Quickly Rename Your Paperless Files With TextExpander Or Breevy

This video on renaming files with TextExpander and Breevy is part of a series of quick videos on paperless tips and topics. View more in the series here.

When you are going paperless, one thing you often do over and over is type filenames (or note names if you are using something like Evernote).

A text expansion tool like TextExpander for the Mac or Breevy for Windows can massively speed up this process. The keystrokes saved can really add up over time.

This video takes you through some of the ways that a text expansion tool can help you when going paperless.

View the video below, or click here to watch it on YouTube. If you are able to, I recommend that you watch it with HD turned on.

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About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 9 comments

Neville Gosling - October 31, 2019 Reply

Great advise re use of Text Expander to reduce typing stress. Every software company seems to be moving to monthly payments instead of a one-time purchase and then update add-ons. I have an aversion to these monthly payments because they seem small at the time but with all the other software soon add up. That is why I dumped Adobe Lightroom and others. There is another great text expander software for MAC users entitled “aText” that is only about $8.00 Canadian and seems to do the same job as Text Expander.

Use Breevy On Windows To Supercharge Paperless File Naming - September 9, 2014 Reply

[…] you want to see more about text expansion tools in general, this video on naming paperless documents with TextExpander will show what I mean. The video was made on a Mac, but you will get the […]

Marla - April 15, 2014 Reply

I’ve been using this since I read your book, and it’s a fantastic time saver. Thank you!

Brooks Duncan - April 15, 2014 Reply

Great thanks Marla! Text expansion tools are my favorite type of tools.

Michele Engel - April 2, 2014 Reply

Wonderful demo! I’ve never used my TextExpander program, but this is a great reason to start. Thank you!

Brooks Duncan - April 2, 2014 Reply

Awesome, glad it helped Michele. Thanks so much!

Field-Based File Naming With Forms inMotion For ScanSnap • Tips To Learn How To Go Paperless | DocumentSnap Paperless Blog - October 22, 2013 Reply

[…] is easier said than done, especially when you have others working with you. Tools like text expansion tools can help, but how can you ensure that everyone is naming files the same […]

Lisa Hernandez - November 18, 2011 Reply

Thanks for that very helpful video. I have Text Expander (it came with a software bundle I purchased some time ago, but I hadn't really used it. I see how it really helps maintain the discipline of renaming files, which, yes, does stop me from scanning sometimes. I also liked the video about using Coverflow view when renaming files.