Plum Amazing Software has released yType (http://plumamazing.com/mac/ytype), a new productivity tool for Mac OS X 10.5 or higher that runs in the background to amplify your typing ability.
You type a few characters (a shortcut) to paste a much larger block of text (called an expansion) like your name, an URL, picture or even several pages of formatted text instantly anywhere on your Mac in any application. Another way that yType can save time is in typing symbols and other difficult to find Unicode characters.
The app and manual is in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and Russian. yType costs US$10 for a single user license ; a demo is available for download.