Software Alternatives & Reviews

TextExpander VS Dash for macOS

Compare TextExpander VS Dash for macOS and see what are their differences

TextExpander logo TextExpander

TextExpander: Communicate Smarter. Gather, Perfect, Share Your Knowledge. Recall your best words instantly, repeatedly.

Dash for macOS logo Dash for macOS

Dash is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager. Dash searches offline documentation of 200+ APIs and stores snippets of code. You can also generate your own documentation sets.
  • TextExpander Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-12
  • Dash for macOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-22

TextExpander videos

My favourite productivity tool - Textexpander Review

More videos:

  • Tutorial - TextExpander Simply Saves Time! - Quick Tutorial
  • Review - One of the Best Productivity Tools Out There: An Overview of Textexpander [Quick Review]

Dash for macOS videos

Dash for macOS

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to TextExpander and Dash for macOS)
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Writing Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare TextExpander and Dash for macOS

TextExpander Reviews

Best Text Expander apps for MacOS
Well, the Text Expander is often regarded as a classic text Automator and is arguably one of the best names in this business. Despite its soaring popularity, the Text Expander users were baffled when the makers moved to a subscription service and offered the same at an annual rate of $40. Other cheaper alternatives offered similar experiences at a much lower price....
Source: techwiser.com
What's a good alternative to Textexpander for Mac?
10aTextView ProductMichelle NickolaisenOwner, Bombchelle Industries · Written 4y agoI use aText and I've had 1-2 very minor issues with it over the years, but nothing major. It's definitely worth the $5 fee if you just want something that does text shortcuts & don't necessarily want or need TextExpander's other features.🙏 helpful 4Comments (1)ShareAllan CaegFounder,...
Typing shortcut utilities: 6 alternatives to TextExpander
If TextExpander’s subscription service rubs you the wrong way, you have several options that you can buy—and one that’s free.

Dash for macOS Reviews

  1. One of my favourite productivity tools as a software developer

    Once you get use to it, you won't be able to imagine your life without Dash. It will save you a bit of time every day. Many times.

    As a bonus you can use the "snippets" feature as a generic text-expander. That saves me tons of time when writing emails, too.

    p.s. aText is not exactly a direct competitor; however, I replaced it through the snippets feature of Dash.

    🏁 Competitors: aText

Best Text Expander apps for MacOS
Dash offers one of the most simplistic ways to start adding your own snippets. Dash 3 offers a set of language documentation at the side and this is something that will help you with rules and references. The tool allows you to create snippets by simply copying the phrase. Alternatively, you can also create custom snippets using keyboard commands. Dash allows users to setup...
Source: techwiser.com
What's a good alternative to Textexpander for Mac?
14DashView Productajimix4Written 4y agoIf you are a developer, Dash is your choice. It also does text-expanding and works great!🙏 helpful 3CommentsShare

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Dash for macOS should be more popular than TextExpander. It has been mentiond 85 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

TextExpander mentions (25)

  • You don't have to type faster to type faster
    If you are already using Alfred[1] (with PowerPack), then snippets are your friend. Combine this with macOS's own Text Replacement[2], can cover most needs. You add up your snippets as you go along and sync/backup it so you won't have to re-do on each install/upgrade. I also found out that it is easier to use "," as a deliminator as there is no way I will type a normal English word with a comma then a character... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Show HN: I automated 1/2 of my typing
    First, I have to make a personal confession — I never liked the SMS short-hand thingy that worked with pre-iPhone phones. That was one of the reason I use SMS/Text-Messages unless I really need to. I have been using text-expansion since the early days of TextExpander[1], an app that works on iOS and macOS. However good the iPhone keyboard was, it was always not convenient to type and retype details such as home... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Getting faster at plug and play motions and using templates
    There is an app called TextExpander that you can use to store frequently used text selections and then type a shortcut to have it automatically insert into any Microsoft document. It is extremely helpful for busting through routine motions or correspondence. For example, if I want my atty’s signature block, I have it set up to insert when I type /sigblock. I have whole letters and pleadings saved in there and I... Source: 12 months ago
  • Suggest a text expander/ Clipboard app for my use case
    TextExpander: The reference, but is also subscription based. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Tip: Use Text Snippets
    To help me save time and avoid distractions, I’ve been using prompts through the TextExpander app. These prompts are shortcuts that I’ve created to quickly add little instructions I feel I have to repeat often. For example, I’ve created a prompt to “stamp all code snippets you produce with a unique identifier,” which has made it much easier to ask GPT3 to go back and retrieve the code I’m referencing. Source: about 1 year ago
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Dash for macOS mentions (85)

  • DevDocs
    This is awesome!! I use something similar on MacOS but it's a native app with offline support. The offline support is a neat feature but honestly these days if the internet is down I just don't do any development work... - https://kapeli.com/dash. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • DevDocs
    Not a complete answer, but I hope Markdown is or becomes the standard for offline docs and text for local/offline consumption. I only ever write in markdown anyway (usually with http://obsidian.md). The closest thing I know of for a service like RSS to download documents is [Dash for macOS - API Documentation Browser, Snippet Manager - Kapeli](https://kapeli.com/dash). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • At Least Skim The Manual
    There are so many great sources of information out there and tools to improve the developer experience of documentation. Dash can make some of these online resources local for instant search and access on-the-go, if you prefer. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Show HN: I automated 1/2 of my typing
    Https://kapeli.com/dash Somewhat similar tool to Autokey for MacOS that I use as a text expander. Allows for great customization - appending ; to a phrase ensures you don't accidentally expand a keystroke into a phrase/URL/etc ";url" expands into "whatever string you configure". - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Custom Instructions for ChatGPT
    This reminded me that I needed to settle on a good system-wide Snippets manager for MacOS. Having waded through the morass of buggy and subscription-only services many times in the past, I thought to give the open-source Espanso another go, but its last commit was many months ago and I simply could not get it to recognise Ventura permissions. It was then that I remembered that the excellent Dash... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing TextExpander and Dash for macOS, you can also consider the following products

PhraseExpress - PhraseExpress is one of the best and most fully featured text expansion apps available to Windows users.

Zeal - Zeal is an API Documentation Browser.

AutoHotkey - The ultimate automation scripting language for Windows.

DevDocs - Open source API documentation browser with instant fuzzy search, offline mode, keyboard shortcuts, and more

espanso - An Open Source, Cross-platform Text Expander on steroids

Velocity - Velocity gives your Windows desktop offline access to over 150 API documentation sets provided by...