A time-saving typing hack on your Mac…

A part of our series, Tools and Tactics: Stories offering helpful ways to succeed as a freelancer

I find a type a lot of the same things over and over. Whether it’s my phone number, mailing address, email address, or just a good ole thumbs up (👍🏻.) To quickly enter these things, I’ve modified my text replacements inside Mac settings… here’s a few I use all the time:

1. wadd = 123 Farrington, Dallas TX 75027 (short for WELD address)
2. atomm = atomicpixel@mac.com (my email address)
3. wd = WELD (all caps)
4. zz = 👍🏻
5. xlnt = excellent

There’s no limit to how many of these you can activate and no telling how much time it could save… it also minimizes room for error (get it right the first time and you never have to think twice about it.) Keep in mind it’s case sensitive, which can be helpful for brands or other words with iconic case spellings.

To set up your own shortcuts:

1. On your Mac, choose  > System Preferences > Keyboard > Text
2. Hit the “+” in the bottom left.
3. In the Replace column, enter the text shortcut you want to replace (ie: “xlnt”)
4. In the “With” column, enter the longer text (ie: “excellent”)
5. Enjoy!

Note, this also works on iOS so this will translate to your iPhone + iPad no problem, after typing the string type a “space” and it will auto-correct to your desired string.