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Last post Author Topic: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?  (Read 52667 times)

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #25 on: October 30, 2006, 11:38 AM »
I've been running DA as my primary "launcher" for about five days now. It's very solid and very light on resources - it's also, as noted above, very light on resources. I miss AW's spellchecking/autocorrection feature though... so, I've been trying the apps mentioned in this thread . If you factor in the added overhead of running one of these spell checkers alongside DA - tinyspell at @ 8MB and As-U-Type and WindSpring both at over 14MB (and As-U-Type keeps reserving more and more RAM each time you use it) - AW compares quite favourably with DA. If only there was a way to tweak launch times with it - I'm going to experiment with the various *.ini files for AW.

Added in edit: these other spell checkers offer varying degrees of functionality. AW is "sort of" in between Windspring and As-U-Type in that it will auto-correct your typing as you type, with no other input/interaction with it required from the user. It doesn't offer a drop down menu of alternatives as do all of the spellcheckers mentioned above.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2006, 11:44 AM by Darwin »

urlwolf

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #26 on: October 31, 2006, 11:35 AM »
One suggestion.

This topic doesn't seem to be any longer about "Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?" This is about launching utilities... kind of like FARR, launchy and slickRun (I may be wrong). I'm surprised none of those are mentioned.

The utility that does "Auto-complete Intelli-sense type" is, for example, flashPeak Intellicomplete (abandonware). I'm curious to see if anyone knows of a better alternative to this one.

Maybe renaming the thread would help?
« Last Edit: November 01, 2006, 01:09 PM by urlwolf »

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #27 on: October 31, 2006, 02:29 PM »
I agree with urlwolf, and apologise for the role that I have played in deflecting this thread from its original theme  :-[

Renaming or even moving the thread may indeed be a good idea as I imagine that people visiting it for the first time are overwhelmed (or underwhelmed?) by the lack of congruence between its title and the bulk of its contensts.

daskeil

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #28 on: November 09, 2006, 03:40 AM »
Hi there, I use autocomplete extensively and currently have 3 different ones going while I decide which to stick with! All are the "free" versions, if commercial versions often have more features.

SpeedTyping - started with this one. very good, very quick, can get it to replace with or without the space added afterwards. Limitations - free version does not allow grouping or rearranging the phrases so once you have a lot it is difficult to find them if you forget the shortcut keys! (which I frequently do). Does not allow spaces in the shortcut phrases. Few options.

Autohotkeys - Very useful and multifunctional. Can cope with spaces in the shortcuts. slower than phrase express. But can have one file with several different scripts in it (using less resources but some bits then stop working as I have little script writing knowledge). The challenge is how to keep track of an ever increasing list of short cuts - any ideas welcomed.

PhraseExpress - very useful as you can organise your phrases into sections making it easier to find ones and edit them plus the shortcut keys to bring up the list so you can just choose the one you want.

The challenge: how to remember all of them!
Have started using the opening word or letters and adding one of the letters till it makes a combination that is NOT part of a normal word (or you end up with it autocompleting things you do not want) eg

hr has a shortcut of   hh
hr class="b" has a shortcut of   hhb
or pick a letter nearby that is never a complete proper word -
title=  uses the shortcut of   ttt  (as tt occurs in too many words)
this is a recent scheme and seems much more reliable than my others!

The whole idea of autotext is to reduce the amount of typing and finger movement (especially as I have arthritis) so it makes sense to use keys close to each other and easy to use for your shortcuts.
I would welcome other tips on how to device memorable shortcuts!

rjbull

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #29 on: November 09, 2006, 04:17 AM »
I would welcome other tips on how to device memorable shortcuts!

daskeil,

Take a look at John Knowles' ABCZ Typing Abbreviation System for a good formalized system for memorable shortcuts.  Accent on bashing out text, rather than launching programs, but principle seems to apply.  Found it via a posting from Harrie here on DC.  Related links:

Donation Coder threads, which deal with text expanders, completers and the like:

jgpaiva's abbreviations importer
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2598.0
link to jgpaiva's AHK tools https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3461.0

Harrie's review of Instant Text, and following posts
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2631.0


Word AutoCompleter
https://www.donation...1036.msg6713#msg6713
(mentions IntelliComplete, AutoTyping, LetMeType, AllChars, Type Pilot)

External links:

Productivity Talk - Harrie's own forum site for (primarily) Medical Transcriptionists
http://www.productivitytalk.com/

Jon Knowles site on typing productivity
http://home.earthlin...net/~agjon/index.htm

app103

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #30 on: November 09, 2006, 05:40 AM »
As-U-Type 3.2 doesn´t do intelligent completion AFAIK...

You can set up specific codes to be replaced with the text you want. Just have to turn on Speed-Typing.

daskeil

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #31 on: November 30, 2006, 08:48 AM »
Just to say thank you to rjbull for the information about how to remember shortcuts - I looked them up and have started using them - very helpful.

so - thank you once again!

rjbull

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #32 on: December 01, 2006, 05:15 AM »
thank you to rjbull for the information about how to remember shortcuts

You're welcome  :)  But the thanks are really to Harrie for introducing John Knowles' system to DC.


nagar

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #33 on: December 01, 2006, 04:06 PM »
I just would like to inform you that I've offered 5 free licenses of Direct Access, for the December contest of Donations code. Just indicate your preference at https://www.donation...ials/freedrawing.php

Direct Access will also be offered to all Donation Coder members at 30% discount in December.

Thanks.
Andrea
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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations.

nagar

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #34 on: August 08, 2007, 03:13 PM »
I'm pleased to announce I've released v.1.6.2 of Direct Access which adds a number of new features and enhancements. It really saves time!
You can download the new version from http://www.nagarsoft.com and, as usual, Donation Coder members get a 30% discount (use coupon DONATIONCODER when ordering).

Improved stability and reduced startup time: Direct Access 1.6 has improved stability and the load time has been consistently reduced. The new keystroke detection engine is lightweight, faster and more reliable than the old one.
Powerful Importer: Direct Access Importer lets you import your commands from other text expander tools like Autohotkey, Type Pilot and Shortkeys to help you migrate from your previous tool in no time.

Quickly confirm a command using the SHIFT key: you can now use SHIFT to confirm a command when you see the confirmation tooltip. It's really quick and convenient to just press SHIFT instead of reaching for F12 or any other key.
Easily share and create commands with the Create Commands Wizard: a new Wizard semplifies the process of importing commands from command packs or creating commands from the desktop, quickstart or documents folders. It simplifies the process of exporting the commands from a PC and importing it to another one detecting and overwriting existing commands on the target machine.

Automate applications with the Send special keys macro: this was a major request and now it's there. You can send key combinations to other applications to do basic automation and fill forms. If you are doing repetitive operations through menus Direct Access can help controlling the target application using keyboard shortcuts. Direct Access can also insert the contents of the clipboard anyplace in an Autotext macro.

New sendtext engine (no interference with other macro tools): the new engine works at a much lower level and is more reliable in sending text to any application. On top of that, it detects the lengths of the text to copy and can decide if typing the text directly or use the clipboard. This ensures that the text is always inserted quickly and precisely. Direct Access can now ignore soft keys: these are virtual keystrokes generated by other macro tools (like Macro Scheduler). This prevents any interference with your pre-existent scripts.

How much time are you saving with Direct Access? Find it out with the new usage statistics: with the usage statistics you can actually see how much time you are saving with Direct Access. I encourage you to enable sharing usage statistics: the data are completely anonymous and they help us understand how you use Direct Access to serve you better.

HTML command pack: we have released our first public command pack which contains a number of abbreviations especially aimed at web designers. You'll be able to quickly insert HTML tags in any application using easy to remember abbreviations.


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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks using abbreviations.
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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations.

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #35 on: August 08, 2007, 03:24 PM »
The best thing about DirectAccess (other than its very helpful and friendly developer of course!) has got to be the fact that it plays nice with other macro tools. I used to use ActiveWords (still have it installed, actually) but it wouldn't co-exist happily with a range of macro addins for Office apps nor with various other applications. That and the pace of development is glacial...

OK 'nuff said. I love DirectAccess! Thanks Andrea!

nagar

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #36 on: August 08, 2007, 03:30 PM »
Thanks. As you said the new version plays nice with other macro tools as it ignores soft generated keystrokes so the text typed by other macro tools is always inserted correctly and without delay. The new lightweight keystroke detection engine helps also making things smooth.
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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations.

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #37 on: August 20, 2007, 07:36 PM »
OK - reviving this thread (because I am a mercenary bastard and want something!). I've long since given up on ActiveWords. There have been two updates since this thread went into a coma but it doesn't play nicely with other apps that monitor the keyboard (e.g. Accents) and resource usage is high compared to DirectAccess, which I use all the time now!

Anyway, I'm revisiting spell checking and wonder if anyone has autohotkey running with any other hotkey/keyboard monitoring app? If so, does it behave itself? Further in the same line of thinking, do the spell checkers, such as As-U-Type co-exist with other keyboard monitoring apps, like DirectAccess?

Alternatively, anyone have any new found favourite spellchecker, or is As-U-Type still king of the hill?

Ta,

Mike

nagar

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #38 on: August 21, 2007, 03:06 AM »
If you have a set of autocorrections is Autohotkey, have you tried importing them in Direct Access? v.1.6.2.1 includes a command importer and allows you to import abbreviations created with Autohotkey.
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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations.

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #39 on: August 21, 2007, 08:57 AM »
Thanks for the reply Andrea - no I've never used AHK before, so don't have any autocorrections set up for it.

I'm trying out Spell Catcher Plus at the moment -very impressive (and plays well with DA). I spent yesterday afternoon and evening trying out: As-U-Type, Tiny Spell, QuickSpell, and Spell Catcher. Spell Catcher is the best of the bunch by a long shot. I found this review of it this morning - I'm in good company! Thanks to sgtret for pointing me in its direction in this thread.

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #40 on: August 21, 2007, 09:02 AM »
PS Andrea - I'm going to try out the AHK script that Zaine linked to earlier in the thread.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2007, 09:30 AM by Darwin »

rjbull

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #41 on: August 21, 2007, 09:22 AM »
PS Andrea - I'm going to try out the AHK script that Zaine linked to earlier in the thread.

Darwin,

Your URL quotedabove points to the As-U-Type site?



Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #42 on: August 21, 2007, 09:34 AM »
Doh! I'm getting really perturbed (ie pissed off) about Clipmate's habit of dropping copy actions. As I "run" without the sound notifications enabled (find them annoying) I am not aware sometimes of this occurring...

 :-[

EDIT: PS thanks for pointing this out to me - I've corrected the URL  :)
« Last Edit: August 21, 2007, 09:39 AM by Darwin »

nagar

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #43 on: August 27, 2007, 03:36 AM »
I've released a new version of Direct Access v.1.65
It includes support for importing Microsoft Word Autocorrect so that you can apply them to any application and a powerful feature to add/remove prefix or suffixes to commands to easily adapt them to your style.
You can download the new version from http://www.nagarsoft.com and, as usual, Donation Coder members get a 30% discount (use coupon DONATIONCODER when ordering).

You can see what's changed at http://www.nagarsoft.../versionhistory.aspx
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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations.

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #44 on: August 27, 2007, 07:31 AM »
Wow Andrea! This sounds awesome! I like the fact that Word's autocorrect feature is less intrusive/noisy than other standalone solutions (and ActiveWords) I can't wait to see if this translates into a "better user experience" in other applications. Cool  :Thmbsup:

nagar

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #45 on: August 27, 2007, 07:59 AM »
Thanks. The nice thing is that you can import the list of autocorrect from Word or Autohotkey and have them available in Direct Access so that you can use them in any application.

If you prefer to add a suffix to trigger you commands (instead of using the SHIFT confirmation key) you can easily add it to multiple abbreviations and tweak it to your suit your needs.

Something I want to mention about autocorrect is that it may "autocorrects" a word which you prefer it didn't. With Direct Access new shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+E you can open the edit window for the last executed command so that you can tweak it to your needs.

Thanks again for all the feedback you provided in the forum.
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Discover the power of Direct Access to speed up your personal computing experience by reducing time consuming, repetitive tasks through the use of abbreviations.

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #46 on: August 27, 2007, 08:07 AM »
Sweet. I've just been trying this feature out. Your points above will help make this work to perfection, I think. Right, off to ask for a refund on the spell checking program I just bought - don't need it now!

Thanks Andrea  :-*

kartal

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #47 on: February 29, 2008, 06:05 PM »
I was trying Direct Access at the moment. It is looking nice except the fact that I cannot use "1 2.." numbers for calling from the suggestion list. This quick grabbing is really really handy tool and available in other tools. Trying to scroll up and down in the list is waste of time. I can type within that time anyways. Do not get me wrong it is a nice piece of software but I am not seeing a point when I cannot call the words quickly within the suggestion dialog.


ewemoa

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #48 on: January 01, 2009, 06:23 AM »
Does Type Booster count as an auto-complete intelli-sense type utility -- and does anyone have experience with it?

Darwin

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Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?
« Reply #49 on: January 01, 2009, 09:06 AM »
Does Type Booster count as an auto-complete intelli-sense type utility -- and does anyone have experience with it?

Looks like it fits the bill, ewemoa. The price is nice ($24.95) as well. However, I've not tried it, so can't say whether it is a good option or not.