Espanso: Easy Text Expansion
Espanso is an open-source text expansion program that can be used to quickly type out canned responses, signatures, or other blocks of text.
How it works:
Espanso uses a “match-and-replace” process for expanding text.
You could configure it to trigger on the phrase “#signature” and replace that with your signature.
The program will be alerted when you start typing a word that matches a trigger phrase, and will replace that phrase with the text you defined.
Step 1: Installing Espanso
Navigate to the Espanso installation website, and download the installer for your operating system:
Run the installer that you’ve downloaded, and follow the installer’s steps to install the program.
If the Espanso search bar popped up after the installer finished, then it was installed correctly.
Please visit Espanso’s “Getting Started” guide for more information:
Step 2: The “base.yml” file
This file is what Espanso uses for your trigger phrases, and matches.
It is located at:
On Windows: %appdata%\espanso\match
On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/espanso/match
In Windows, use the run dialog “Win + R” to launch an explorer window at that folder.
In macOS, use “Shift + cmd + G” in Finder to navigate to that folder.
Just copy and paste the path from above into the navigation dialog.
The file uses YAML, so be sure that your syntax and whitespacing adheres to that standard.
Example:
Please visit Espanso’s documentation for basic and advanced match configuration:
Espanso will automatically reload it whenever the base.yml file is modified--you can use a text editor like VSCode, or BBEdit on Macs, to modify the file.
Known Issues:
I typed in my trigger phrase, and it just typed out “v” instead.
This is due to your computer being overworked--Espanso tried to send your system “CTRL + V” to paste in your match, but only managed to squeeze out “V.”
I typed in my trigger phrase, but it just typed out the contents of my clipboard instead.
This is similar to the issue above. This time, Espanso managed to send your system the paste shortcut, but wasn’t able to temporarily fill your clipboard with the contents of your match.