Breevy Help/Documentation


Help Topics:
    - Creating a New Text Abbreviation
    - Creating a Program, File, or Folder Launcher
    - Creating a New Website Launcher
    - Match Modes
    - Replacement Modes
    - Tips
    - TextExpander Compatibility (Import, Export, and Sync)
    - Special Key Presses (Ctrl, Alt, ...) Using the %(Key), %(KeyDown), and %(KeyUp) Macros
    - Launching with the LaunchPad
    - Synchronizing your Abbreviations Across Multiple Computers with Dropbox
    - Using Breevy on a Portable Device (USB Flash Drive, etc)
    - Importing and Exporting your Abbreviations
    - Importing the Included Abbreviation Sets
    - Importing Your Microsoft Word AutoCorrections
    - Disabling Folders
    - Using Insertion Macros
    - Backups
    - Read-Only Folders that Sync with External Files
  Other:
    - The Mac / TextExpander User's Quick and Easy Guide to Breevy
    - Acknowledgements

Quick-Start Guide: Creating A New Text Abbreviation

With Breevy, you can increase your productivity and speed up your typing (in any application) in three simple steps:

After you've finished adding and/or modifying your abbreviations, simply click OK or Apply, and the changes you made will be applied. You can then type any of your abbreviations in any application and they will be recognized and replaced for you automatically.

If you wish to discard all of your changes, click Cancel.


Quick-Start Guide: Creating A New Program, File, or Folder Launcher

You can also use abbreviations to launch programs, files, and folders with Breevy. The process is similar to creating a new text abbreviation:


Quick-Start Guide: Creating A Website Launcher

Last but not least, Breevy can launch websites for you whenever you type an abbreviation.


Match Modes

Breevy lets you choose between three match modes for each abbreviation. Let us assume that we are creating a new abbreviation of ab with a replacement text of a boy:

Breevy lets you set the match mode on an abbreviation-by-abbreviation basis. For convenience, you can also set the default match mode for all newly created abbreviations in the Preferences window.


Replacement Modes

You can choose when you'd like Breevy to replace an abbreviation that you type:

As with the match mode, Breevy lets you set the trigger mode on an abbreviation-by-abbreviation basis. For convenience, you can also set the default trigger mode for all newly created abbreviations in Preferences


Tips


TextExpander Compatibility (Import, Export, and Sync)

Breevy is compatible with TextExpander (Mac OSX) and can import your TextExpander snippets, export to the TextExpander format, and even sync with TextExpander via Dropbox, allowing you to use your snippets even if you're away from your Mac. For more information, please click here.


Launching with the LaunchPad

If you'd like to launch something -- a program, website, file, folder, etc. -- by typing the abbreviation you assigned to it, we recommend using the LaunchPad to do so, though it's not necessary.

The LaunchPad is a convenient little window that pops up whenever you press its hotkey -- which, by default, is Ctrl + Space, though you can change it in Preferences if you want.

After the LaunchPad pops up, all you have to do is type the abbreviation associated with whatever you'd like to launch (ff for Firefox, calc for the Calculator, etc) and Breevy will handle the rest.

In cases where you're not currently in a text editor or are in a program (or part of a program) that doesn't accept text input -- like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Photoshop, Windows Calculator, etc. -- the LaunchPad is the preferred place to type your launcher abbreviation.


Importing and Exporting Your Abbreviations

To export all of your abbreviations, click File -> Export All Abbreviations in the main window. Choose the location you'd like to export the abbreviations to (such as the Desktop) and click Save. You can also export an individual folder by right-clicking it and clicking Export.

To import an abbreviation file you previously exported, you can just double-click the file on your computer and Breevy will automatically import it for you. You can also import an abbreviation file by clicking File -> Import Abbreviations in the main window.


Synchronizing your Abbreviations Across Multiple Computers with Dropbox

Breevy includes Dropbox sync support, making life much easier for users who wish to use the same abbreviations across multiple computers.

When you enable Dropbox sync (in Preferences -> Dropbox Sync) on all of your computers that have Breevy installed, you'll no longer have to manually export your abbreviations and then reimport them on all of your other computers each time you make changes to your abbreviations. Breevy will do this for you automatically, detecting when you make changes to your abbreviations on one computer, and applying those changes to all of your other computers.

In order for this feature to work, you need to have Dropbox installed. Dropbox is free, very easy to install, and is used by over 4 million people.

After you install Dropbox, simply click the button with the green arrow on it next to the Dropbox folder field in Preferences -> Dropbox Sync so that Breevy auto-detects your Dropbox folder, and then click OK. Repeat this process on all of the computers that Breevy is installed on and you're good to go!

Mac / TextExpander users: Breevy can sync with your TextExpander snippets, too. Click here to find out how (it's easy).


Using Breevy on a Portable Device (USB Flash Drive, etc)

Breevy can now be run on portable devices like USB flash drives. When running on a USB flash drive, Breevy saves your preferences, abbreviations, and all other data to the flash drive that it is running on instead of the host computer, thus making it portable and allowing you to use Breevy with your abbreviations on any computer, even if Breevy isn't actually installed on that computer.

To run Breevy on a USB flash drive, simply download the special portable package from Breevy's website and extract it to your flash drive. You can then run it either by double-clicking the BreevyPortable.exe file, or by selecting Breevy Portable from your PortableApps.com(tm) app menu (if you are using the PortableApps.com Platform).

Note: To prevent data loss, before you physically remove your USB flash drive from the computer after using Breevy on the USB flash drive please always remember to first exit Breevy (File -> Exit, or right-click the system tray icon and click Exit), and then safely eject/remove your USB flash drive by using the Safely Remove Hardware feature of Windows.

To safely eject/remove your flash drive (make sure you save any changes to your abbreviations and exit Breevy first):

If you're having difficulty safely ejecting / removing your flash drive, please contact us and we'd be glad to help!


Importing the Included Abbreviation Sets

Typo AutoCorrections Set

Included with Breevy is a set of over 6500 abbreviations that can be used to AutoCorrect your spelling errors in any application. Just click Import Typo AutoCorrections in the File menu and they'll be imported for you automatically.

Medical Transcription Set

Also included is a set of over 13,500 abbreviations just for medical transcriptionists. Just click Import Medical Transcription Set in the File menu and they'll be imported for you automatically.


Importing Your Microsoft Word AutoCorrections

Breevy can import all of your Microsoft Word AutoCorrections. Just click File -> Import Microsoft Word AutoCorrections and they'll be imported automatically.


Disabling Folders

Want to temporarily disable the abbreviations inside of a particular folder and prevent them from being expanded when you type them? Simply right-click that particular folder (you can disable more than one, of course) and select Disable, then click Apply to apply the changes.

To re-enable a disabled folder, just right-click it and select Enable, then Apply.


Using Insertion Macros

Breevy supports the use of macros in the Replacement Text field for text abbreviations. Macros are commands that tell Breevy to do certain things with the outputted text that couldn't otherwise be done.

The list of currently supported macros are listed below. You can also see and choose from a list of the macros Breevy supports by clicking the button, which is located next to the Replacement Text entry box in Breevy's main window.

Supported Macros:

If you have a suggestion for a macro you think would be useful, tell us about it and we'll consider adding it in the next release.


Backups

By default, Breevy automatically makes a backup copy of your abbreviations each time you modify them and click OK or Apply. You can restore one of these backups and recover your abbreviations if necessary at any time by opening up the Backup Manager, which can be accessed from the main menu in Breevy's main window.

See also the Backups tab in Preferences, which allows you to change the backup directory (recommended if you have a separate hard drive, though not necessary), as well as the maximum number of backups that should be saved before pruning older ones to make room for newer ones. You can also turn off automatic backups in Preferences.


Read-Only Folders that Sync with External Files

Breevy makes it possible to create read-only folders that sync with external abbreviation/snippet files and can't be modified. Organizations that wish to create easily-updatable sets of abbreviations for their employees to use will find this feature useful.

To make use of this feature, first export the abbreviation folder(s) you'd like your employees to have read-only access to by right clicking each folder, clicking Export, and choosing the location to export the folder to.

Then, on the system(s) you'd like to give read-only sync access (to the folder(s) you just exported), just click File -> New Read-Only Sync Folder -> From File in Breevy's main window. You can then browse for the location of the abbreviation file that you just exported. Both Breevy abbreviation files and TextExpander snippet files are supported.

Finally, choose how often you'd like Breevy to automatically update the folder from the external file (if ever), click OK, then click Apply to save your changes.

From that point on, Breevy will automatically check to see if the external file has been updated on disk as often as you told it to, and if it has changed -- for example, because you re-exported a modified version of the folder to the same location you exported it to previously -- Breevy will reload it automatically.


We're here to help.

Having some trouble, or have a suggestion/comment? Send us an e-mail or contact us through the Ask Us a Question feature of the program (under the Help menu). We'll get back to you as soon as we can.



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