Alternatives to Spell Catcher

On or about 12/6/04 8:06 AM, thus spake "merry" <merriedial.pipex.com>:

> Does anyone know of alternatives to Spell Catcher particularly for expanding
> shortcuts, and how well they work?

See my reviews of TypeIt4Me in TidBITS. Also, CopyPaste is about to gain a
similar feature. m.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07798>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00751>
<http://www.typeit4me.com/>
<http://scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/>

--
matt neuburg, phd = matttidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
pantes anthropoi tou eidenai oregontai phusei
AppleScript: the Definitive Guide! NOW SHIPPING...! (Finally.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596005571/somethingsbymatt
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On Dec 6, 2004, at 9:06 AM, merry wrote:

> I use Spell Catcher mainly for expanding shortcuts, for example “tf“
> becomes “therefore”. It is also very handy for having a Mac-wide
> spelling setup, though Apple seems to have adopted its own version in
> its toolbox, with auto-correction which sometimes does not work in
> some applications.
>
> Does anyone know of alternatives to Spell Catcher particularly for
> expanding shortcuts, and how well they work?

Apple's spelling service is only supported in Cocoa applications (and
maybe carbon apps which explicitly support it, I'm not sure).

As for alternatives to shortcut expansion, there's two tools which I've
used which I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Firstly, TypeIt4Me.

<http://www.typeit4me.com/>

This program's been around for a looooong time on the Mac, and it is
distinguished most by the fact that it just plain works. It's reliable,
easy to use, and does the job excellently.

The latest up-and-comer is CopyPaste+ytype. This started as a multiple
clipboard utility and has expanded into a autotext application,
spelling checker, text editor, and a few other things most likely. It's
available in a few different forms now, but I'm not wholly clear on the
differences between them.

<http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/>

I use the Lite edition purely as a multi-clipboard utility. The newer
version is well designed, but suffers a bit from bloat into all these
features. I'm sure it's a nice package for some folks, but I prefer a
more decentralized toolset.

Both programs allow a downloadable trial period, so you can see what
works best for you.

--Nik

You should look at TypeIt4Me:

http://www.typeit4me.com

It's a one-trick pony, but it does that trick really, really well. I gave up Spell Catcher (which I was also using just for the typing shortcuts) and went back to TypeIt4Me when it got to version 2 for Mac OS X. One of the things I like about TypeIt4Me is that it lets you define a very large number of triggers (characters that expand your abbreviation); Spell Catcher is much more limited in this regard.

Will Porter

I've been using Grammarian Pro <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11169>.

I really used to like Spell Catcher on OS 9. When I switched to OS X, Spell Catcher was not available and I opted for Grammarian instead. I don't really know what the differences are between the two programs but Grammarian works basically the same way Spell Catcher does.

____________________
Ryoichi "Roy" Morita
Coarsegold, CA
rjmoritarjmorita.com
http://www.rjmorita.com

I, too, use TypeIt4Me, but would also like to point out that the
latest version of LaunchBar (4.x) can perform a similar trick in that
it will type the text of any file with a .clip.txt extension.
LaunchBar has been an integral part of my Mac experience since I read
about it in a Tools We Use installment.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07107
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07623

It's trickier to set up, in that you have to create a separate file
for each abbreviation, but it is more flexible. For example, some of
my "abbreviations" are credit card numbers and passwords -- these get
stored on an encrypted disk partition.

--
Ron Risley
www.risley.net

On or about 12/14/04 4:48 AM, thus spake "Ron Risley" <ronrisley.net>:

> I, too, use TypeIt4Me, but would also like to point out that the
> latest version of LaunchBar (4.x) can perform a similar trick in that
> it will type the text of any file with a .clip.txt extension.

Let's be clear, though, that LaunchBar 4.x is still in beta. m.

[Indeed, though CopyPaste 2.5 with yType was just released. -Adam]

<http://scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/>

--
matt neuburg, phd = matttidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
pantes anthropoi tou eidenai oregontai phusei
AppleScript: the Definitive Guide! NOW SHIPPING...! (Finally.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596005571/somethingsbymatt
Subscribe to TidBITS! It's free and smart. http://www.tidbits.com/

Hi all,

I think TypeIt4Me is the bees knees. Well, at least the OS 9 (Classic
Mac OS) version is. Version 2.0 for Mac OS X keeps missing keystrokes
after an expansion is done.

i.e. if I type
"thx for the beer", I am likely to get: "thanks the beer".

The Classic Mac OS version doesn't seem to do this.

--
Chik fcchuangmail.com

I've used 'em all. Here's my take:

SpellCatcher: Great for ubiquitous spelling correction; useful dictionary
and thesaurus functions. Glossary replacement sometimes gets confused,
usually works fine.

TypeIt4Me: Works quite well, but a one-trick pony.

LaunchBar: Indispensable tool; the clippings feature is wonderful, but isn't
automatic while typing, like the previous two. You have to type the trigger
for LB (Cmd-Space) and _then_ type the shortcut characters, and assigning
those is not straightforward. I find it most useful for inserting
boilerplate material.

CopyPaste: I'm having a problem in which the floating window for defining
yType shortcuts will not dismiss, blocking out other functions in the CP
editor (or even in other applications). I'm sure it will be fixed
eventually, but it limits my use of this new feature a lot. However, I
consider this another indispensable tool for all its clipboard functions,
plus its autocorrection tools in contextual menus. I suspect that once yType
is cleaned up, I may turn off SpellCatcher entirely.
--
<allenwatsonearthlink.net>
Scripts for OE and Entourage: <http://allenwatson.thinkaccess.net/Scripts/>
Entourage questions: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>

        As I page through old tidbits-talk postings trying to catch up...

        Nobody has mentioned CocoAspell, a Unix (and open source)
derivative of GNU Aspell. I think it works well with LaTeX and HTML
documents, and is available in the Services menu.

<http://cocoaspell.leuski.net/>
<http://aspell.sourceforge.net/>

        For anyone using LaTeX or related software on the Mac, the PSU
Mac-TeX pages list lots of resources, including Excalibur which is another
LaTeX-aware spell checker.

<http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/>
<http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~excalibr/excalibur.html>


--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://public.xdi.org/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *