Textfold vs Apple Text Replacements: when built-in isn't enough
macOS has text replacements built in: type a shortcut, get a phrase. They're free and sync through iCloud — and for a handful of simple shortcuts they're all you need. Here's where they stop, and when a text expander helps.
By Jeyanth Kanagaraju · Updated
What the built-in feature does well
- It's free and already on your Mac: System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements.
- Replacements sync through iCloud to your other Apple devices, including iPhone and iPad.
- For a few fixed phrases — an email address, “omw” → “On my way!” — it works well in Apple's own apps.
Where it stops
- Only in apps that support it. Text replacement works in apps that offer Edit → Substitutions. Others ignore it — Microsoft Word for Mac is the best-known example.
- Fixed text only. No today's date, no “a week from Friday”, no clipboard, no cursor placement, no fill-in fields.
- Sync can lag. iCloud sync of replacements isn't always smooth, and new entries sometimes take a while to reach other devices.
- A small editor. One flat list, no groups, no search across long snippets, no preview.
If replacements have stopped working altogether, see how to fix text replacement on Mac.
What Textfold adds
Textfold expands in every app you can type in — Word, Chrome, Slack, VS Code and Terminal included — and adds placeholders for dates (with date math), the clipboard and the cursor, fill-in forms, groups, a quick search palette, per-app snippets, and Esc to undo. Snippets are text files, so you can sync them with iCloud Drive or Dropbox if you like.
You can keep using both: Textfold for longer or dynamic snippets, Apple's for simple ones. Just don't give the same abbreviation to both, or apps that support Apple's replacements will expand it twice.
Bringing your replacements into Textfold
- Open System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements.
- Select them all (⌘A) and drag them to the Desktop. macOS saves a file called Text Substitutions.plist.
- In Textfold, open Edit Snippets… → arrow next to + → Import Snippets… (part of Pro) and choose that file. Textfold suggests a prefix such as
;so plain-word shortcuts don't fire by accident; you can leave it out. - Remove the imported shortcuts from Apple's list so they don't expand twice.