Using Textfold

Getting started

1. Download Textfold, open the disk image and drag Textfold to Applications. Open it from there. Textfold lives in the menu bar; it has no Dock icon.
2. The welcome guide asks for the Accessibility permission. That's how Textfold notices you finished typing an abbreviation. Click Open System Settings, switch Textfold on under Privacy & Security → Accessibility, and come back. The menu bar icon shows a checkmark when it's ready.
3. Type ;sig anywhere — it becomes the sample signature. Open Edit Snippets… from the menu bar (⌘E while the menu is open) to change it or add your own with ⌘N.

Every snippet has an abbreviation (what you type) and a body (what it turns into). Start abbreviations with a character you rarely type, like ;, so they never fire by accident: ;sig, ;addr, ;ty.

Snippets and groups

Each snippet is a plain text file in your snippets folder (Documents/Textfold Snippets unless you choose another). The editor writes them for you, but you can also create or edit them in any text editor — Textfold picks up changes within a couple of seconds.

abbrev: ;sig
name: Email signature
expand: word                      ← optional
apps: com.apple.mail              ← optional
case: adapt                       ← optional
---
Best,
Sam Patel

Everything above the --- line is the header; everything below is what gets inserted. Without a header, the file name becomes the abbreviation: hello.txt expands on ;hello.

Groups are subfolders. Create one with the arrow next to + in the editor, drag snippets between groups, and drag within a group to reorder. Right-click a group to rename or delete it.

How expansion works

Immediately, or after a space

Immediately (the default) expands the moment you type the last character — best with a prefix like ;sig. After space or punctuation waits until you finish the word, and only fires on a whole word, so plain abbreviations like omw are safe (“tomw” won't trigger it). The space or punctuation you typed is kept. Set the default in Settings → General; override it per snippet in the editor.

Undo

Press Esc within five seconds of an expansion, before typing anything else, and the abbreviation comes back. Undo Last Expansion in the menu bar does the same. ⌘Z is left to the app you're typing in.

Per-app snippets and switching off

In the editor, Only in limits a snippet to the apps you pick. Two snippets can share an abbreviation: the one made for the current app wins there, the general one applies everywhere else. To keep Textfold quiet in an app entirely, choose Disable in … from the menu bar while that app is in front, or add it in Settings → Apps.

Matching your capitals

Tick Match typed case on a snippet and omw gives “on my way”, Omw gives “On my way” and OMW gives “ON MY WAY”. Such snippets also match whichever case you type.

Placeholders

Use the editor's Insert menu, or type them yourself. They're colored in the editor as you type.

Anything else in braces is left exactly as typed, and the editor shows it in grey so typos stand out.

Fill-in forms

When a snippet contains any of these, typing its abbreviation opens a small form. Fill it in and press Return; Esc cancels and puts your abbreviation back.

Use the same label twice and it becomes one field filled in both places.

Quick insert

Press ⌃⌥Space in any app to search all your snippets by abbreviation, name or content. Use ↑↓ and Return, or click. The snippet is inserted where you were typing. Change the shortcut, or turn it off, in Settings → General.

Importing from other apps

With Textfold Pro, choose Import Snippets… from the arrow next to + in the editor. A preview shows every snippet and anything that couldn't be translated before you import.

Fill-ins, popup menus, optional sections, the clipboard, the cursor, dates and date math are translated. Scripts and rich text aren't, and are flagged in the preview.

Syncing between Macs

With Pro, open Settings → Snippets → Choose Folder… and pick a folder in iCloud Drive, Dropbox or a git repository. Do the same on your other Macs and they share one set of snippets. Because snippets are plain files, any sync service works; edit on one Mac at a time to avoid conflicting copies.

Your license

After you buy Textfold Pro, checkout opens Textfold and asks to activate your key. The key is also emailed to you; paste it into Settings → Pro at any time. One license covers up to 3 Macs that you use.

New Mac? On the old one, choose Settings → Pro → Remove from this Mac…, then activate on the new one. If the old Mac is gone, email us and we'll free the activation.

Offline? Textfold checks your license about once a week and keeps working for 30 days without a connection. If it ever can't verify your key, it keeps the key and tries again daily; Settings → Pro has Try Again.

On the free plan with more than 10 snippets, the first 10 by file name (A–Z) expand and the rest are marked inactive in the editor. Nothing is deleted.

Troubleshooting

Nothing expands

Open the menu bar menu and read the first line:

• Needs Accessibility permission— switch Textfold on in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. If it's already on, select Textfold, remove it with −, add it again with +, and relaunch Textfold. macOS sometimes needs this after an update.
• Paused: secure input is active— a password field, Terminal's Secure Keyboard Entry or a password manager is hiding your typing from all apps. It resumes by itself when that ends.
• Paused or Disabled in … — turn Enable Expansion back on, or enable the app again.

One snippet doesn't expand

Check whether it's set to expand after a space (then type a space after it), limited to other apps, or marked inactive on the free plan. The Try it box at the bottom of the editor expands exactly like any other app, which makes it a good test.

Still stuck?

Choose Diagnostics… from the menu bar, type the abbreviation in another app, then click Copy Report and email it to us. The report shows what Textfold saw and why it did or didn't expand. It includes your settings and the names of snippets it matched — never their contents or what you type.