Start with the macOS option if your phrases are short
Apple’s built-in Text Replacements live in System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements. Add a short phrase and the longer text it should become. Apple notes that text replacements are not available in all apps, so test the apps you use most. This needs no extra software and is the right tool for a few short expansions.
Clivra is useful when the text already exists as a clip: a copied reply, a signature block, a command or a link. The clip keeps its history, collections and search, and the trigger is just another property of that clip.
Turn a clip into an inline shortcut
Inline shortcuts are off by default. They require an active licence, the Accessibility permission, and the Enable inline shortcuts toggle in Settings → Shortcuts. Clivra shows Allow Accessibility to use inline shortcuts if the permission is missing. Triggers must start with a semicolon followed by 1 to 48 letters, numbers or underscores, and each trigger can belong to only one clip.
- Open Clivra → Settings → Shortcuts. If the status reads Direct paste needs Accessibility, choose Allow… and enable Clivra in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
- Turn on Enable inline shortcuts.
- In the Library, open the menu on a text, code, link or colour clip and choose Edit.
- Type a trigger in the Inline shortcut, e.g. ;hello field, then save. Clivra rejects triggers that break the ;letters_numbers rule or are already in use.
- Switch to TextEdit, type the trigger and watch it expand. Use a harmless sample such as a made-up greeting for this test.
How expansion behaves while you type
Clivra watches the last characters you type and expands as soon as they end with a saved trigger. You do not press Space afterwards: a space, Return or Tab clears the pending text instead. Arrow keys, Escape, modifier-key combinations and a pause longer than three seconds also reset it, which prevents an old fragment from expanding later. On a match, Clivra deletes the trigger characters and types the clip text in their place.
Expansion works for text, code, link and colour clips. It is skipped while capture is paused, while a secure input field such as a password box is active, and inside apps listed under Ignored apps in Settings → Privacy. Clips with a valid trigger are also protected from the Delete unused clips after rule, so a snippet does not disappear because it was not used for a while.
Choose safe snippets
Keep passwords, API keys, card numbers and other secrets out of snippets. Clivra’s sensitive-content detection is a heuristic that targets capture; a snippet you create deliberately bypasses that purpose. Prefer plain greetings, addresses you are happy to share, standard replies and code you would paste anyway.
Triggers are typed into whichever app is in front, so choose patterns you would never type by accident. A short word after the semicolon, such as ;sig or ;thanks_v2, is easier to remember than a long one and still unlikely to collide with normal writing.
What this guide does and does not verify
The behaviour above is read from the Clivra 1.2.5 source and the recorded QA notes. Those notes state that live expansion through the macOS Accessibility event tap was not exercised in that pass, so treat your first expansion in each app as a check rather than a given. Apps that handle key events unusually, including some terminals and remote-desktop windows, may not accept synthetic typing.
Clivra 1.2.5 runs on macOS 14 or later. The browser demo on this site cannot expand text in other apps; inline shortcuts are a Mac-app feature.