I use a TextExpander rich text snippet to expand in OmniFocus notes fields. It has worked fine for many years. Currently, when invoked, it enters all the text, and places the cursor at a particular location—but the rich text in the TextExpander snippet changes size and color used (14 red (green in some parts)) to size 12, and dark grey. The font remains the same: Helvetica Neue, and bold and non bold text retain their original setting.
I’ve tried, with no success: clearing the style (returning to the default, Helvetica Regular 12, grey), then deleting the text, after an expansion; rebooting.
The only change to the snippet I recall doing semi recently was modifying the cursor location (but again, the cursor properly locates during expansion).
When I copy the text from a previously (before the problem started) successful expansion in a note and paste it in a new note, the colors and size remain intact, but when I copy the text in TextExpander (in the rich text field) and paste into an OmniFocus note, the colors and font size from TextExpander don’t show up in the note. If I manually copy the TextExpander snippet and paste in TextEdit, the font size and colors are correct.
I have a ticket in with TextExpander, and the first reply included: “Our team is currently tracking reports of issues with font matching.” They also asked about updates, and I provided them current versions numbers of macOS (14.8.1), OmniFocus (and I gave them the url for OmniFocus release numbers and dates), and TextExpander. (I installed the OmniFocus 4.8.6 update this morning, but the incorrect behavior was in effect prior to that version. I update (incremental) macOS, OmniFocus, and TextExpander pretty much as soon as I am notified.)
A second reply from TextExpander included: “Most of the reports we’ve seen have been on Sequoia.” (I am running Sonoma, 14.8.1.)
My post is about a technical problem, but it occurred to me later that by sharing what I’m doing with this TextExpander-to-OmniFocus notes fields, maybe someone would catch a useful idea.
In the GTD tradition, projects are something that have more than one action to complete. When I have the time upfront, I’ll find the location in the Projects perspective, and create/local a new project there. (I add the date of the project in this date form: 2025-10-30 to later give me some possible perspective as to when the project was created.)
If I’m in a hurry, I’ll create an action with a project of: “Project or SAL – turn into” (SAL is single action list), and a tag of: “OF” (OmniFocus). Later, I’ll turn that action into a project, and place it in the Projects hierarchy.
In the notes field of projects, I use the following text, with examples. This information helps me focus on why I’m aiming to achieve the project’s outcome, and some related information:
Outcome(s) (verb, past tense):
- Chest freezer bought and installed.
Goal(s):
- Increase frozen food storage capacity.
Adjectives(s):
(not applicable to this example project)
Resource(s):
-
Appliance store
-
The web (for research)
Reference (url(s), project folder (etc.) aliases)
[including an alias to a corresponding macOS project folder containing reference materials; etc.]
Tags:
#independence
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