Text replacement confirmation

Hello. I am using the default text replacement function in macOS and iOS but I have a bit of a problem with how it operates. When I type-in the shortcut, I then have to click space for it to be replaced. And that’s the problem.
Is there any way I could confirm the replacement without adding any character? Preferably without any confirmation, just write the characters and it would replace by itself.
I am open to using other text replacement system but it has to work on iOS as well.

Cheers

Sorry, the space bar is the only way I know of.
Unless you use textexpander, and even then it’s usually space bar to do it.

You could always let the replacement occur and if it wasn’t what you wanted do an undo, ⌘Z.

2 Likes

This gets me with my personalized email closing - on iOS.

So ;thm gets me Thanks, Martin.

If I remember I use the down arrow to get text replacement to work. It doesn’t seem to move the cursor away.

But if I forget to use down arrow I end up with a space.

So is there a way for it to just insert itself using TextExpander?

I use text replacement on iOS and have not used textexpander. It’s important to have the space because it signals for the text to be replaced. For example, you could have two replacement snippets - zz and zzz. If you didn’t have a space, then the zzz could never be triggered as a replacement. I hope that explains it.

Well, I was hoping that there would be a way of signalling without a character being added.

textexpander does give you options for expanding.
but to be honest, on iOS I use the normal system expansion, I only use TE on the mac.

Thanks. I’ll look into it.

Well, TextExpander doesn’t seem to be the solution for me. Though it replaces it without need for signalling, it takes for-ever to insert it. I need it to be instant. And it puts a SPACE after the snippet, so it’s the same problem.

Actually the space does not have to be there, you can change that in TE settings.
But I find it strange it takes long to expand, mine always expand instantaneously. Even a full legal article will be there in a blink.

Is this on iOS or macOS?

It’s on macOS. I need those snippets inside of other words; it seems to struggle with that.

I know that it is a niche problem what I need is this:
Write a sentence and sometimes in the beginning, sometimes in the middle and sometimes at the end of a word; I need to write a snippet beginning with either colon or semicolon; for it to expand; and I need to be immediately able to continue typing.