Use a text expander browser extension to quickly enter frequently-used text

Tutorials
1

I mentioned this in another thread, but wanted to make a full tutorial for it as well.

For those of us who do a lot of identifying on iNat, we often enter the same text over and over again, whether it be about basic iNat use (eg from the Frequently Used Responses page) or taxonomic/ID info. In my experience, the best way to do this is not via some other app or window with text that you can select, copy, and paste from, but via a “text expander” browser plugin.

With a text expander, all you do is set up a letter combination and the extension will automatically turn that into the full text you want to enter.

There are many of these extensions that you can search for. Firefox is my main browser and I’m currently using this ancient one that still works fine. But they all work basically the same way. Here’s how to set it up.

  1. Search for a text expander extension and install it in your browser. Make sure it’s active.
  2. Set up the extension and add shortcuts plus text. Make sure your shortcuts are not letter combinations you would normally use. Make sure to save each one. Here are some examples of mine:

image
image968×624 35 KB

image
image986×436 44.2 KB

  1. The next time you use iNaturalist, enter a letter combination and the text attached to it should appear instantly.

It can take a little time to remember which combinations you want to use, but once you do this is a real time saver.

I’ve made this a wiki post. Please feel free to edit and add your preferred text expander extension and browser below, if you like:

Firefox

  1. Smart Text Expander

…

Define Text Replacement using your device’s Operating System: Text Replacement How To’s

Briefly, For iPad or iPhone iOS use:

Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacement
to define keystrokes that insert a comment when you type specific keystrokes.

Example:
Once defined, typing ‘Picturethis’ produces,
“You may also enjoy using an app called PictureThis, which is designed to ID landscaping plants.”

How To links

People could use Google or DuckDuckGo to find instructions for their specific devices, but here are a couple I found.

IOS
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-text-replacements-iph6d01d862/ios 1

Mac OS
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/replace-text-punctuation-documents-mac-mh35735/mac 1

Windows
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-reusable-text-snippets-0bc40cab-f49c-4e06-bcb2-cd43c1674d1b 3

Android
https://www.howtogeek.com/276635/how-to-add-custom-text-shortcuts-to-android/

…

15 Likes
2

I’ll add a condensed version to the wiki later when I’m in a better editor.

This functionality is often available in the device’s OS, besides as a browser extension.

(quoting from a prior post)

Text replacement How To’s

Briefly, For iPad or iPhone iOS use:
Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacement

…to set up keystrokes that insert a comment when you type specific keystrokes.

(TLDR)
When broadly IDing Unknowns, especially for newer users, I have several boilerplate comments I routinely add. I figure if I all I can do is ID something as a Plant, adding a comment to new users about how to get more out of the site makes up for it a bit.

By typing a couple unique letters you define in Settings, a whole comment gets inserted into the Comment area.

These auto text strings are easy to set up in most device Settings, and I’ve included some instruction links below. The triggering text strings will work in all apps, so be sure to use text that you would not use often in your other writing.

Examples

These are some I use most often; but each person will have different needs and preferences for their work style.

For Unknowns: Typing ‘Unk’ produces,
“As this Observation was entered as Unknown, it may not get reviewed by experts. It helps to add even a very high level ID to the Species ID field when you enter your observation. I am identifying this very generally in the hope that it will be noticed and identified by someone with more expertise.”

For Explaining about Computer Vision: typing ‘CV’ produces,
“I’m not an expert, but this was Suggested by iNaturalist Computer Vision. Did you know if you click in the Species Name box (it’s under the Suggest an Identification tab) when adding your Observation that iNaturlist software will suggest likely species? It’s not always right, but it is improving all the time. The Compare button may offer similar organisms to consider.”

For potted plants and landscaping: typing ‘Picturethis’ produces,
“You may also enjoy using an app called PictureThis, which is designed to ID landscaping plants.”

For too many species shown: Typing ‘Multi’ produces,
“Your observation includes photos of multiple species. Could you add them as separate observations? If you do that, they may all get IDed. A quick way to fix this observation is to use the duplicate feature. In the upper right corner of the observation page, click the downward arrow next to “Edit” and choose “Duplicate.” Then identify the duplicate observation as the organism in your second picture and uncheck the checkboxes next to the other pictures. You can repeat this process to create new duplicate observations for picture #3, #4, etc. Lastly, come back to the first observation, click “Edit,” and delete the extra picture.”

(I borrowed those instructions for fixing the observation from another iNat user, but I don’t remember who it was now - sorry )

How To links

People could use Google or DuckDuckGo to find instructions for their specific devices, but here are a couple I found.

IOS
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-text-replacements-iph6d01d862/ios 1

Mac OS
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/replace-text-punctuation-documents-mac-mh35735/mac 1

Windows
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-reusable-text-snippets-0bc40cab-f49c-4e06-bcb2-cd43c1674d1b 3

Android
https://www.howtogeek.com/276635/how-to-add-custom-text-shortcuts-to-android/

2 Likes
3

Prompted by an earlier post from @tiwane

Google Chrome

Auto Text Expander

My list has grown to 12. Tweaked and edited as I realise a better way to word ‘that’.

2 Likes
4

This is my program choice in Windows, probably works in a variety of browsers (I use Chrome):

Beeftext

2 Likes
5

Another option for building a short-term list is the clipboard history in Windows. I use this when I’m working through a taxonomic group and I don’t want to keep typing the same names over and over.

Press the Windows key + v to see a list of the last 25 items you’ve copied and click on one to paste it. If you haven’t enabled it yet, the first time you press those keys it will take you to the settings menu to enable keyboard history.

This tool only saves 25 items and isn’t permanent like the others above but it’s a little faster than copying and pasting from another document.

4 Likes
6

My Zingiberales classification should not be a problem. I was just pointing that it was not Alpinia.

I marked it as monocot - so, should be alright from my side ;)

Yesterday I had two obs where I was mortified to explain ancestor disagreement to identifiers who think I don’t understand that the correct taxon DOES fit into the taxon they used for hard disagreement.

I have added a text expander for
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/25514-clarifying-ancestor-disagreements

Ancestor disagreement remains a mystery for long-term iNatters!

1 Like
7

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/change-to-ancestor-disagreement-implementation/49276

29 Feb changed from hard to soft disagreement - when that wrong ID is withdrawn or deleted.