A Markdown phrase file for PhraseExpress
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Markdown phrase file for PhraseExpress v1.0 (1.75 KB) — November 30, 2011
Plain text bliss
There is a notion among those in pursuit of techno-bliss that almost anything you need to do, you can do in a plain text file. That is, in a file that contains only text without formating, and will open in Notepad on your PC and TextEdit on your Mac. The argument is that storing resources as plain text makes them easier to maintain, increases their longevity, and is so flexible that you can share the information with anyone on any device.
I love plain text for ex nihilo composing, especially since discovering John Gruber’s Markdown, which lets you add structure to plain text with headings, lists and images. Markdown syntax is (mostly) so simple that it feels like you already know it (especially if you write emails). Extend this with Fletcher Penny’s MultiMarkdown that offers a syntax for creating footnotes, and you are approaching true plain text bliss. Open and save these documents into Word or LibreOffice Writer to make them feel familiar to your colleagues, or parse them with Rails/Sinatra/other web platforms to create something entirely new. The mind just tingles with the possibilities.
Another indispensable composition tool is PhraseExpress, a text expansion tool for Windows that lets me store phrases and paragraphs of frequently-used text that can be evoked with just a few keyboard strokes. I won’t spend time describing how to use PhraseExpress, and simply point you to the excellent series of tutorials by the PhraseExpress team.
My current routine, at least for digital projects, involves first committing free-flowing streams of plain text to a text document, and then, revisiting, to analyze, shape and add structure with Markdown syntax. My routine works best when I don’t have to stop the creative outpouring to think about the footnote syntax. To help, I created a collection of Markdown syntax snippets for PhraseExpress that makes markup even less obtrusive.
Markdown phrase file
The Markdown phrase file is a snippet library for PhraseExpress that makes creating Markdown-formatted text that much easier. While PhraseExpress is running, you can access the snippets in any application (I use Notepad) through the PhraseExpress icon in the taskbar, autotext shortcuts or a hotkey. PhraseExpress will automatically expand the shortcut into the full snippet.
The phrase file has the following snippets:
| Autotext | Hotkey | Snippet |
|---|---|---|
| mdb | Alt-Win-b | Bold |
| mdi | Alt-Win-i | Italics |
| mdo | Alt-Win-o | Ordered list |
| mdu | Alt-Win-u | Unordered list |
| mdl | Alt-Win-l | Inline link |
| mdw | Alt-Win-w | Wikipedia link |
| mdr | Alt-Win-r | Reference link |
| mdg | Alt-Win-g | Reference image |
| mdf | no hotkey | Footnote |
| md1 | Alt-Win-1 | H1 (also H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) |
| mdp | Alt-Win-p | Wrap parenthesis |
| mds | Alt-Win-s | Wrap square brackets |
Most of these snippets work best when text is selected; use the hotkeys to format the text. If you have already copied text to the clipboard, or you are inserting a list or footnotes (in other words, when no text is selected but a text field is focused), use the autotext to invoke the snippet.
The Snippets
Bold/Italics: These snippets wrap selected text in Markdown emphasis syntax (_ for italics and __ for bold).
Ordered/Unordered list: These insert an ordered or bulleted list of four items with the correct indentation and place the cursor at the first point in the list.
Inline link: This wraps selected text with inline syntax, creating a shell (([link text](URL title="link text")) with the cursor placed in the parenthesis pair into which you past a URL. Title attributes are automatically created from the selected text.
Wikipedia link: This takes the selected text and runs a search for it using Wikipedia. You can insert the link with inline link syntax. This works well when you have unique words or phrases and want to link to wikipedia, of course. This snippet is still a little buggy.
Reference link/Reference image: This wraps selected text in reference-style syntax ([link text][ID]), placing the reference link ([ID]: URL "title") just below the text. Title attributes are automatically generated from the selected text. You will be asked to input a reference ID:
Footnote: This inserts a footnote wherever you have placed the cursor [^ID], and places the footnote link ([ID]: ) just below. As with other reference-style syntax, you will be asked to input a reference ID. You will also be asked to add the footnote text:
Headings: These snippets wrap the selected text in the Markdown heading syntax (##Text for H2 level headers for example).
Wrap Parentesis/square brackets: These simply wrap the selected text in square brackets or parentesis, which comes in handy more often than you think.
Installation, requirements and customization
The Markdown phrase file requires PhraseExpress v8. To add the phrase file to the PhraseExpress library, open the PhraseExpress settings and drag the file in the Phrases and Folders window. For more information, see the PhraseExpress online manual. To change any autotext and hotkeys, select a snippet and edit the autotext and hotkey fields. PhraseExpress will warn you if the combination is unavailable (that is, being used by another application or existing system shortcut). Click the image for a larger version.
30 Nov 2011
