Anyway to make textpad auto-complete often used keystrokes?

briantech · Post by **briantech** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:15 pm

I'm not familiar at all with how macros work or even what they are, but is it possible to create a macro that will auto complete things for me? I saw this feature in Textmate for apple's OSX operating system and it was really nice.

For example, in all my HTML markup, there are interspersed lines of scripting code that are bound by open and closed tags, like so:

<% this_is_some_ruby_code :ohyeah %>

Is there anyway so that it detects when I type the sequence "<%" and automatically inserts the closing tag, "%>" after it and then positions my cursor inbetween them, ready to accept whatever i'm about to type?

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:41 pm

Add that to your clip library.

You can enter text, and clip library will put tags around it at both ends if you want. Lots of hidden power there for auto completion. Instead of insert, you can replace. So, type "qq". Select "qq", click on item in Clip Library, and you can replace with the "qq" with the Gettysburg Address.

briantech · Post by **briantech** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:11 pm

Can you explain a bit further? I kind of see what you're talking about, but that would require me to type something first, then use the mouse to select it, then open the clip library, find the clip, and double click it.

Thats more of a pain than simply typing the end tag myself.

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:59 pm

A few mouse clicks does not seem exceesive work to me, but everything is relative. And perhaps my example was bad.

Here is another example ..... I have a clip named "Address". I just double click on "Address" in the library and my full business address, four lines of text, are inserted automatically at the position of my cursor.

Another example ....I double click on "NoPost" and the following text comes up for me to paste into a forum that I moderate:
=============================
POST NO MORE

YOUR POSTINGS ARE BEING DELETED
VIOLATION OF TOS

YOUR ISP IS BEING NOTIFIED THAT YOU ARE A SPAMMER
==============================

Another example.... I select multiple lines in TextPad, and double click on "CommentBlock" and I get
/* Line1
Line2
Line3
Line4
*/
that comments all the lines I selected. the "/*" and "*/" are inserted around the selection automatically, just like the tags you mentioned.

The processes are 1-Select, 2-Double click library selection.

Check out the Help for Clip Library - Overview. And there are clips available from other users that you may find useful.

ben_josephs · Post by **ben_josephs** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:12 pm

I find any number of mouse clicks excessive when performing such a keyboard-based task as text editing.

But you can use the clip library without using the mouse.

kitimat · Post by **kitimat** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:56 pm

Textpad does not support autocomplete as the term is usually used. There are some workarounds.

1) clip library.
This comes built in to Textpad. Try it first.

2) clipboard extender programs
These will enable you to store clips as well. Textpad has some limited built-in functionality here. I use a program called Clipmate.

3) keyboard macro programs.
I use keyboard macro programs for adding my most commonly used text. It's faster than a mouse. I wrote a little keyboard macro that will, when I press the correct key sequence, take whatever text is currently in the clipboard and "pasting" it via the keyboard into whatever app current has focus. I use it a lot for "pasting" into old apps that don't support windows style cut and paste.

lots of possibilities

Kitimat