The ABCs of TextBloom for Solutions Engineers
Textbloom is a text expansion and clipboard manager tool that I created when I realized I wanted a tool that did exactly what I wanted it to do instead of settling for one of the others out there that was close enough. My initial focus was to solve for some specific use cases Account Executives have, but as the project grew it became quickly evident that almost everyone who works with a computer can benefit from using TextBloom, and Solutions Engineers are no exception.
I’ve put together 3 use cases, but this is certainly not an exhaustive list!
- A – Always One Step Ahead Of The Demo Gods
- B – Better Documentation Management
- C – Clipboard Management
1. Always One Step Ahead Of The Demo Gods
Spelling errors never make you look great, but when you’re doing a demo for a prospective or current client and everything needs to run smoothly, you want to make sure a command line typo doesn’t throw you off your game. Using a text expansion tool like TextBloom ensures you never have this problem again (at least as long as you’re sticking to the script [pun intended?]).
You can use Normal Expansions for the easy stuff and Form Expansions for the commands that might need some customization. Creating a Form Expansion is easy. Here’s an example of a Form Expansion with the trigger :cd and 2 different directory paths:
Now that this is set up, any time I type the trigger, a pop up window appears that allows me to select from any of the available options. Saving my selection autopopulates the text into my window:
2. Better Documentation Management
Keeping track of all the docs pages would be a pain even if the docs weren’t updated with each new product version. With TextBloom’s Form Expansions, you can save each option and select the proper one when needed:
3. Clipboard Management
To be fair, everyone who uses a computer can benefit from a clipboard manager, but solutions engineers are always juggling multiple tasks and can definitely take advantage of it. Whether it’s keeping track of code snippets, collecting files to email to a customer, or any of the other myriad of use cases, TextBloom’s clipboard manager makes life just a bit easier.
By holding down Command and Shift and then pressing either the left or right arrow key, you can pull up the clipboard manager and select the item to paste:
Conclusion
These are just 3 simple ways TextBloom can help Solutions Engineers be a bit more productive, but with a robust clipboard manager, Form Expansions, Password Expansions, and more, the sky’s the limit!