If you have a problem with Typinator, please check out the user's guide first. The user's guide is available via the Help command in the Typinator menu. You can also download it here in English, German, and French.

If neither the user's guide nor this FAQ page answers your question, please contact our technical support.

If you have a problem with Typinator, we suggest that you first try the following steps:

• Make sure you have the latest version of Mac OS X and all system updates: Run "Software Update" and install all available updates. If you need to restart your Mac after the update, run "Software Update" again until it tells you that no further updates are available.
• Verify that you are using the most recent version of Typinator. Open Typinator's Preferences window, select the "Updates" tab, and click the "Now" button to perform an immediate online check for a newer version. If there is no "Now" button in the Preferences window, you are definitely using an old version. In this case, please visit our download page to get the current version.

Is Typinator compatible with Moutain Lion (OS X 10.8)?

Starting with version 5.2, Typinator is compatible with Mountain Lion and signed with a certificate for Gatekeeper. In general, we recommend upgrading to the latest version of Typinator for best compatibility with Mountain Lion.

Why do I have to enable "Access for assistive devices" and how can I do it?

Typinator requires a global Mac OS X setting to monitor keystrokes. Per default, this feature is turned off, so you need to enable it when you use Typinator for the first time:

In System Preferences, select "Accessibility" (called "Universal Access" on OS X 10.7 and older) and enable the checkbox "Enable access for assistive devices". If this option is turned off, Typinator will tell you and help you to open System Preferences.

Please note that you need administrator privileges to enable this checkbox. If you do not have the necessary privileges, ask your system administrator to enable this option for your Macintosh.

What is the best procedure to install or update Typinator?

Starting with version 3.7, Typinator uses a "smart self installation" technique that makes installing and updating a breeze. Just mount the downloaded disk image and double-click the Typinator icon inside. Typinator will quit an older copy that may be running, copy itself to the Applications folder and launch the newly installed copy. There is no magic involved: You could do all this by hand as well; Typinator just simplifies and automates the process and gets you up and running in seconds.

How can I transfer my Typinator abbreviations to a new computer?

To move all your abbreviations from one Mac to another one (for example, when you replace an older Mac with a new model), transfer your sets folder to the new computer.

• If you have Typinator 3.6 or newer, check the path of the "Sets folder" in Typinator's preferences. Copy this folder to the same location on the other computer, then choose this folder as the "Sets folder" in Typinator's preferences.
  You can also store the Sets folder on Dropbox to automatically synchronize it between multiple Macs. For more information, see the section "The Sets folder" in the Typinator user's Guide.
• With Typinator versions before 3.6, locate the folder "~/Library/Application Support" inside your home folder. It contains a folder named "Typinator", which in turn contains a subfolder "Sets". Just copy this folder from the first computer to the same location on the new one.

Hint: Starting with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), the Library folder is invisible. To quickly access it, open the Finder’s “Go” menu. Then press the alt key, and the command “Library” will appear.

Why do abbreviations in a certain set not expand when I type them?

This can have a number of reasons:

• The set containing the abbreviation may be disabled. Make sure that its checkbox is turned on in Typinator's set list. When this checkbox is turned off, the items are still available in Typinator's Quick Search, but Typinator will no longer consider items in this set as you type.
• Items in the set may conflict with items in other sets. Take a look at the list of abbreviations and look for warning symbols in the first column. When you select an item with a warning symbol, Typinator displays an explanation beneath the abbreviation field.
• The set may be disabled for one or more (or even all) applications. To assign sets to applications, click the button with the application symbol at the bottom right of the set list. For more information, see the section "Activating sets for specific applications" in Typinator's User's Guide.

Why does a space character appear before an expansion in an MS Word document?

This is caused by the "Smart cut and paste" option of MS Word. In some cases, Word is not quite as "smart" and makes a wrong guess, which leads to unwanted space characters.

To fix the problem, open Word's preferences and click "Edit". There is a checkbox "Use smart cut and paste". You don't need to disable all of the "smart" features. To avoid the extra spaces, click the "Settings..." button and turn the option "Adjust sentence and word spacing automatically" off.

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