Download Espanso (Mac) – Download & Review Free

Expand It’s been around for a few years and has recently started receiving updates. It is a powerful, extensible text expander with some advanced, programmer-oriented features and the ability to add new snippets using community-created packages.

Just enter the shortcut to insert anything

While the app is running, you can type the shortcut into any text field and it will be replaced with a word, text, number, sentence, or whatever else it is linked to. This should work with any application and text input field.

You’ll notice that Espanso comes with very few shortcuts out of the box. To get more information, you can edit the default YAML configuration file or add more information, but you can also go directly to Espanso Hub and install packages shared by other users.

Search bar makes finding quick and easy

When you can’t remember a shortcut key, you can press ⌥+space Open the search bar. Here, typing anything will filter the available entries, and you can also access application commands.

If you find the code snippet you’re looking for, just press the Return key to enter its contents in the highlighted text field.

Premium features and community packs

If the shortcut creation process isn’t enough of a clue, this app is primarily aimed at technical users. It has shell, script and form support, and if you have the expertise you can make it do anything.

Of course, this also means it’s not the best choice for the average user unless they’re prepared to put in some work. You do have the option of downloading a shortcut pack to get started, but you’ll probably end up needing to tweak them anyway.

In short, Espanso is perfect for programmers or other technically-minded users as it gives you unlimited flexibility and advanced features in an open source package. Others may find it a bit difficult to get started, but there is extensive documentation available for those up to the task.