Articles

Auto-text functionality in Actual Window Manager

inserting text or code snippets made easy

  1. Introducing Clipboard Templates
  2. What do I need to paste phrases for?
  3. How to set up Clipboard Templates in Actual Window Manager
  4. How to paste a phrase or a snippet using Clipboard Templates

 

Introducing Clipboard Templates

The new version of Actual Window Manager has acquired a completely new autotext feature - Clipboard Templates. It allows you to quickly paste previously input phrases or text snippets into text fields of any application window with keyboard shortcuts.

What do I need to paste phrases for?

You might find Clipboard Templates hugely time-saving and useful, if your everyday affairs include typing the same phrases time and time again.

Autotext is useful for:

  • accountants,
  • customer service representatives,
  • software developers, web designers and other codeheads,
  • anyone else who has to type similar bits of text repeatedly in their workflow.

Text snippets might be:

  • data for filling out forms (your name, email, address etc.),
  • routinely used fragments of code (PHP, HTML, Java or anything else),
  • command line phrases,
  • selectively used parts of email or forum message templates,
  • anything that you have to type time after time.

How to set up Clipboard Templates in Actual Window Manager

First off, you need to enable the feature and create some templates.

  1. Open your Actual Window Manager Configuration Center (Win+C or double-click the Actual Window Manager tray icon).
  2. Go to Clipboard -> Templates.
  3. Mark the Enable clipboard templates checkbox
  4. Assign a Key Combination. It will be used to invoke the Clipboard Templates context menu.
  5. Click the Add Clipboard Template Icon button to create a new group or template.
  6. Change the default Template or Group name to something reasonable.
  7. Fill your text snippet in the template text field.
  8. Create as many Templates as you need. You can copy already created templates using this Copy Item icon button.
  9. Apply your adjustments. You are all set to use the created Clipboard Templates. You can add new templates or groups and manage the existing ones at any time later.

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What else:

If you have to deal with a lot of Clipboard Templates in your daily routine, there are some features you might find even more time-saving:

  • You can place Templates or Groups into Groups.
  • To invoke only a certain part of your Clipboard Templates list, you can assign a separate key combination for each Group.
  • To re-order items in the Templates tree, you can drag them with a mouse. To place an item into a certain group, hold the Shift button while dragging it.

How to paste a phrase or a snippet using Clipboard Templates

  1. Make sure the Clipboard Templates feature is enabled, the Template you want to paste is created and the Key Combination is defined.
  2. Place a cursor into the desired position and press either the general Clipboard Templates Key Combination or a relevant Templates Group individual hotkey.
  3. Choose the desired template from a pop-up menu using your mouse or relevant alphanumeric hotkeys ('0' for the last used template). The template will be pasted immediately.

We hope that Clipboard Templates can help you enhance your daily productivity, letting you achieve your goals faster and make your life a tiny bit better. We would be grateful for any feedback on Clipboard Templates!

Clipboard Templates feature originated from users’ feature requests. You can propose your own feature on the Feature Request page and it will definitely be considered.