Hi together
I think that a text expander app and a good strategy how to expand text is essential for daily work with Scrivener.
I have gotten used to that. I type one or more letters followed by two spaces. So if I want to write “Scrivener”, I type “s” + “space” + “space”.
How do you do it? Maybe you have a better idea.
I use Apple’s keyboard “text” feature to define key bits of text prefixed by a semicolon, e.g.
;mshrug is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I use a prefix semicolon as that is not to be confused as real writing. and I don’t use real words as that also should not be confused as real real writing.
What is defined on Apple text preferences syncs to iOS devices.
I also use the Alfred App to define a lot more of these keystrokes. They don’t sync with my iOS devices, though, but I don’t need them.
My only real issue is remembering these things. To much automation tends to hurt my brain, frankly.
Ok, you use a prefix. Mh, I tried that too. But it interferes with my writing flow. So far I find double space most intuitive. And there are no conflicts with normal writing.
Well you asked and I said what I do. I guess you not asking for advice. If it works for you, great!
yes sure, thanks for your contribution. I was just thinking out loud…
The ‘replace’ field for macOS text replacements doesn’t accept spaces.
Like @rms, I use punctuation for replacements. For example, .li. inserts multiple paragraphs of lorem ipsum on my macOS and iOS devices.
If you don’t like using punctuation to sidestep the risk of inadvertent substitutions appearing in your texts, you could try number-and-letter or unlikely-letter combinations.
For example, sss or 5s5 or zzs can all be used as replacements for the word Scrivener or any other word or phrase.
Thanks SWM. Using three identical letters is a good idea! It’s quick and doesn’t create conflicts… I guess. I have to think about that.
That’s one reason I use something else.
Might have to watch out for onomatopoeic spellings … hissssssssss. 
onomatopoeic …typical humanities, nobody else knows such words 
If you are used to typing spaces as the trigger, you probably need a post-fix trigger in order for it to feel natural, but semicolon is still a good idea, because i) you probably rarely use them and ii) you could make the trigger two of them for safety.
Mh, Not sure what you mean. Can you give me an example?
Sure.
fto;;
That might be what you type to get your name.
how did you know 
Ah, ok. but you know semicolon is hard to type on a german keyboard, it’s shift + something. But actually that’s what I do with spacebar, it’s always under my thumb.
Ah, yes, you need something you can type without a modifier on your keyboard.
Interesting approach.
I currently have Keyboard Maestro changing space space to space, but something along those lines could simplify my triggers a lot.
Also true here, many ways lead to Rome. You have to find the best one for yourself.
Since you are using KM. I just noticed that the typed triggers are case sensitive. For “Scrivener” you could use “SS” for example. That is fast and two uppercase letters seem pretty conflict-safe to me.
In windows I use AutoHotkey so it works across programs. I haven’t found a perfect method. I rather like the ; prefix idea. I mix stuff and then can’t remember them. so, sometimes repeating a letter 3 times, like 3 ds gives me a nicely formatted date. Often thought the first the letters of a word, but sometimes the first letters of the first 3 words. Perhaps this is why I can’t remember them.
Many years ago I chose Typinator as my text expanding app especially because it did not need neither prefix nor trigger—unlike the more popular TextExpander (might be different nowadays). Since then RegEx has been added to Typinator and I’m really happy with it.
.. becomes …, p. [digit] to avoid unwanted line-breaks becomes p.[non-breaking space][digit], [digit][hyphen][digit] becomes [digit][half-space][en-dash][half-space][digit] (that’s how it is properly done in my native German; a non-breaking half-space would be even better but many fonts don’t have them).
abs (for Absender = sender) as a full word becomes my name and address in multiple lines and dt as a full word becomes today’s date as both are no words in German. And that’s the only rule: no real words as abbreviations.
Some of my sets of expansions are assigned to specific apps, some apps (for example, programming editors) are excluded from some expansion sets.