Those who have a lot to do in a short time no doubt appreciate how text "shortcuts" for frequently used text strings and images can speed things up. SmileOnMyMac says TextExpander does just that, and has just been updated for better speed and ease of use. The company says v2.4 includes a menu bar icon that responds at the same rate no matter how large a user's "snippet library" may be. The new version also includes bug fixes, keyboard navigation for the menu bar and other enhancements.

TextExpander allows users to quickly insert greetings, signatures, formatted text, special characters and pictures into documents. Programmers can create templates and use AppleScripts. Snippets -- items accessed by entering an abbreviation -- can be organized in a variety of ways. Groups of snippets can be imported from external files and online sources.

TextExpander 2.4 sells for $30. Family Licenses are available for $45. Existing users can upgrade for free. The software requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.