Dates and Tokens

Dates and Times

You can insert the date and time into an expansion. This would be useful in for example, expanded form letters.

How insert a date or time

From the action menu [] beneath editing text box, select Insert Date Token.
A drop down sheet will open allowing you to edit the format.
You can insert literal characters like "/" or "-" as separators by typing them into the text field.
You can add date or time components by dragging them from the lower area into the text field.
Once a token is in the text field, the token itself has a menu when you click on the token. For example, you can change an hour token from 24hr clock to 12 hour clock by clicking on the hour token in the text field. You can change months from numeric to the full name by clicking on month in the text field

Click OK. The text current-date will be inserted into your expansion.
To edit the format of the token later on, either right click on it, or else click on it and select Edit Token from the action menu [].
To delete a token, click on it, and press Delete or Backspace.

Localised Dates

Names of days and months are determined by your localisation system preferences. For example, if your first language in System Preferences -> Language is Francais then month names will come out in French (provided you have month tokens with full month names set).

Abbreviation Tokens

You can refer to other abbreviations in your expansion. For example, if you had your signature in a graphic in an abbreviation of $signature, you could add this to other form letters without having to actually paste the graphic into every letter.

How insert an abbreviation

From the action menu [] beneath editing text box, select Insert Abbreviation Token.
A drop down sheet will open allowing you to select which abbreviation you wish to insert. Select the Group, and then the abbreviation.
Click OK. Let's say you select an abbreviation with the tag $signature. The text abbreviation:$signature will be inserted into your expansion.
Now when this abbreviation is expanded, the content of the other abbreviation will be expanded within it.
To edit the token later on, either right click on it, or else click on it and select Edit Token from the action menu [].
To delete a token, click on it, and press Delete or Backspace.

Pasteboard Tokens

You can insert the current contents of the Pasteboard (i.e. the Clipboard) into an expansion. This might be useful in a form letter for example. You could type a person's name, and copy it to the pasteboard before expanding a form letter token. Then the person's name would be inserted into the form letter in the appropriate spot.

How insert a pasteboard token

From the action menu [] beneath editing text box, select Insert Pasteboard Token.
The text pasteboard will be inserted into your expansion.
Now when this abbreviation is expanded, the current content of the pasteboard will will be expanded at the location of the token.
To delete a token, click on it, and press Delete or Backspace.

Cursor Tokens

You can move the cursor after the expansion to a selected position. This would be useful in for example a form letter, where you want your cursor positioned in the body of the letter ready to type. It is also useful in technical and programming type expansions. For example, an expansion of HTML tags could position the cursor between the tags.

How insert a cursor token

From the action menu [] beneath editing text box, select Insert Cursor Token->Cursor Here.
The text cursor:here will be inserted into your expansion.
Now when this abbreviation is expanded, the cursor will be positioned at the location of the token.
To delete a token, click on it, and press Delete or Backspace.

Field Substitutions (Fill-in fields)

With things like form letter expansion, you would like to replace certain parts of the expansion, like the name and address. You could expand the letter into your document and then manually edit the appropriate locations, but there is an easier way. From the action menu [] beneath editing text box, select Insert Field Token. A token will be inserted into the text.

Now when you expand this token, instead of it immediately expanding the token, it will open a window with the first token in the document highlighted. Start typing to replace the token with your chosen text. When you hit TAB, it will take you to the next token. Keep filling in the tokens and hitting tab. When the last token is filled in and you hit TAB it will take you to the OK button. Hit SPACE BAR to select OK, and the expansion will take place in your application.

You can put the same token in multiple places in your expansion. Just give the fields the same name, and when you fill in one field, it will fill them all in at the same time. If you want them to have different values, make sure you give each token a different name.

Like other tokens, you can edit the name by right clicking it in the main AutoTyper window's expansion field, or clicking on it and selecting Edit Token from the action menu []. Delete a token by clicking in the middle of it and hitting Delete.