Typinator is absolutely superb software. I abandoned TextExpander the moment it went subscription and moved over to Typinator—so have been using it for years. The support is as superb as the software—even to the extent of helping with complex RegEx based expansions. I really can’t praise it highly enough and make use of it many times every day.
Stephen
There is one issue I havn’t resolved yet. How can make an extension work when it’s connected to a character?
I have an extension for m² and I have to type a space before. Anyone know if there is a way to avoid that i.e. expanding the snippet when connected to a character?
Would also like to switch to Typinator, but have two Macs and no Dropbox (Dropbox is also out of the question). Maybe someone can tell me if iCloud sync is also possible and works reliably?
Yes, absolutely. Have had no problem as long as, as always with iCloud, you make it store all files locally and forbid it to unload files to the cloud when disk space is low.
I had similar issues with TE crashing on my M1 MacBook Air. The issue seems to be resolved, but on iOS, some apps using TE, namely Drafts, and Fantastical for me, often freeze when I start typing. I’m not sure if these are related issues but made me wonder. OmniFocus on iOS will also often freeze for a moment.
I’ve not worked out the detail but, from existing abbreviations I use, I suspect you can do that using RegEx. For example. I use the following abbreviations:
RegEx: (\d{2})(F|C)
Expansion: $1°$2
Result example: 20°C (the expansion inserts the superscripted degree sign in the temperature)
RegEx: ([\d])(in)
Expansion: $1"{^}
Result example: 16" (the expansion substitutes non-smart quotation marks for smart ones and places the cursor after the inch sign)
Sorry I’ve not had time to look at your specific case in more detail but I suspect you could do something like those examples.
Stephen
Thanks for the tips guys - I have Alfred & KM - so I’m going to play around with those, but Typinator sounds like it could be a winner
I’ve looked again at what you want to do and this, in Typinator (making sure you’re using regular expressions), will do what you need:
Abbreviation: (m)(2)
Expansion: $1² {^}
Result (for example): com²
(Note I’ve placed the cursor after a space: you don’t need to do that, of course, and could delete the space in the expansion.)
Stephen
I have used TextExpander for many years and it is an integral part of my daily workflow. Up until recently, it has been very solid. It now crashes regularly. Deleting their folder in the WebKit folder generally works for a little while, but then the crashes start again. This is easily the most unstable version of TE that I have ever used. 
With that said, I am not prepared to jump ship to a competing product–yet. Based on my lengthy and very positive past history with TE, I am willing to give them some more time to sort things out. I am confident that they will fix the problem. Sooner would definitely be nice however!
Thanks, havn’t tried the regular expressions yet. This will help!!!
the newest version now causes a problem with Fill-In snippets (based on the posts here, I may be the only person here that uses Fill-Ins). The Fill-In pop up will no longer just appear when activated. You have to click on TextExpander in the dock, activating the main window, to get the fill-in box to appear. Really janky.
Is it wrong that my two favorite threads on MPU are TextExpander and Mail app threads?
My heart starts to palpitate… 
I have the same issue with TE crashing shortly after startup on an Intel MBP 16".
There is a new update available (finally), let’s hope this finally fixes the problem.
Needless to say, I also do not have my subscription set to auto-renew currently.
I feel you, man. I’m the same! 
So like an idiot, I reported the bug. In the bug report I included the following info:
on a Mac
MacOS 10.15.7
TE version
This is the TE snippet they sent back
Thank you for reaching out to Smile Support.
I believe this might be a bug but will need your help to identify any key factors that might be causing this. Could you please clarify which device this is taking place on and it’s OS Version and Version of TextExpander being used?
They also wanted to know if I tried rebooting my machine…
Of course! Have you not tried turning it on and off again? 
I was helping my Dad with his Dell computer back in 2008 (I dont remember the problem now but it was not something basic) and the Dell support rep asked us to move the desktop to a different room to see if that solved the issue. I had him repeat it just for the lolz and then I hung up on him and ordered an iMac. 
I would have been more forgiving of Smile if they would not have asked for the exact info that I already gave them.
I posted in another thread a similar customer service experience with online courses sold by a recent MPU guest. Frustrating as all get out, and just lazy, lazy, lazy by the vendor. Needless to say I did not purchase his course and I advised others not to either.
On topic, I’ve tried the Smile products, but found them buggy and hard to use. Ditched them years ago. Like others here, I’m still not sure why they are so frequently recommended. And now with Smile selling PDFPen, I think TE’s days are numbered…
I have a theory about this. But I’m not allowed to post that here apparently. Some community members think that’s inappropriate.
I have two problems with TE on Intel Mac right now:
Dialog boxes - for fill ins - appear behind the current window.
It won’t recover from perpetual crashing. I’ve sent the crash logs off to Smile (or at least I’ve asked it to.)
The question is how to get Smile to respond to numerous crash reports.