abbreviation lists (those with well over 1,000 entries!) from being displayed in the Edit entries dialog.
New in version 4.1:
released on Sunday, 14 November 1993
New features:
A sequence of two "@" will now cause the command key to be "pressed" while the very next letter following the @@ is typed. This allows issuing menu equivalents to type in bold, italic and so on.
Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug (introduced in version 4.0.2) which prevented characters typed with the shift key pressed from being properly handled by TypeIt4Me.
New in version 4.0.2:
released on Sunday, October 3, 1993
New features:
- A new button in the Preferences dialog now lets you choose your own hot keys for Add an entry, Edit entries, Expansion on/off and Type clipboard.
- Instead of having to remember to press caps lock before pulling down the menu, users with hundreds of abbreviations can now permanently avoid the long delay associated with appending the abbreviations, thanks to a new check box in the Preferences dialog ("Don't append abbs to menu ").
Bug fixes:
TypeIt4Me now checks for possible menu ID conflicts before putting up its menu, thus avoiding the problem it caused to hierarchical menus in GreatWorks (and possibly in other applications).
New in version 4.0:
released on Sunday, June 6, 1993 after 14 beta releases over the last eight months
New features:
- the hierachical menu used in previous versions for selecting an entry to be edited is now replaced by a scrollable list within the Edit entries dialog: this allows you to edit (or add) several entries in sequence without quitting the dialog (which can be invoked via an option-cmd-e hot key)
- the date and/or time current at the time of expansion can be embedded into entries by typing [[x]] where x is a selector between 0 and 6 corresponding to the date or time format choice (a pop up menu can automatically type this syntax for you at the cursor position when editing an entry)
- there are two new date types ( e.g. today's date is 930606 or 93-06-06 )
- added control key to "pop up menu anywhere" modifiers (in Preferences…)
- option clicking on the TypeIt4Me icon in the menu bar toggles keyboard expansion on/off (or you can press option-cmd-t)
- the TypeIt4Me icon in the menu bar now goes gray when keyboard expansion is off
- an export button in Edit entries… will prompt you for a text file name and dump all entries to it. The format is:
ENTRY NAME + •(bullet) + TAB + ENTRY TEXT + ••(two bullets) + carriage return.
A small separate utility (Text2Type) will take a text file with this syntax and convert it to the required resource format file for TypeIt4Me. This allows you to edit (hundreds of) entries in the confort of your favourite word processor and then export them to TypeIt4Me.
- for people with long menus (containing hundreds of abbreviations), engaging the CAPS LOCK key prior to clicking on the TypeIt4Me icon will prevent the abbreviations from being appended to speed up access to the top part of the menu.
- in the Edit entries… dialog: Done is now initially called Cancel (with Escape as keyboard equivalent) and pressing Enter is equivalent to clicking on the Save button (previously called Update)
- when an entry is renamed or edited then Cancel becomes Done (to indicate that something that is not undoable with a Cancel has already happened)
- user is now asked to confirm Remove
- an alert reminds user to have a word processing document ready for input before clicking on Register button
- Add an entry no longer requires you to type the name of the abbreviation as the first line of the text for the new entry. You now simply type the text of the entry and copy it to the clipboard. Selecting Add and entry (or pressing option-cmd-c) will prompt you for the name of the abbreviation.
Bug fixes:
- added keyCode when generating keyDown events to avoid the problem reported by NOW 4.0 users (backspacing over the text of the abbreviation no longer worked)
- finally discovered why some users were having trouble with Add an entry: it was a conflict with Quickeys. It should be fixed now.
- CAPSLOCK and Shift capitalization now also works when entry typing is triggered from the menu and non english characters such as é, å, etcetera will be converted correctly.
- the cursor now properly changes to the I-beam when editing text
- fixed problems with Word and Quark XPress
New in version 3.2:
Monday, March 16, 1992
- when expanding, the text will be typed in UPPER CASE if CAPS LOCK is engaged (but only when expansion is triggered from the keyboard)
New in version 3.1:
June 30, 1991
- in response to several users' wishes, if the first letter of the expanded entry is created in lower case, it will now match the case of the first letter of the abbreviation at the time you type it. So given 'Riccardo Ettore' as an entry abbreviated to 're', typing 'Re', 'rE', 're' or 'RE' will still give 'Riccardo Ettore', as usual. On the other hand, if you defined the phrase 'many happy returns' to be triggered by 'mhr', then typing 'Mhr' would give 'Many happy returns' (with a capital 'M').
- in response to reports that the entry file seems to get lost a bit too often, I have added the file system error codes in the "I seem to have lost…" alert. For example, if you rename the file or move it to a different folder, you'll get "error -43 at point 3". If you rename the volume (i.e. the hard disk or diskette the file it's on), you'll get "error -35 at point 1". If you trash the folder the file was in, you'll get "error -43 at point 2". If you do indeed get these errors often and you don't think they are justified (i.e. you haven't explicitly renamed, moved or trashed any of the above), please make a note of the incident(s) and try to provide me with as many clues as possible if you do decide to write to me.
New in version 3.0.1:
March 3, 1991
- James Bethin from Bethpage, NY reported last week that Type clipboard would not type into dialog boxes: it's fixed.
New in version 3.0:
(final release January 13, 1991):
instead of having the Alt Date in Italian, it's in English but without the name of the day as requested by James R. Quick and several other users.
(beta12 pre-released January 6, 1991):
- Vincent Magos reported that choosing space bar only expansion would cause entries not to be expanded after a carriage return: it's fixed.
(beta11 pre-released December 18, 1990):
- Vincent Magos reported that accented characters (such as éèçà etc) would trigger the expansion: they weren't meant to (read:it was a bug) and they no longer do!
(beta10 pre-released December 9, 1990):
- fixed bug reported by Hartmut Berner (TypeIt4Me made Font and Style menus in Ragtime 3 disappear!)
- added option in Configure dialog to trigger expansion only when the space bar is pressed (as opposed to ANY punctuation character)
(beta9 pre-released December 2, 1990):
- fixed bug that prevented accented characters from being typed into Word and PageMaker
- added code to allow TypeIt4Me to work under System 7.0 from the Extensions folder
(beta8 pre-released November 30, 1990):
- fixed bug where configuring TypeIt4Me to pop up with a modifier combination including shift would cause several word-processors to get stuck in text selection mode until next click (first reported by Don Denny)
(beta7 pre-released November 27, 1990):
- supports multiple files for storing entries according to a particular subject or theme
- INIT file can now be renamed (e.g. when wishing to alter the loading order of INITs) with no adverse effects (however, the new name is only "noticed" after rebooting)
- added Type clipboard function
- date and time abbreviations are now user definable via the Configure… dialog
- supports one Alt(ernate) set of date & time strings
- entries can now be renamed and edited with a standard edit field
- duplicate entry names are rejected
New in version 2.1.4 released July 17, 1990 :
- corrected a problem I found yesterday using WriteNow (an invisible NULL character was being erroneously appended after the delimiter)
New in version 2.1.3 released July 15, 1990 :
- Check screen depth is >=4 for RGBBack/ForeColor
- Fixed obob that caused punctuation not to append itself to expanded text
- Last character of expanded text is no longer repeated (this bug only affected some applications and only when running under Finder)
- Tab now works properly in FileMaker (as per Knud Posborg's request)
- No new features
New features in version 2.1 (a short-lived version only released locally on July 6, 1990) :
- Configure includes "Hide menu bar icon" and "Put icon on the right" items.
- Icon in menu bar now respects menu bar color even when different from Black on White.
New features in version 2.0 released June 27, 1990 :
Complete code overhaul to fix many reported problems:
- should now peacefully coexhist with MasterJuggler
- entries expand properly in MS Word whether entered from the keyboard or selected from the menu
- typing speed is much faster
- characters you type while TypeIt4Me is typing no longer get mixed in, but correctly append themselves at the end (Michel Debar and other fast typists rejoyce!)
- new checkbox in Configure… dialog allows you to permanently disable the automatic expansion of entries as you type
New features in version 1.4 released February 28, 1990 :
- as per Frank Easterbrook's request, TypeIt4Me now leaves a few pixels for PopChar to pop up.
New features in version 1.3 released December 12, 1989:
- three preset abbreviations allow you to type the date without using the mouse to access the menu (thanks to Diego Friso for insisting that I implement this feature):
'dts' (pronounced "date short") expands to this 12/12/89
'dtm' ("m" for medium) expands to Mar 12 Déc 1989
'dtl' ("l" for long) expands to Mardi 12 Décembre 1989
Note that the language of the date (in French in these examples) will match that of your system.
A feature I would personally find useful (yes I do actually USE this program myself!) but have not had the time to add yet would be a choice of several languages. If any people who register also ask for it, I suppose I'll just have to add it…
Also useful would be to have a user option to change these abbreviations to something else (it's impossible in this version).
- a bug preventing the pop up key combination from being remembered is now fixed (thanks to Carlos Pedro Rodríguez and Ansfried D'Hoekers for reporting it)
