• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Text Expansion

jefboyardee

Extreme Android User
On my PC I use the ancient Texter. I program the shorts and longs, like 'jef' and 'jefboyardee.' Then, whenever I type the short, it types out the long. I keep a lot of stuff in there.

On my droid, I use Clipper+. It works but requires several more steps.

I'm looking for a droid app that accomplishes what Texter does on my PC. I've tried Text Aide but I can't figure out how to make it automatically convert a short to a long.

Anyone here know the trick for that, or of another app or keyboard that does this?
 
Last edited:
u tried SwiftKey mate? It learns FAST and can scan your Facebook or Google Plus, Gmail, If you use them to learn your dictionary :thumbsupdroid:
I just typed 'appl" and "applications" just popped up as a suggestion for example.
Not sure if that's what you're looking for?
Jef
And look what just happened when I typed Jef (suggestion on right hand side)
1436238437813.jpg

I've obviously used your name before :thumbsupdroid:
PS the kb doesn't have to be this big. I have bad eyes :D
 
SwiftKey ... It learns FAST ... Not sure if that's what you're looking for?

I don't think that'll work. For instance, when I type 'pb1,' a fictitious bank code, I get 'E049765K!@ohj,' a fictitious password for the fictitious bank's website. I have to manually enter the codes, which takes some time but is worth the effort.
 
Okay, found one that works, up to a point. A keyboard named Auto Text Keyboard Lite, as well as FireText, behaves just as I wanted: type the short version, tap space and get the long version. The lump is that he wants ten dollars for this cheap gizmo I can get for free in my PC. Otherwise, I'm limited to ten entries – I use about two hundred.

Someone give a freaking clue! :confused:
 
Whattaguy, appreciate the attention. I figured out how to enter a short in your app but can't get it to type the long. For instance, I enter the short named 'jef,' hit the spacebar, and then I want the app to type out the long named 'jefboyardee.' That Auto Text Keyboard mentioned above does exactly that, but that really isn't worth ten dollars.

So I guess I want Text Aide to act like Auto Text but stay free. ;)
 
Well first of all, you need to enable it inside Expand's settings (top right corner) which will show you a dialog to enable it in Accessibility settings. Once you're through with that, it should work. Try again and let me know
Also you cannot use jef for jefboyardee. Something like jef1 would work
 
Oh, I get it now, duh. Two things I don't like, which are entwined, is not being able to trigger the long by tapping the spacebar, because the short triggers the long all by itself. Not the end of the world, since I'd have to copy all my existing Texter entries in whatever app I added. But I have all the shorts in my head and don't really want to create an additional list to accommodate a different app.
 
Just figured out a trick for that. For 'jef' as the short, I just add a space at the end. That way, it doesn't get caught up with the long. And since I have to hit the spacebar to trigger the long with Texter anyway, operations, other than the entries, will be exactly the same.

Just wish there was a way to import a Texter bundle into Text Aide, but they don't mention json or autohotkey.
 
Last edited:
if it provides an export option

Yes, I was able to export the texter list to a text file on my droid. But whichever import method is tried, AutoHotKey or JSON, I got an error pop saying 'no macros found.' No biggie, at least I can do it by copy/pasting a zillion times some rainy afternoon. An example of the texter list:

co1
jeffbb

For that entry, I'd copypaste 'co1' and add a space, then copypaste 'jeffbb.' Unless you know a trick for that...

Again, I appreciate your help!
 
Last edited:
Got most of my snippets plugged in, two other things I've noticed: now I have a big list in the Expand section, but I can't delete or reorder them. But that aside, it works grrreat.
 
Last edited:
Yes, I was able to export the texter list to a text file on my droid. But whichever import method is tried, AutoHotKey or JSON, I got an error pop saying 'no macros found.' No biggie, at least I can do it by copy/pasting a zillion times some rainy afternoon. An example of the texter list:

co1
jeffbb

For that entry, I'd copypaste 'co1' and add a space, then copypaste 'jeffbb.' Unless you know a trick for that...

Again, I appreciate your help!
AHK is the easier way to do it manually. Each entry is stored like this ::macro::expanded
So you have to create a text file with ::co1 ::jeffbb
And then change the file's extension from .txt to .ahk

And yes you'll have to add the space yourself. I could implement expansion on space bar feature. But then you'll have to remove all the spaces again. So lets just keep it this way

Got most of my snippets plugged in, two other things I've noticed: now I have a big list in the Expand section, but I can't delete or reorder them. But that aside, it works grrreat.
You can delete the card by swiping it left or right
I'll add reordering by swiping up and down soon
 
"Unfortunately. Text Aide has stopped." I've gotten that popup a few times. Doesn't seem to affect performance and I've gotten that message for other stuff too, just letting you know that I'm tapping Report.
 
'Maps,' for one, referring to the stock Google Maps. And some other Google app I can't recall. So I'm not sure it's even you crashing.
 
Anyway, I'm glad you showed up and helped. For years, I was using the snippets column in Clipper+ to select and copy the longs, then switch back to wherever I was writing, then paste it in. It's great to finally have my Droid behave like my Windows has for even more years.
 
Okay, I will happily and temporarily rejoin Google+, which I despise, to add a kudo for Text Aide. Then I'll unjoin Google+ and crawl back in my hole.
 
One thing I would suggest to mollify operations is to have it automatically chose an Accessibility method, so users aren't forced to make a decision they don't want to.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom