Typinator allows you to control how and when abbreviations expand by giving you two key options: “Expand at Word Break” and “Expand on Match”
You want more information about Typinator's different abbreviation types? Check out this article. (typinator's different abbreviation types)
Why do we need these options?
Abbreviations are most effective when they are short and easy to remember.
However, shorter abbreviations are also more likely to expand accidentally, for example, when they appear as part of a regular word.
Example: You might want to define:
ty → Typinator
but you wouldn’t want it to expand automatically when typing words like
typically or tyre.
That’s where Typinator’s “Expand at Word Break” option can help.
Expand at Word Break
When you select “Expand at Word Break”, Typinator expands an abbreviation only when the next typed character is not a letter or digit.
This means Typinator waits until you type a separator character (such as a space, period, comma, or return) before expanding your abbreviation.
Expand on Match
The “Expand on Match” option is designed for automatic corrections and word stem replacements.
If you often make a specific typing error, you can define an abbreviation for the incorrect form and let Typinator fix it automatically.
Example: If you frequently mistype receive as recieve, you can define:
reciev → receiv
and select "Expand on Match".
Typinator will then automatically correct words such as:
- recieve → receive
- reciever → receiver
- recieving → receiving