Wednesday, April 6, 2016

TextExpander, aText

I learned from Taking Note Now that the latest version of the Mac app TextExpander will be available by subscription only, $4.95 a month (less with a year-long subscription).

I used TextExpander for many years before switching to aText in 2013, when OS X Mavericks made life with TextExpander difficult. I thought I’d use aText as a temporary replacement, but when TextExpander updates became increasingly expensive, I chose to stay with aText. The price, then and now: $4.99. Not $4.99 a month, just $4.99. Fewer features, true: aText won’t, for instance, remind me when I could have typed an abbreviation. But for my purposes, the app is fine. I recommend it with enthusiasm.

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April 12: SmileOnMyMac has lowered the subscription price for TextExpander and will continue to sell and support the app in its stand-alone form. Details here.

A related post
aText (With a nifty example of what the app can do)

[If you want to try aText, download the trial version from the developer’s website. The App Store version will not work with OS X El Capitan. I would have learned about TextExpander’s subscription pricing from an e-mail, but as I just realized, I deleted the announcement unread.]

comments: 2

brownstudy said...

Thank you for mentioning AText. I've not heard of it, as I adopted TextExpander early on and never searched for other apps. I was dismayed by TE's transition to a service/subscription model with, for me, pricing that goes beyond what I'm willing to pay for such a service.

Daring Fireball's post on this topic linked to a blogger who was going to replace TE with the Keyboard Maestro macro program. I used KM for a time, as I fancied myself a hobbyist, but I find my needs are not eccentric enough to require a lot of custom macros. On to AText!

Michael Leddy said...

I hope you like it, Mike. Be sure to get it from the developer’s site, which should save much aggravation.