TextExpander: How to Create Custom Citations with a Few Keystrokes

How much time do you spend typing out citations for manuscripts and special collections material? I used to be frustrated that Zotero lacked the ability to format citations for manuscript collections. Each time I needed to insert a citation I had to type out the Archive, Collection Unit, Author, Type of Document, Call Number, and Date.

However, last week I bid goodbye to my days of tedious, time-consuming footnote creation.

I discovered a tool called TextExpander and it simplifies repetitive typing tasks like citation creation.

In this post you will discover the TextExpander app, how it works, and how you can use it to quickly create custom and customizable citations for your manuscripts and special collections material.

TextExpander: An Overview

TextExpander is an app that allows you to create "snippets" of text that automagically appear when you type a custom shortcut.

For example, you could create a shortcut that spells out "by the way" every time you type “BTW.”

You can create snippets for any type of text that you want to generate on a regular basis: e-mail addresses and signatures, address and phone information, responses to regular e-mail inquiries, or citations for manuscripts and special collections.

How to Create Citations with TextExpander

Do you have a special collection or manuscript collection that you cite throughout your books or articles?

Throughout my book I need to cite the "Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee of the City and County of Albany" located within the Manuscripts and Special Collections division of the New York State Library.

Rather than type out "NYSL, MSC, "Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee of the City and County of Albany," (SC11783)” each time I need it, I use a time-saving shortcut I created in TextExpander.

How to Create a Custom Citation Snippet in 5 Steps

Step 1: Open TextExpander

Step 2: Click the “+” on the lower left side of the app

Step 3: Type the name of your custom citation in the “Label" line below the text box

Step 4: In the text box, enter the text you would like to appear every time you type a shortcut

Step 5: In the abbreviation field below the text box, set the abbreviation you would like to use to trigger TextExpander  (Note that abbreviations are case sensitive. TextExpander recommends you use a colon or semicolon before your shortcut so you do not accidentaly trigger it with a typo.)

Bonus Tip: If you often misspell certain words you can create a snippet that corrects your spelling every time you misspell the word; use all or part of the misspelled word as the trigger abbreviation.

Now the we have created our snippet, all we have to do is type “;Acm,” our custom abbreviation trigger, anytime we want the citation for the Albany Committee minutes to appear.

How to Create Customizable Citations with TextExpander

You can also use TextExpander to create customizable citations.

For example, throughout Chapter 4 of my book I cite letters and affidavits from the Thomas Gage Papers (William L. Clements Library).

Each time I cite documents from this collection, I create a citation that looks roughly the same: William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, AUTHOR, “TYPE OF DOCUMENT,” (Thomas Gage Papers), DATE OF DOCUMENT.

TextExpander allows us to create a customizable citation by using its “Fill in” form feature. This feature allows us to quickly insert new information into our citation everytime we trigger our TextExpander snippet.

How to Create a Customizable Citation in 9 Steps

Step 1: Open TextExpander

Step 2: Click the “+” on the lower left side of the app

Step 3: Type the name of your custom citation in the “Label" line below the text box

Step 4: Click the “Content” header located at the top of your text box and select “Formatted Text, Pictures” from the drop-down menu.

Step 5: In the text box, type out your citation until you reach a field that you would like to customize

Step 6: Click the cursor box located underneath the text box on the left and select “Fill In” from the drop-down menu and “Single-Line Field” from the “Fill In” submenu

Step 7: Label the customizable field with the type of information you will insert into it each time it appears

Step 8: Continue typing the citation as you would like it to appear (punctuation and all) until you reach the next part of the citation that you would like to be customizable; Repeat steps 6 & 7 to create your new field

Step 9: In the abbreviation field below the text box, create an abbreviation that will trigger your customizable citation

Once you have created your snippet, type your custom abbreviation each time you want to trigger the citation and a box will appear where you can insert the information that will customize your citation.

After you have inserted all of the relevant information into your form, click “OK” and your citation will insert wherever you have placed your cursor.

Conclusion

TextExpander saves time and makes repetitive citation entry a breeze.

The app also saves me time when it comes to other repetitive typing tasks such as when I want to request a rating and review for my podcast when listeners reach out. Each time I wish to make a request, I type my shortcut and TextExpander produces my short paragraph of text and links in my e-mail, tweet, Facebook post, etc.

Imagine what TextExpander can do for you in your correspondence and writing.

What Do You Think?

Do you think TextExpander will save you time and energy?

How do you use (or plan to use) TextExpander to save you time?

Note About TextExpander Compatibility

TextExpander is a Mac-only app. However, Lifehacker has tried and reviewed several PC text expander apps and recommends PhraseExpress as the best.

*I am not affiliated with either TextExpander or PhraseExpress. I am simply a fan of how TextExpander works. None of the links in this post are affiliate links.

3 Tips to Organize Your Library and Create Bookshelf Space

Do you have enough bookshelf space? Historians collect a lot of books and within a short period of time our bookshelves can transform from neat and organized spaces to overpacked and unruly spaces.

Therefore it is important that we develop a system to keep track of the books we own and that we conduct regular reviews of our libraries so we can purge them of books that no longer serve our needs.

In this post you will learn three techniques that you can use to organize your library and create more bookshelf space.

Tip #1: Keep Track of the Books You Have

Do you know what books you have in your library?

Do you know where to find the books you have?

As your library grows it can become difficult to keep track of the books you own and know where to find them.

That is why I use a personal library app to help me keep track of the volumes I own and where I can find them.

In the past I have used Readerware ($39.95). Presently, I use Delicious Library 3 ($25), which is a Mac-only app.

Both apps use barcode and ISBN information to keep track of your books.

Each time you acquire a new book, input the ISBN information into the app, and the software will create a new entry in your library with the information it downloads about the book from Amazon.com and other book databases.

Before I click "OK" to finalize my new entries, I include information about whether the book is signed, a first edition, and where I intend to keep it, i.e. my home, my e-reader, or in my storage unit. This information helps me locate the book if I can't find it when I want to use it.

Both Readerware and Delicious Library 3 include many cool features that will help you keep your library up-to-date and know more about the books you keep in it.

For example, in Delicious Library 3 you can enter books into your library database by manually entering ISBN numbers or titles or by using either the built-in or an external barcode scanner.

Both Delicious Library 3 and Readerware have a loan feature that will assign the location of a book to the friend or colleague who borrows it.  (Both apps will let you catalog your DVDs, video games, and tools too.)

A library database app will also help you better understand your library.

Both Readerware and Delicious Library 3 will provide you with information about how many books you own, who wrote them, and what your library is worth.

If you would like to keep track of your books in an app with fewer features and frills, you could create a Google or Excel spreadsheet.

Create columns for "author," "book title," and "location." You may also want to create columns for "topic," to help you locate books for specific projects, and "borrower," so you can keep track of books you lend out.

Keeping track of the books you own and where you can find them is the first step to identifying what books you need and what books you can purge from your library.

Tip #2: Consider Electronic Editions

You can create bookshelf space by purchasing ebooks instead of physical books.

I ask three questions before I purchase a new book:

1. Is the book for work or pleasure?

If pleasure, eBook.

If work, I ask the second and third questions.

2. Does the eBook contain page numbers?

If no, I purchase the physical copy because I may need to cite the book.

If yes, I ask the third question.

3. Will I need to consult the index of this book?

If yes, I purchase the physical copy because I find it easier to use the indexes in physical books.

Before you purchase a book, you should also ask whether you really need to own the book.

If you just want to read the book you could borrow it from the library.

Purchasing eBooks instead of physical books and making use of university or public libraries will help you save bookshelf space for the books you need to own.

Tip #3: Conduct a Yearly Library Purge

You should set aside a day or two once a year to cull books from your library.

This act will help you get rid of books that you are finished with, will never read, or that are no longer relevant to your research interests.

Culling books from your library is a positive measure that will create space in your library for new books and release books that you no longer need to new owners who will find value in them.

So what do you do with books that you would like to purge from your library?

Here are three ideas:

1. Check their value on Amazon.com and other used book websites to see if you can sell them for cash or credit.

2. Donate your textbooks and document readers to graduate students or social studies departments in your school district.

Teachers love these types of books and use them to write their lectures and in-class activities.

3. Donate your old books to library book sales.

I time my annual purge with the annual book sale for my Boston Public Library branch.

Follow these tips and your old books will find good, new homes. You will also uncover the bookshelf space you desperately need.

Conclusion

Bookshelf space is a precious resource that we must use wisely.

We can help renew this resource by periodically pruning of our libraries and by keeping better track of the books we own.

What Do You Think?

How do you manage your library? 

3 E-mail Habits That Will Increase Your Productivity

Does your inbox serve as a source of stress? Do frequent e-mails disrupt your workflow?

Over the last year I have developed three e-mail habits that have increased my productivity.

In this post you will discover three e-mail tips that will help you decrease your stress, improve your workflow, and increase your productivity.

My Trouble With E-mail

I am a child of e-mail.

Born in one of the first years of Generation Y, or the "Millennial Generation," computers have been a constant in my life.

I have vague memories of playing games on our Apple IIgs and Atari before we upgraded to Nintendo and a Windows computer.

My Dad made sure we were one of the first families in our neighborhood to have internet access.

I remember AOL.

At first the service brought me great disappointment; all of my techie friends used Prodigy. However, after the disappointment wore off my parents allowed me to set-up an e-mail account and venture into chat rooms where I made virtual friends with kids from across the United States.

Ah, e-mail.

Whereas the mail carrier brought me packages and envelopes rarely, AOL never disappointed.

I remember getting home from school, firing up the computer, and clicking on AOL. This action sent our dial-up modem into an audible frenzy. After waiting several seconds to connect, the AOL greeter spoke the words I had waited all day to hear: “Welcome, You’ve Got Mail!”

Remember the mid-to-late 1990s? Those were the halcyon days of e-mail.

In those pre-smartphone days we controlled our e-mail because we had to make it a point to connect to the internet in order to check it.

Fast-forward twenty years and we have to make it a point to turn off the internet.

Smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers have blurred our once clear-cut boundaries between work and play. They have also made it easier for us to send e-mails and check our inboxes.

The increased ease and frequency with which we send and receive e-mails has caused many of our inboxes to fill with so many e-mails that it takes us anywhere from several minutes to an hour (or more) to delete, sort, and respond to the electronic missives we receive.

As a result, many of us feel oppressed by our e-mail.

Bad E-mail Habits

Last year, I realized that the excitement I once had for e-mail had worn away.

My inbox had become a source of anxiety and stress because over the last twenty years I had developed two bad e-mail habits.

First, I checked my e-mail any time I wanted to take a quick break from work or wanted the rush brought on by “You’ve Got Mail!”

Inevitably, the lengthy replies or actions required by some messages ensured that I never took the “short break” I had intended.

Second, I left my inbox open.

Throughout the day my inbox alerted me to new messages, several of which required action. As a person who dislikes procrastination, I immediately stopped what I was doing to empty my inbox of messages.

These bad habits led me to fear and stress over my inbox.

By the end of the year, I realized that something had to change. So I decided to make a New Years resolution to change the way I interacted with my e-mail.

3 E-mail Habits That Will Decrease Your Stress & Increase Your Productivity

Habit 1: Work with your inbox closed.

Keeping your email app closed will decrease your work time (or pleasure time) distractions.

You should also turn off your mail notifications.

Many apps use brightly colored notification icons to alert you to the fact that you have unread messages.

For some, like me, keeping your inbox closed and turning off your notifications won’t be enough.

In order to resist the urge to check my e-mail throughout the day I removed my email app from my Mac dock.

Habit 2: Limit the number of times you check your inbox each day.

This habit will allow you to control how and when you check your e-mail and how often you let it disrupt your day.

I check my e-mail twice per day. Once in the mid-morning and again after I finish with my work.

Knowing that I have scheduled time to check my e-mail has relieved my brain of the need to check my inbox repeatedly throughout the day.

Habit 3: Separate your work from your personal e-mail.

Two separate inboxes means you can control the type of e-mail you look at and when you want to look at it.

Conclusions

Adopting the above habits has increased my productivity and decreased my stress.

I no longer feel the compulsion to check my e-mail every hour. And checking my e-mail before and after my concentrated work time allows me to stay focused on my research and writing for large blocks of time.

No one has ever complained that I seem unavailable or that I have not responded quickly enough to their e-mail messages. After all, I still check and answer my e-mail twice a day.

On the rare occasions that something time sensitive comes up and requires a quick response, I give the concerned party my phone number and/or Twitter handle. These alternative forms of communication keep my inbox closed, which keeps me sane and productive.

Share Your Story

How do you deal with e-mail? Do you have any different tricks or good habits?

Increase Your Productivity with Pocket

Late last year I downloaded Pocket, an app that allows you to save online articles, blog posts, and videos for later. It has quickly become my favorite app and productivity tool.

In this post you will discover why I love Pocket and how it has increased my productivity.

2 Problems Solved by Pocket

Pocket helped me solve 2 problems.

1. Every day I want to read more web-based content than I have time for.

Pocket helps me read more of this content by capturing and saving it for later.

2. Pocket has helped me turn idle moments into productive periods.

I used to get frustrated every time I had to wait more than a few minutes for the T (subway), bus, a cashier, or for the Celtics to play better basketball.

Now I pass these moments productively.

I take out my smartphone, click on Pocket, and feed my mind with the interesting articles I have saved.

The best part: I can read my articles without an internet connection.

Pocket and Your Web Browser

Pocket is seamless to use.

Using Pocket's web browser extensions you can save the content in your browser with the click of a button.

Pocket and Feedly

Feedly has a Pocket extension in its user interface.

The Feedly Pocket extension allows you to save blog posts right from Feedly.

Often the Feedly Pocket plugin will save you from having to go to the actual blog post to save the article.

Unfortunately, the Feedly Pocket button doesn't always work well.

If a blogger shortens their post, Feedly's Pocket extension will save only the content you see in your Feedly browser. If you want Pocket to save the whole article, you have to click on the article title in Feedly and save the article to Pocket from the blog webpage.

Pocket and Twitter

Pocket also has extensions for popular Twitter apps. (I use Tweetbot.)

People circulate a lot of great content on Twitter.

Each time you see a tweet with an link to an interesting article, you can click the appropriate button or tab and save the article to Pocket.

You can also tweet an article you like or save it to Buffer right from Pocket .

Pocket and Evernote

If all of those features weren't enough to make you fall in love with Pocket, here's one more that may send you over the edge: Evernote integration.

Pocket allows you to archive articles you like in a personal archive. However, you may prefer to keep all of your favorite articles and reference materials in Evernote.

Pocket gives you that flexibility from their mobile apps. (You need to use Evernote Web Clipper to save a good article from the Pocket web app.)

In fact, Pocket allows you to choose which Evernote notebook and tags you would like to file the article in and with.

Conclusion

If you want to turn idle time into productive reading (or video viewing) time, try Pocket.

Not only will the app increase your productivity, it will do so for free.

What Do You Think?

What is your favorite app? Why do you love it?

How to Organize Your Research Chronologically

Would you like a fast and easy way to organize your research chronologically? In response to a reader's request, I will show you how you can use DEVONthink to organize your research chronologically.

In this post, you will learn how you can use title formatting and smart groups to view your research in chronological order.

DEVONthink

DEVONthink is a Mac-only program that manages information.

You can use DEVONthink to archive many different file types including: e-mails, PDFs, MS Office documents, PowerPoint slides, iWork files, and websites.

DEVONthink uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to search all of the information you put into it, which makes it both a great digital filing cabinet and database.

DEVONthink excels as a large database because of its search capabilities.

Unlike Evernote, DEVONthink stores all of the information you put into it on your hard drive. Having the information on your hard drive allows DEVONthink to quickly search for what you need; DEVONthink searches much faster than Evernote.

A feature-rich program, DEVONthink has many capabilities that make storing and sorting through your research a breeze.

The Importance of Formatting Entry Titles

I love DEVONthink’s file or “group” structure because it allows me to visualize and quickly find the information I need.

My historical research databases all have groups for “primary sources” and “secondary sources.” Each of those groups contain subgroups, which nest within each group like Russian nesting dolls.

For example, you can see from my screen shot that my main group “primary sources” contains the subgroup “archives.” Each "archives" subgroup contains a “collections” subgroup and each “collections” subgroup contains a “boxes” subgroup.

When I find a letter or document that I want to store in my database, I create a new “Rich Text” entry.

Formatting the title for a new entry is very important if I want DEVONthink to organize my notes chronologically.

I begin each entry's title with the date of the manuscript using the YYYY.MM.DD format. This format allows DEVONthink to chronologically organize all of the documents within a "box" subgroup. (See picture.)

After the document’s date, I complete my titles by adding the author of the document, the recipient (if there is one), and the folder where I found it (if there is one). Adding the manuscript’s author and recipient will allow DEVONthink to easily locate entries I want if I search for a name; folder numbers help me cite and relocate documents.

Smart Groups

Groups store information. Smart groups store specific information.

Groups store the information you type or import into them. Groups do not share information with other groups unless you either duplicate an entry and insert it into another group or create a “smart group.”

Smart groups allow DEVONthink to gather information from across your database based on parameters you set. For example, if you want to see all of the evidence in your database that pertains to the year 1690, you create a smart group.

To create a smart group, go to the top menu bar and click data> new> smart group.

As you can see from the above image, DEVONthink will present you with a query. This is where you establish your parameters.

Use the year you wish to organize as your smart group Name.

Next, set the Search In field to Database.

In the above example we are interested in collecting any document that contains the date “1690,” so tell DEVONthink to include Any where the following 4 rules are true:

(Add a new rule field by clicking + at the end of the query line)

1. All matches 1690

2. Content matches 1690

3. Name matches 1690

4. Tag is 1690

DEVONthink will use these rules to search your database and automagically place every entry that meets your “1690” criteria into your new smart group.

When combined with our smartly formatted titles, DEVONthink will automagically place and sort all entries with the year 1690 in chronological order.

Giving Credit 

I learned the above tips from Rachel Leow. In 2011, she published 3 helpful articles about how historians can use DEVONthink to make collecting and sorting through their research easier. In 2012, she published an additional article in the American Historical Association’s Perspectives.

Want to Learn More?

On Monday, March 24, I will be teaching “How to Organize Your Writing, Ideas, and Research,” a 3-hour workshop at Grub Street in Boston. The course will focus mostly on Evernote, but will cover basic information about Zotero and DEVONthink. There are still seats available.

What Do You Think?

How do you organize your research chronologically? Help your fellow historians and writers by sharing your tips. 

Did You Know?

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You can also ask me a question or submit a post topic to lizcovart[at]mac[dot]com.