Disclosure: This post contains no affiliate links – however, I am a reseller.
The free version is more than enough for 99% of us.
I spent a few minutes searching Google for a software program that would allow me to save text snippets as soon as I read them.
Portions of email, web pages, PDF files and any other interesting document should be highlighted, copied to the clipboard and pasted into a central database. Finally, retrieval has to be drop-dead simple, otherwise, I’ll get lost in a maze of arbitrary tags and meaningless labels.
After looking at the results, it dawned on me that I already have such a program. It’s called PhraseExpress. It is a text macro utility which organizes frequently used phrases into a single database. This text can be retrieved later and pasted into another Windows application.
One of the ways to retrieve text is by using a keyword, which PhraseExpress refers to as Autotext. For example, when I type reg and press the Enter key, PhraseExpress replaces it with
Regards,
Mitchell Allen
Normally, I want a unique keyword for each phrase. However, if I assign the same keyword to different phrases, PhraseExpress will display a description of each phrase and ask me to choose one! This has the effect of providing me with drop-dead simple retrieval.
I decided to use the keyword *cool for all of my interesting text snippets.
Saving text is a 4-step process:
- Highlight the interesting text
- Press the hotkey combination (Ctrl + Alt + C) to create a new phrase
- Type an arbitrary but hopefully meaningful description
- Type the keyword *cool in the Autotext field
Retrieving the text is even easier, assuming I can type the keyword somewhere:
- Type the keyword *cool
- Select one of the phrases
- Press the Tab key to paste it into my current document
If I’m not using a text editor, I can right-click the PhraseExpress tray icon and view the snippet with the program.
Now, when I don’t have time to visit an interesting web link, I’ll save it for later, without worrying about trying to locate the document containing the link. I like to save interesting blog comments and, with PhraseExpress, I no longer have to store them in Microsoft ® Word.
Between PhraseExpress and Jing for grabbing screen shots, I can capture everything on my screen but the dust.
Greetings Mitch! I would forget to use it by the time I finished typing..LOL! Lately it seems, I’m lucky to write one post every two weeks. This is one of the only days I’ve had free time, so I made sure to visit you! Have a great weekend coming up!
Hey, Bobby, I’ve never seen you use the same word twice, so I doubt you’d get much use out of PhraseExpress! (It would, however, save your fingers from having to laboriously tap out “stomp-kicked into oblivion”!)
If it takes you a fortnight to produce a masterpiece on your blog, such as My Crying Flower, then the wait is worthwhile.
Cheers,
Mitch
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omg, saving links for later? You can’t see my browser, i have over 100 links bookmarked at all times, and that’s with the cleaning i do once a week. I have a bad habit of saving links i don’t have time to read at that moment, then a month passes and they just get deleted because i lose interest.
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Hi Antonia,
Just one hundred? I have over three hundred just in one folder! I agree that the habit is not optimal. I wouldn’t call it bad, though.
For a long time, I couldn’t get the hang of the De.lic.io.us bookmarking service. When I started using Chrome, I fell in love with the Delicious plugin:
-from a blog post about the Chrome Browser.
You’ve given me an idea for a more usable solution, though: an HTML page organized around keywords. You would keep it on your hard drive.
Cheers,
Mitch
Glad i could help, even if just with an idea.
However, my problem is not the organizing part, but the actual reading part, which i can’t manage to get to. Ever! If i don’t read the page right then, i never read it. Saving it equals a later delete.
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I came to the realization that it can’t be done.
Even when I finally figured out social bookmarking and RSS feeds, there’s just too much out there.
Now, I still bookmark. But I try to read right then and there, too.
Cheers,
Mitch
I never thought this kind of software doesn’t exist. I should try downloading it since my work needs reading and reviewing a lot. With this, I could browse my saved documents easily. And I guess this is very user-friendly.
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Adrian, I’m not sure PhraseExpress will help you with reading and reviewing, unless you mean spell-checking?
that would make sense.
However, it wouldn’t help with saved documents, only text as you’re typing.
Cheers,
Mitch