Espanso – Cross-Platform Text Expander Written in Rust

I love espanso! The cross-platform support is huge (I use it on macOS, windows, and X11 and Wayland-based Linux systems).<p>Moreover, the original creator (Federico) and the current head maintainer to whom he has handed most of the day-to-day (AucaCoyan) are two of the <i>kindest</i> people I have ever come across in open source. All issues and contributors are treated with respect, it really is refreshing to feel so welcome when trying to contribute.

Autohotkey is go to on Windows for stuff like this, and its called hotstrings [1]. Hotstrings are much more powerfull. Trigger can for example run arbitrary function. AFAIK on linux, you can run it using wine.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.autohotkey.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;v2&#x2F;Hotstrings.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.autohotkey.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;v2&#x2F;Hotstrings.htm</a>

I found Espanso very useful, but some bugs made me move on to Raycast, BetterTouchTool, etc. for similar functionality. For example, if Espanso config file is on a cloud drive, it doesn&#x27;t automatically sync or read the file upon reboot.<p>I&#x27;m planning to move back to Espanso though, as Raycast is moving in the wrong direction with all the AI non-features.

Have been using it for some years now. On Linux at least, it&#x27;s easy to install and maintain.<p>The size of my snippets list is now a testament of its usefulness. On the appropriate context (an online meeting, for instance), it feels like a superpower.

I think the problem Espanso is trying to solve should be addressed by GUI toolkits, like GTK, QT, etc. Otherwise, living with an authorized keylogger in our system in order to introduce unicode characters seems overkill.

Also works with Android<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;lochidev&#x2F;Expandroid">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;lochidev&#x2F;Expandroid</a>

Just installed it and started using. It is timely as I have to fill a number of forms today on government sites so looking forward to using it. What are some best practices you have come up with for reducing the cognitive load for the trigger lifecycle - that is detect the need, come up with one that fits an easy to retrieve mental model? Namespacing obviously comes to mind, and some trigger design should be as conflict free as possible, yet brief:<p><pre><code> :i.a - address :i.n - name :i.p - phone </code></pre> Debating if I should feed my zsh history to chatgpt and as it to come up with some. Any other advice from the power users?

I’m using it on KDE for quite some time now. It’s very useful, but sometimes types too fast and eats keystrokes. Other than that it’s flawless. Can recommend to anyone.

Anyone know how to change the default :date output to YYYY-MM-DD instead of MM&#x2F;DD&#x2F;YYYY on macOS?<p>I’ve tried the following in <i>default.yml</i> and reloading the config, but it’s not working and Claude, Gemini, and myself are stumped :)<p><pre><code> matches: - trigger: &quot;:date&quot; replace: &quot;{{mydate}}&quot; vars: - name: mydate type: date params: format: &quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;</code></pre>

My cross-platform, FOSS text editor, KeenWrite[1], does something similar[2]. Pressing Ctrl+Space inserts the nearest matching variable into the text.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;keenwrite.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;keenwrite.com&#x2F;</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;CFCqe3A5dFg?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9KWzPIoWZMKu_&amp;t=55" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;CFCqe3A5dFg?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9KWzP...</a>

I love espanso. I use it daily. Simplicity is perfect, it does one thing and does it well.

This is how you do a Readme &#x2F; went in having no clue what a text expander was and within 5 seconds understood what it was from a small gif.

The single best way to insert emojis into text, I cannot function without this tool

I still prefer AlomWare Toolbox, because it can autotype things from different triggers other than just hotkeys or hotstrings, such as the text in PC notifications when they appear.

This is basically what Data Detectors natively does in macOS, is it?

Can anyone recommend a good TextExpander to Espanso snippet converter?

Espanso looks promising but Atext (paid) fits niche very nicely for me.<p>With atexts gui it makes building new entries easy. I even have a keyboard shortcut to use highlighted text to quickly make a new entry.<p>I have used it to write emails, make automation&#x27;s for certain websites that take keyboard shortcuts. I use it to build query searches for certain websites I use frequent (kinda like firefox back in the day).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.trankynam.com&#x2F;atext&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.trankynam.com&#x2F;atext&#x2F;</a>

I’ve been using this for about 6 months. Love it.

What are some interesting use cases people are using Espanso for?

I found it really buggy when I used it to the point in was unusable