Capture Form — Reworked in TextExpander

Back in September, I shared the “Capture Form” I created to take notes in meetings.

I’ve been using this form consistently, but have come to a point where my system breaks down when moving from the paper to my computer. Things aren’t making it in to OmniFocus, iCal, etc. Additionally, in some meetings, I have to have my laptop or iPad with me, so bringing paper and pen seemed like too much to carry.

So I’ve created a new version of the Capture Form, in TextExpander.

Now, when I type ;mtg TextExpander gives me this:

+ MEETING:
DATE: [DATE]
TIME: [TIME]
ATTENDEES:

+ NOTES:


+ ACTION ITEMS FOR ME:


+ ACTION ITEMS FOR OTHERS:


Now, I can type four characters on any of my devices and start taking notes. The snippet includes the date and time automatically, and moves the cursor to one space to the right of the colon after the “MEETING” line.

Likewise, each of the dashes includes one blank space to the right. This makes entering text just a tiny bit quicker.

I still don’t like using my iPad or MacBook Pro in meetings, but this is helping it become a little easier when I have to do it.

PlainText for iOS has TextExpander support and syncs with Dropbox. Here’s a screenshot of the Capture Form in PlainText on my iPad as proof.

You can download the snippet here as a .txt file.