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Web Development in the Menubar with JumpCut and Textpander
May 04, 2006
Like most power users, I’m always looking for little shortcuts that help me become more efficient while working on the computer. These shortcuts come in a few different incarnations; sometimes it means learning more about the application you’re using (a good example of this is Mike Clark’s TextMate Cheat Sheet for Rails Hackers) or finding and adding small applications that compliment your current workflow. It can be for any type of computing, but recently I’ve stumbled across a couple of helpful tools that have made building websites just a little easier.
There are literally thousands of these little helper apps out there - but it’s not easy to find the right ones that do the job and don’t feel like you’re trying to make a dog meow.
Textpander
From the guy that brings you Butler (and many other nifty little utilities), TextPander is a menubar application that allows you to quickly insert text snippets anywhere with just a quick stroke of the keyboard.
I use Textpander to insert my custom template code when creating a new project file. For example if I want to create an XHTML Transitional document, I just type:
xt
and that inserts the DOCTYPE, head and body tags. Sure, I can do this inside of BBEdit or TextMate, but Textpander lets me do it in both BBEdit and TextMate (or anywhere else).
Another use of this is for CSS files. I have a standard set of elements that I always have to type out at the beginning of each project. I simply saved these defaults as a Textpander Snippet and away we go I type
csss(css standard - my code for a regular ol’ CSS file)
and it populates my CSS file with body, a, a:hover, a:visited, h1, h2, h3, h4, etc.
I also use Textpander for email correspondance. GMail is primary email interface and it has the shortcoming of only allowing one email signature (unlike Apple’s Mail.app which allows you to have a different signature for each account or email address). I don’t always want to have the same signature for every email. Sometimes I’m corresponding with a stranger who doesn’t need to know my cellphone number and other contact details, but I would like to include that information when replying to a client email. I created Textpander Snippets with different varations on my email signature and name them something I could easily remember and quickly type.
gisg- generic signature
csig- client signature
ssig- stranger signature
If you’re not familiar nor interested in using aliasses when working on the command line, Textpander can jump in and be used as an adequate subsitute for quickly accessing regularly-used commands. I use it for one thing: to log in via SSH to my Mac Mini at home, since I can never remember the IP address. It’s a simple one:
rssh
and that produces
ssh username@ipaddress
One thing you do not want to do is use Textpander to store and retrieve passwords. It is not secure.
The uses of Textpander are limited only by what you can dream up and how much streamlining you need for your workflow. Textpander has saved me a lot of time and extra typing and that, my friends, is a good thing.
JumpCut
JumpCut (Universal Binary) is another menubar application that I’ve found to be indespensible in my work. It is a clipboard extender for OS X.
I use JumpCut as a retrieval tool for copies or cuts that I’ve “lost” and sometimes as a short term storage mechanism for code snippets, URLs or writing snippets. JumpCut allows you to specify the number of clipboard items that should be stored in total and the length of each item.
Retrieving your clipboard items is as simple as accessing the menubar item or (and even better) using a key combo to bring up a bezel window that lets you scroll through the entire list of saved items.
JumpCut has come in handy in critical moments more than once. While in the heat of copying, pasting, cutting and editing during a web project, I’ll lose track of a chunk of code that I wanted to reuse or place somewhere else. In the past I had to recreate it or find it somewhere else, but since using JumpCut, my latest clipboard items are there for quick and easy retrieval.
Lessons Learned
These two menubar applications have become real workhorses for me and critical parts of my daily life online, at work and on the computer. All of my Macs have them both installed and I’d be lost without them now, I’ve come to depend on them so much.
Nice tips! A bit late to jump in here, but I’m looking to import a generic set of Snippets - something like what already exists for GoodLink and Blackberry users. Do you know a resource where importable Snippets can be found?
I would prefer to avoid having to type standard ones such as ‘tia = Thanks in advance’, etc.
(Note that SmileOnMyMac acquired this from Peter Maurer earlier this year.