The paragraph you just wrote. Keep it.

You finally wrote a clean reason in a ticket. The customer thanked you. The window closed.

Next week, same class of ticket, you scroll the thread or type it again from memory. By the third time your fingers are bored. A finished sentence should not live only on someone else’s scrollbar.

CodeExpander’s loop starts from “already in the library.” When it is not, get the text in: drop it on the main window, create from the clipboard, or accept a suggestion. After that, type the abbreviation in whatever is focused and press Tab. How to create: Create.

Three ways in

Drop a file on Home. A .txt, a .md, a source file from the desktop, onto the three-pane window. The body fills a new snippet. You add the name, the abbreviation, the group. Several files at once is fine; Option / Alt switches “one snippet or one per file.” Pictures and video do not become snippets — that is capture. Locked organization groups cannot be written here. Select a personal group first.

Create from the clipboard. Copy the paragraph you already like, then press the “Create snippet from clipboard” hotkey in Settings (often ⌘⇧V on macOS, Alt+Shift+V on Windows; trust the settings page). The body is there. You still owe an abbreviation and a group. Use it when you are still in mail and do not want to find a file. The hotkey is under Settings → Keyboard.

Suggested snippets. After the same stretch has gone through the keyboard enough times, the main window may ask whether to make an abbreviation. Preview, then confirm. Ignore it and the library does not grow. Confirm writes into the current group. The free cap of about 50 still applies. Counts stay on this machine. Turn the prompt off if you do not want it. See Suggested snippets.

All three still need an abbreviation from you. Short, but not ok or thanks. Hygiene: Abbreviation hygiene.

In the library is not done. Expand is.

After save, go back to the original field. Type the abbreviation you just wrote, press Tab. If it expanded, the paragraph has left the chat history. Forgot the name? Type //. See Forgot the abbreviation.

Names and dates that will change can be holes on day one. You do not have to save a dead draft and fix it later. Mechanism: A placeholder is not a form. More ways to combine snippets, capture, and the clipboard: Common usage.

Tonight, keep one paragraph that already works

1. Pick a stretch you already typed twice this week and can see again next week. Do not file a quotation you might use someday. See Create.
2. Copy it and use the clipboard hotkey, or drop the saved text file on Home. Write an abbreviation. Put it in a personal group.
3. Return to the original app, type the abbreviation, press Tab. If it appears, you no longer depend on chat history. If Home already suggested this one, read the preview before you confirm. See Suggested snippets.

Free 50 snippets, 5 groups. Keep the worst repeats. Do not pour the entire clipboard history into the library. Amounts live in Pricing.

Do not

• Do not leave finished prose only in chat, mail, or ticket history. History is not a library.
• Do not drop pictures or recordings on Home and expect snippets. Pictures go through capture.
• Do not confirm every suggestion. If the preview is wrong, dismiss it. The prompt can be turned off.
• Do not use an English word as the new abbreviation. Finish hygiene in the same sitting.

Combinations: Common usage. Next: The third time you type it.