TextExpander, an application for Mac OS X that "listens to what you type" to enter the corresponding abbreviations, has recently been updated to version 2.4.1. The new release includes a small fix. Nevertheless, users of the Mac OS X utility are encouraged to update.

TextExpander supports dates, times, plain text, formatted text, cursor positioning, images and "listens to what you type" to insert user-defined snippets on the fly when the user enters his corresponding abbreviations. The utility thus helps users save countless hours, by eliminating the need to type common phrases repeatedly. It lets you insert standard greetings and signatures, including formatted text and pictures, organize snippets into groups, add snippet groups from external files and online sources. If you want to add common typos to your snippet library, you can. Additionally, these will be automatically corrected for you by TextExpander.

Also, if you know you have a typing problem, using TextExpander, you will be able to correct your most frequent typos automatically. You can assign special characters to be typed without having to launch a special characters palette, and, by organizing snippets into groups, it will be even easier to insert the current date and time (in any format you prefer), to ultimately sync them via MobileMe. Lastly, Textexpander is a developer's dream, as it can offer editor-independent code templates to enable the programmer to invoke AppleScripts.

TextExpander 2.3, released at the end of last month, added "Accented Words" snippet group, and was expanded to fit wider System Preferences window on Leopard. Filtering of abbreviations and snippets and case-sensitivity problems on Tiger were also fixed in the respective release. As noted in the first paragraph, the latest version of TextExpander, 2.4 includes just one fix, for a problem with "ignore case" setting for abbreviations.

TextExpander can be downloaded HERE. The software costs $29.95 to buy, but the download is free, as is the use of the program for a full month, as a full-featured demo.