Snippets Expending Mid-String (Before Delimiter)

[DrDannySands]

I have been looking forward to transitioning to Alfred Snippets from another text expansion program. But try as I might, every snippet expands before I've typed a delimiter (punctuation or space). The option to "Expand snippets mid-string" is unchecked. I have verified this behavior with every snippet I tried.

 

This makes Snippets very difficult to use.

 

Is this a known bug or am I doing something wrong?

 

Alfred 5.1.1

MacOS 13.4 (22F66)

 

Thank you.

 

Danny

[Vero]

@DrDannySands You can add a suffix to a snippet or collection, but this needs to be a pre-defined character (e.g. a space, a symbol like 😃 rather than an arbitrary delimiter.

 

Here's how you can set a suffix/prefix for a collection:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/snippets/collections/#affix

 

Cheers,
Vero

[DrDannySands]

Hi Vero and thanks for your response. I think my question was unclear.

 

As I understand the Snippets function, a text string is expanded after the snippet is typed. For example if I have a snippet "ty" that I wanted expanded to "thank you" the snippet should expand after I've typed the string "ty" followed by a space or punctuation, but not another letter.

 

ty → thank you

 

But this should not occur if "ty" is part of another word, so that I can type the word "type" without a problem. However that's not what happens. As soon as I type the first 2 letters of "type" it expands to "thank you."

 

type → thank youpe

 

This is not expected behavior, because I unchecked "Expand snippets mid-string" in the options.

 

What am I missing?

[vitor]

Expanding mid-string means “if you’re already in the middle of typing a string”. For a more concrete example, it means that if you have the option off you’d write archetype and it would stay like that, but with the option on it would expand to archthank youtype.

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by vitor
Correct on and off

[DrDannySands]

Yes that was my understanding, as well. That was similar to the example of what is happening to me.

 

But if the box is unchecked the snippet should not expand until I end the string with either a space or a punctuation, right? In your example, with the box unchecked, shouldn't I be able to type the word "archetype" without any problems?

[vitor]

5 hours ago, DrDannySands said:

But if the box is unchecked the snippet should not expand until I end the string with either a space or a punctuation, right?

 

No, it is expected that it expands as soon as you finish typing the trigger. The mid string concerns where it starts, not where it ends.

 

5 hours ago, DrDannySands said:

In your example, with the box unchecked, shouldn't I be able to type the word "archetype" without any problems?

 

Correct. That’s how it’s working on my end.

[DrDannySands]

So it's performing as designed?

 

Most text expanders that I have used expand the snippet when end of string is reached. That would be more useful, IMO.

 

Maybe permit that in the future as an option?

 

Thanks.

[GatorMapi]

@DrDannySands You can try adding a space before and after the snippet and the keyword. For example, typing 'smarty' whilst your snippet triggers at ty' would expand into something like this 'smarthank you'. It could look something similar to this

[DrDannySands]

Good thought, @GatorMapi, but that's too much work (and wouldn't allow expansion with punctuation). It will be easier to just use a 3rd party app (as I was doing before).

[GatorMapi]

@DrDannySandsYou could try adding a custom prefix for each defined type of snippet. For example I have 3 snippets tied to a phone number

 

'ph1' expands into 8005551111

'-ph1' expands into 800-555-1111

'(ph1)' expands into (800) 555-1111

[DrDannySands]

That's clever @GatorMapi. But again too much trouble.

 

With the previous text expanders I have used, I can have a snippet "ty" that is set to expand to "thank you." Then the following automatically works:

 

ty → thank you

Ty → Thank you

Ty. → Thank you.

type → type [no expansion]

archetype → archetype [no expansion]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by DrDannySands