How do I make TextExpander seem invisible and run in the background?
Since TextExpander 3 and later are applications, they do need to be running in order to expand your snippet abbreviations. However, there are a couple settings you can adjust to make it "disappear into the background."
In TextExpander's Preferences > Appearance, check the option for 'Hide in Dock'. The TextExpander icon will no longer take up valuable Dock space, but a small TextExpander icon can appear in the menubar, should you need it.
In Preferences > Appearance check the option for 'Launch at Login'. Please check the list of Login Items in your account in the System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items panel to verify that TextExpander is there. (For pre- Mavericks choose System Preferences > Users & Accounts > Login Items) The "Hide" checkbox next to TextExpander can be checked to keep the main TextExpander window hidden, or un-check TextExpander's 'Show main window at launch' option.
There are a variety of shortcuts you can set in Preferences > Hotkey to quickly perform actions without clicking on the menu bar item. If you do not show TextExpander in the menu bar, we highly recommend adding a Hotkey for "Open TextExpander" so have some way to access TextExpander.