How to create text shortcuts on Mac

macOS has a simple text shortcut feature built in. It’s free, it syncs through iCloud, and for a handful of phrases it may be all you need.

Set up Text Replacements

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Under Text Input, click Text Replacements…
3. Click +. Type your shortcut under Replace (for example @@) and the full text under With (your email address).
4. Click Done. In a supported app, type @@ followed by a space and it expands.

Where Text Replacements falls short

• Not every app. It works in apps built with Apple’s text system (Mail, Notes, Messages, Pages, Safari fields) but not reliably in Terminal, many code editors, or Electron apps like Slack and VS Code.
• One line of plain text. No formatting, and multi-line text is awkward to enter.
• Nothing dynamic. No today’s date, no clipboard, no “type a name here”, no cursor placement.
• Hard to manage at scale. No folders, no search worth the name, no import or export beyond iCloud sync.

When a text expander app is worth it

A text expander app watches for your abbreviations in every app and replaces them itself, which is why it works in Terminal and Electron apps too. It also adds placeholders: dates with maths, your clipboard, fields to fill in before the text is inserted, and snippets inside snippets. See how text expansion works on macOS for what’s going on under the hood, and choosing a text expander for the options.

Snippets worth creating first

• Your email address, phone number, and postal address.
• An email sign-off, and replies you send more than once a week.
• Today’s date in the format your work uses.
• Meeting links and dial-in details.
• Code you type often: log statements, license headers, commit templates.