Today I added the Dynamic Text Replace plugin for WordPress to my blog. I’m a bit lazy when it comes to writing and hate when I cannot do something by using the keyboard only. Or when I have to type the same thing over and over. That is why I chose to use this plugin. Dynamic Text Replace “allows you to easily pre-define text replacement template strings and allow for text to be passed in.” In lame terms, if I want to link something I’ve written about (a word for instance) to a reference site (a dictionary with the definition to said word), all I have to do is use the proper short syntax and the plugin will dynamically enter all the necessary html tags and render it to the viewer. It has definitely helped me speed up my blog writing and elliminates the use of the mouse.

Now, after writing 2 posts today I noticed something peculiar: There were new lines inserted into my posts for every time I used a shortcut (pseudo-function). I decided to check the developer’s site and leave some feedback, when I also noticed that some other people were having problems using the plugin. I dropped a quick comment and shortly after the author himself replied saying that my issue was due to some debugging code left behind (and we developers can all relate to that). He thanked me for pointing out the issue as well as for my feedback that solved other people’s problems. A new “patched” version was immediately available for download and I’m happy to inform that everything is running smoothly (as it should). I never get tired of how gratefying helping out the Open Source community can be!