Have you seen AutoHotKey [autohotkey.com]? Have not used it yet myself as I just ran across it, but I'm thinking I will be trying it out soon. Certain I can come up with many uses for it!

Depending in the "code snippet", most of the time I can type them faster than remembering any hot key combination... HOWEVER, having said that I have several in place in my editor of choice... Homesite. Of the six only one is in routine use. Guess it depends on needs and direction...

I've used autohotkey, but I don't know how that would be any better than using the stored macros in notepad++. I used autohotkey to save notepad++ and refresh firefox window and that was great.

I really cant image typing
<img src="" alt="" width="" height="" border="0" />

when I could use a button on a macro keyboard or a shortcut to do the same thing.

When I used my sidewinder keyboard, I printed a cheat sheet that showed where everything was mapped to. Most of the keys became second nature such as opening, closing php tags, img, a href, ul li, etc..

Anyone use X-Keys for this type of thing..?

Surely programmers don't type out everything over and over, that just seems unproductive to me.

I've used autohotkey, but I don't know how that would be any better than using the stored macros in notepad++.

I know that most text editors allow you to save macros, but I really like to idea of having a dedicated key for a particular snippet.

Seems kinda contradictory, or not? Oh wait I see you saying you like it narrowed down to one key only rather than a key combination. I still have not tried out autohotkey myself, as actually I don't really like having to remember "hot" keys combinations myself (though the cheat sheet would be an absolute must - I have not used x-keys either but looks like an o.k. tool if you don't mind another piece of junk on your desk :). I was actually thinking of autohotkey for some application launching type of uses perhaps, still debating uses for that with me-self.

Surely programmers don't type out everything over and over, that just seems unproductive to me.

I actually have notpad++ but I never use it. My text editor of choice is NoteTab Pro, largely because I make extensive use of the Clipbook Library in it which I totally love. It's literally a database unto it's self, the way I use it to hold so much stuff like clips, programs, and general notes and such (so much stuff, it would be impossible to remember "macros" keys required, or even fit within a dozen x-keys devices). Easy to use (just a double click to insert a clip from the current clipbook library to the file being edited, or to run a command) and add clips or entire new libraries and custom programmable as well. The quote tags above are just one of hundreds of my clips I added (auto-wrappable around selected text or just straight insertion). One of my more frequently used commands I programmed in as a clip: "Launch current document Firefox localhost" and one for IE as well (it has buttons for open as local file in browser A and browser B [selectable] in the stock gui). I've added several libraries to it for javascripts, php, AS3, general clips, general notes, and other things as well. So yeah, Clipbook Libraries are how I roll @=