Espanso, the free and open source text expander

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Today we present to you an application which particularly thrilled us! Expanded It calls itself a “text expander” and is free and Open source. But what does a text expander, what does this application allow you to do in practice?

Put as simply as possible, Expanded will automatically reveal when a certain keyword is typed and replace it with what you have previously programmed. You can create almost infinite templates, you can add pre-configured extensions/packages from other people and you can also make them run simple or advanced scripts such as showing your IP address or directly inserting today's date.

Expanded, the free text expander and Open source

Some examples of use, for example, are different standard responses that you have to write in emails. You could use the :reply keyword and have the system automatically write a pre-set sentence. There are so many use cases and each of us could use it differently based on our needs.

For example, we are also using it on The Alternatives to be able to automatically insert this text into all our pieces: This tag @loyal alternatives is used to automatically send this post to Feddit and allow anyone on the fediverse to comment on it. We had to do it because when we tried to automate the output for example through code it didn't work while now we just need to write the keyword :fedidifferent and the text magically appears!

Simple text replacements or complex scripts!

We therefore immediately adopted this application and we also really liked its ease of use. In the documentation official found examples, forms, extensions and obviously also the method for configure your own keys. In fact, if we want to find a flaw in this beautiful program, it is precisely the method with which everything can be configured. On Windows for example you have to search for the folder C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\expanded and from there edit the config.yml file with a text editor (e.g Notepad++). It is not a complex operation but it is certainly unattractive for those who are unfamiliar with editing text files.

Download and use Espanso

This application is multiplatform and is therefore available for both Windows that for Linux And macOS. As always, we leave you all the useful links below.

Alternatives to Espanso

There are also alternatives Open source to Espanso, these are the ones we found:

• Beeftext: light, Open source and very easy to use (easier than Espanso). However, it is only available for Windows.
• Text Tools Pro: if you are interested in a sort of Espanso but for Android then this is the solution for you. Available on GitHub, on IzzyOnDroid It is on Play Store.

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