• n8henrie a month ago

    I love espanso! The cross-platform support is huge (I use it on macOS, windows, and X11 and Wayland-based Linux systems).

    Moreover, the original creator (Federico) and the current head maintainer to whom he has handed most of the day-to-day (AucaCoyan) are two of the kindest people I have ever come across in open source. All issues and contributors are treated with respect, it really is refreshing to feel so welcome when trying to contribute.

    • rendaw a month ago

      Being willing to listen and engage with people on a project goes so far!

    • majkinetor a month ago

      Autohotkey is go to on Windows for stuff like this, and its called hotstrings [1]. Hotstrings are much more powerfull. Trigger can for example run arbitrary function. AFAIK on linux, you can run it using wine.

      [1] https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v2/Hotstrings.htm

      • nixpulvis a month ago

        IIUC they can also run arbitrary scripts with Espanso.

      • behnamoh a month ago

        I found Espanso very useful, but some bugs made me move on to Raycast, BetterTouchTool, etc. for similar functionality. For example, if Espanso config file is on a cloud drive, it doesn't automatically sync or read the file upon reboot.

        I'm planning to move back to Espanso though, as Raycast is moving in the wrong direction with all the AI non-features.

        • henriquemaia a month ago

          Have been using it for some years now. On Linux at least, it's easy to install and maintain.

          The size of my snippets list is now a testament of its usefulness. On the appropriate context (an online meeting, for instance), it feels like a superpower.

          • lamg a month ago

            I think the problem Espanso is trying to solve should be addressed by GUI toolkits, like GTK, QT, etc. Otherwise, living with an authorized keylogger in our system in order to introduce unicode characters seems overkill.

            • Wolfbeta a month ago
              • tathagatadg a month ago

                Just installed it and started using. It is timely as I have to fill a number of forms today on government sites so looking forward to using it. What are some best practices you have come up with for reducing the cognitive load for the trigger lifecycle - that is detect the need, come up with one that fits an easy to retrieve mental model? Namespacing obviously comes to mind, and some trigger design should be as conflict free as possible, yet brief:

                  :i.a - address
                  :i.n - name
                  :i.p - phone
                
                Debating if I should feed my zsh history to chatgpt and as it to come up with some. Any other advice from the power users?
                • bayindirh a month ago

                  I’m using it on KDE for quite some time now. It’s very useful, but sometimes types too fast and eats keystrokes. Other than that it’s flawless. Can recommend to anyone.

                  • hypertexthero a month ago

                    Anyone know how to change the default :date output to YYYY-MM-DD instead of MM/DD/YYYY on macOS?

                    I’ve tried the following in default.yml and reloading the config, but it’s not working and Claude, Gemini, and myself are stumped :)

                      matches:  
                        - trigger: ":date"  
                          replace: "{{mydate}}"  
                          vars:  
                            - name: mydate  
                              type: date  
                              params:  
                                format: "%Y-%m-%d"
                    • thangalin a month ago

                      My cross-platform, FOSS text editor, KeenWrite[1], does something similar[2]. Pressing Ctrl+Space inserts the nearest matching variable into the text.

                      [1]: https://keenwrite.com/

                      [2]: https://youtu.be/CFCqe3A5dFg?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9KWzP...

                      • frellus a month ago

                        I love espanso. I use it daily. Simplicity is perfect, it does one thing and does it well.

                        • kamranjon a month ago

                          This is how you do a Readme / went in having no clue what a text expander was and within 5 seconds understood what it was from a small gif.

                          • bsnnkv a month ago

                            The single best way to insert emojis into text, I cannot function without this tool

                            • BarryGuff a month ago

                              I still prefer AlomWare Toolbox, because it can autotype things from different triggers other than just hotkeys or hotstrings, such as the text in PC notifications when they appear.

                              • 0xPIT a month ago

                                This is basically what Data Detectors natively does in macOS, is it?

                                • treetalker 2 months ago

                                  Can anyone recommend a good TextExpander to Espanso snippet converter?

                                  • millzlane a month ago

                                    Espanso looks promising but Atext (paid) fits niche very nicely for me.

                                    With atexts gui it makes building new entries easy. I even have a keyboard shortcut to use highlighted text to quickly make a new entry.

                                    I have used it to write emails, make automation's for certain websites that take keyboard shortcuts. I use it to build query searches for certain websites I use frequent (kinda like firefox back in the day).

                                    https://www.trankynam.com/atext/

                                    • _HMCB_ a month ago

                                      I’ve been using this for about 6 months. Love it.

                                      • ipsum2 a month ago

                                        What are some interesting use cases people are using Espanso for?

                                        • jatins a month ago

                                          I found it really buggy when I used it to the point in was unusable

                                          • tyiz a month ago

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