Text expansion tools are a must-have for anyone who keeps copying and pasting the same information every day. We've recommended TextExpander and aText for years, but neither is very cheap. If you're looking for a free alternative and don't mind messing with configuration files, you should check out Espanso.
This is a free, open source application for Windows, Mac, and Linux that does almost everything that these paid applications do for free. Cons: More work to set up.
Let's backtrack a bit. The text expansion tool allows you to define trigger words that you can type into any application to quickly paste longer content. For example, I could set up an app that replaces ":jhp" with "Justin Pot" and attach a link to explain who I am more quickly in a professional email. The best apps let you do this while also offering automated features such as including the current date or even information from other programs.
Espanso is a free text expansion application. First, download and install the app. Windows and Mac users will find a system icon, while Linux users will need to rely entirely on the command line, which I'm sure will be no problem for them.
Click Open Search Bar and you can browse the current clip. By default there are only a few.
This doesn't become useful until you start adding your own code snippets (which is the tricky part). I recommend reading the official documentation to really get a feel - consider the following quick overview.
You can add snippets manually by editing the configuration file located at C:UsersuserAppDataRoamingespanso on Windows (replace "user" with your actual username) and ~/Library/Application Support/espanso on macOS. In the "match" subfolder you will find a file called "base.yml". Open it in any text editor to see examples of how to add your own code snippets.
The three clips we saw earlier are all here. If you want, you can edit them to see how things work. I made some snippets by copying and pasting the content to the end of the document. Each time you save a file, Espanso will reload the configuration file and let you know if there are any problems. Note that the number of spaces before each line matters - if it's not precise, things won't work.
Like I said: there's going to be some trial and error here. I managed to build some pieces while playing around. By digging into the documentation I managed to get the form fill popup to work.
If building your own snippets is too difficult, maybe you can start with a large hub of pre-built collections. For example, you can quickly add shortcuts for each emoji or special character. Another group corrects various common spelling errors. This is a great way to see what an application does, and you can even open files to see how they work.
But at the end of the day, this is an app you need to use to get the most out of it. I highly recommend you read enough documentation. It might be a little complicated, but you're smart - I know you can figure this out. If not, well, there are always paid options.
