Text expander syntax question

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eggdog
Posts: 4
Joined: Jan 8th, ’18, 02:46

Post by eggdog » Mar 30th, ’22, 01:23

I'm missing something big in the multiple-options mode in the Text Expander.

I want to do something like this. The trigger is chi1 and I'd like to be able to choose between "chiropractic" and "chiropractor". From reading the help files, I thought the syntax would be:

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che1	chemotherapy
chi1	chiropractic
	/chiropractor
chol1	cholesterol

in the Text Expander word list. But that produced both words with a carriage return.

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I had to get some chiropractic
/chiropractor treatment for that injury.
What should the syntax be? Thanks.
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Marko
Posts: 1718
Joined: Mar 2nd, ’13, 21:02

Post by Marko » Mar 30th, ’22, 07:23

If you want to select one of the options, what you are doing is correct:

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chiropractic
/chiropractor
Check Preferences/Text Expander if the separator is set to "/". You may also reset the Preferences to defaults.
eggdog
Posts: 4
Joined: Jan 8th, ’18, 02:46

Post by eggdog » Apr 1st, ’22, 15:34

Hello Marko,

The separator is / . I reset the preferences for all of the Text Expander modules; the only one that I'd ever changed was that I'd disabled Spintax.

It's still the same now:

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I had to get some chiropractic
/chiropractor treatment
Fast Keys is placing a hard return at the end of "chiropractic".

Here is one thought. All of my abbreviations end in a number. I remember years ago, all my abbreviations began with a number (1chi), but that caused problems with one of the versions of FastKeys back in the 3.x - 4.x change period, so I moved them to the end (chi1). Is there any way that the numbers could be getting in the way of the multiple-choice options? Or is there something else I could try?

Thanks.
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Marko
Posts: 1718
Joined: Mar 2nd, ’13, 21:02

Post by Marko » Apr 2nd, ’22, 18:55

If you are pressing Enter after typing "chi1", then a hard return is placed after the selection. You could press any other ending key (Space, comma, etc) or try More options - Trigger immediately or Delete ending char options.

There should be no problems with the numbers the abbreviation.
eggdog
Posts: 4
Joined: Jan 8th, ’18, 02:46

Post by eggdog » Apr 4th, ’22, 16:03

Hello Marko,

I deleted the two lines of the "chi1" in my personal .fkp and put new ones in:

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chir1	chiropractic
	\chiropractor
So it works differently now: if I type chir1<space>, FastKeys types out "chiropractic" instantly and doesn't give me the option to choose which of the two I want.

I've always used the space as the expander trigger. The hard return came when FastKeys was treating

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chiropractic
\chiropractor
as one word. It's not doing that now, it's doing something different, but still not operating as I'd hoped.

I set FastKeys to expand the word immediately and not look for the expander trigger. I also tried hitting [Enter] instead of [Space]. Same results.

This is radical, but I've basically been using and editing the same .fkp file for about two years (and backing it up). Does this sound like it could be damage to the .fkp file? Should I delete it and start over?

In a text editor, the relevant part of the .fkp file looks like:

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:chem1::chemotherapy
::chi1::chiropractic
::::\chiropractor
::chol1::cholesterol
Anything else I could try?

I hope I explained all this OK.

Thanks.
User avatar
Marko
Posts: 1718
Joined: Mar 2nd, ’13, 21:02

Post by Marko » Apr 4th, ’22, 22:51

This is strange. I suggest you contact us on our support mail and send us your fdb and fkp files
eggdog
Posts: 4
Joined: Jan 8th, ’18, 02:46

Post by eggdog » Apr 6th, ’22, 23:36

Done. Thanks.
julietaylor
Posts: 4
Joined: Oct 30th, ’19, 12:31

Post by julietaylor » Aug 3rd, ’22, 14:56

I am having this same problem. But finally figured out that the options are showing on my third monitor (but I'm working on monitor 1). Essentially the pop-up drop-down list is not popping up next to my cursor position, but another monitor entirely. :(
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