MacMost Now 289: Using Text Substitutions in Snow Leopard

Learn about the new text substitution feature in Snow Leopard that lets you create your own text shortcuts so you can quickly type commonly used phrases or hard-to-type characters.

Comments: 10 Responses to “MacMost Now 289: Using Text Substitutions in Snow Leopard”

    MacTipper
    15 years ago

    When I first heard about text substitutions, I thought, "Cool, but I don't have a use for them." Then, while AppleScripting today, it occurred to me that "atids" is a great replacement for "AppleScript's Text Item Delimiters"! So, keep this in mind when writing code, it can be a real lifesaver. :)

    John Rais
    14 years ago

    Hello. I'm using a 3rd party app called iFlash for making study cards and find it would be very helpful to have a key command to superscript and subscript letters/numbers as used in chemical equations. Is there a shortcut anyone knows of or a technique to create my own shortcut so I don't have to spend a lengthy search through the special characters menu for each number I wish to change? Thanks

      14 years ago

      It depends on the application. For instance, in Pages you can quickly switch to superscript with Control+Command+Shift+= and subscript with Control+Command+- (minus)
      I think it is slightly different in MS Word. But with iFlash, it would depend on the makers of iFlash to include a shortcut for it.

    Greg Griffiths
    14 years ago

    When I go to my systems preferences, I only get an "International" with no "Language & Text" and no "Text" tab within "International"

    What can I do to fix?

    Thanks!!!

      14 years ago

      Perhaps you don't have Snow Leopard, then? (Mac OS 10.6)

        Koli B.
        14 years ago

        I personally have 10.5 and am aware this trick doesn't work directly but it there any way to do the same for simple characters, just like under Windows with ALT+code.

        I've been looking everywhere and can't find it. I need to type different currency signs very often, which are not the one accessible directly from the keyboard.

          14 years ago

          Yes. Using this technique you should be able to do that. For instance, maybe assign $yen to the yen symbol, and $pound to pounds, etc.

    Michon
    12 years ago

    Hey Gary,

    I just got a Mac, have been using PC forever... Currently using Pages and am annoyed at a few new things. Im using Mac OS X 10.7.3 and Pages '09. Is there a way for me to create a shortcut (like i could on my PC) for theses symbols: →←↑↓ . I use them a lot in my note making and find it annoying to go through the menu each time or gavin go open it up an look of what I want.

    Your help would be much appreciated.

      12 years ago

      Sure. You can use the same technique as described in this video here. But Pages has its own custom preferences for this. Look in Pages, Preferences, Auto Correction. Then turn on "Symbol and text substitution." Then add a substitution for every character you want. For instance, you could make >>> substitute to your arrow character.

        Michon
        12 years ago

        Wow thanks! You responded so quickly and your suggestion works like a charm! Thanks heaps! Maybe I won't get Word then 😊

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