Typinator is a quick, easy to use text expander. Text expanders are a type of application that are very convient for people who repeatedly type long words, phrases, or other bits of text that are frequently used but tedious to type.

I use it a lot in my History and English classes, where I have to take notes that include many long names of people and places. I find it much easier to type “ind revl” than “the industrial revolution,” and “mxim” instead of “marxism”, so I became faster at taking notes. Typinator also has several built in lists of expansions. They are for common misspellings and errors. They are incredibly helpful when you’re typing in an app that doesn’t have autocorrect or spell check built in. While it’s helpful to have all those shortcuts, they quickly can grow to a number that you can’t manage any more. At that point, Typinator becomes a burden.

Before version 4, you had to remember all of your shortcuts, but in the latest version (the one that I’m reviewing), there is a new feature that helps this problem. Now, if you press Control + Return, a Spotlight like search box will pop up at the top of your screen. You can use that to search through all the shortcuts that you’ve made and choose the right one with less typing than typing out the whole word, but (slightly) more typing than just remembering the shortcut. This new feature is one of those that seems superfluous at first, but you really grow to appreciate it once your expansion library grows bigger. Little touches like that are what make Typinator so useful.

Since I’m a fairly slow typist, I used Typinator a lot for word expansions, but I’ve also started using it for longer phrases. Expanding small bits of text, such as “fileat” into “The file is attached.” really speeds up email.

During the time that I used Typinator, I’ve noticed a couple issues. Sometimes it will expand something while you’re typing and then it will remove the space and you have to go and fix it. It doesn’t happen very frequently, but it’s enough to notice. Another issue is that there is no easy or clear way to sync the lists of expansions, although it’s listed as a feature on Ergonis’s site. I looked through the preferences and I found a way: you need to put the “Sets” folder inside of a synced folder. A synced folder can be anything from your MobileMe iDisk or your Dropbox account. That resolved the synching issue, but Ergonis really needs to make it easier because some users might miss out on syncing.

While Typinator is powerful and useful, it can only be as useful as you allow it to be—ultimately, you have to take some time to define your expansions. Once you do that, you won’t regret it at all because it will save you so much time typing.

Check our Typinator at http://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/