#1

Sometimes my thoughts are hindered by my typing speed and accuracy (something I need to work on), but after reading this, I was inspired to try out some keyboard shortcuts to try make my life a little bit easier. Sadly, the macOS keyboard shortcuts don’t work within Obsidian for some reason, so I hacked together a little Python script with a hotkey (using skhd) that can create the same effect - while also having the configuration file within Obsidian and version controlled in my git workflow for my notes.

demo
demo1000×422 736 KB

Let me know if this would be useful for you :blush:

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#2

This is programmer’s stuff! :wink: It looks out of reach for laymen like me, even if I’m a geek of sorts… I’d need a solid tutorial / user guide.

I’m using :link:Typinator — it does many cool tricks, is easy to setup for non programmers and works perfectly with Obsidian.

I do also use Keyboard Maestro and sometimes manage to have Typinator and KM collaborate together.

Another benefits of these tools is that you can have your shortcuts synchronize between different machines, no need to define them on each one.

Olivier :-{)

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#3

@josh: that means you have remember shortcuts for the most commonly used words, which even for an “average” vocabulary, is quite a lot.

#4

Awesome - I haven’t heard of Typinator before, but that’s great that it works within Obsidian and you’re getting good use out of it.

The ability to sync is really nice. I don’t have the need to do that at the moment, but I guess because of git integration, it would naturally sync if I wanted to use another machine.

#5

That’s true - and why I sometimes just keep the side bar open with my shortcuts as reference and so I can add more if I want. The point isn’t to have a shorter version of every word, but only those annoying words to type or some boilerplate for a template.

#6

espanso would be good for this. But yeah, you’d need to be able to remember what keywords you’ve set up, it might be a good idea to write a note on those keywords in Obsidian. I see this being simpler than actually writing a script to do something similar.

#7

This is pretty cool! I don’t like how it is something that processes the entire file when run.

For some reason none of my MacOS replace-with shortcuts are working either. But they are not working anywhere at all. I only noticed this now that you mentioned it. I use Alfred’s snippet manager, and it works in Obsidian, and everywhere else.

How would one distinguish between progressive, progressing, progress, progressed, and progresses? Or other very similar words and tenses?

Automation and systems are wonderful! I do set a few carefully curated snippets. And I automate and document a lot of my own processes and work pipelines. And I do have a shorthand of symbols I use that means things to me. The spirit of the article is great, but I wouldn’t want to manage dozens or hundreds of snippets in this way. But after reading this, I’d like to make more snippets than I currently have (11).

Also, any time I try and use dictation or handwriting detection, I spend a lot more time frustrated, re-reading the results, making sure it didn’t make mistakes. I assume I’d spend a lot of time double-checking and second-guessing the results of this script as well.

#8

In Typinator — my goto abbreviation expander — you can decide if an abbreviation is considered only when it’s a word or immediately when you have typed the letters. You an also choose wether case is considered or so on. So many possibilities !

I’m writing mainly in French, so I couldn’t give insightful tips about english abbreviations. But I can say that I already had in my brain quite a few abbreviations of common words coming from handwriting/note taking and I just transferred them into Typinator. With time, the repertoire just grew and grew.

Like with starting with Obsidian, I’d advise that you start with a few natural abbreviations. Then, with time and practice, you’ll progressively come to new ideas and you’ll memorise along the way. For this an “easy” tool like Typinator comes handy, because you’d never do the setup involved if it’s too convoluted.

My two cents.

Olivier :-{)

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#9

That’s an interesting point about processing the entire file. My thinking in how I wanted to use it was to write a first draft with the shortcuts all there and then when I’m happy or take a step back from a thought I’ll process it - otherwise I can easily get distracted and lose a train of thought (just personal preference).

I’ve noticed that the macOS shortcuts often get confused when in certain apps too which is very annoying.

How would one distinguish between progressive, progressing, progress, progressed, and progresses? Or other very similar words and tenses?

The way I’ve managed to deal with it is not ideal - having different shortcuts for each, but I guess if one is looking at the context of the whole sentence or paragraph, there is the possibility for some NLP to “intelligently decide”. Maybe I’ll play around with that at some point.

Also, any time I try and use dictation or handwriting detection, I spend a lot more time frustrated, re-reading the results, making sure it didn’t make mistakes. I assume I’d spend a lot of time double-checking and second-guessing the results of this script as well.

My experience as well. Like I said above, I’m trying to consider any first pass at getting thoughts into writing as a rough draft and not get caught in the weeds - then edit and refine. I mostly use this technique when trying to write evergreen notes in a similar style to Andy Matuschak’s notes.

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