macOS Text Replacement Export/Import
What I didn’t know until recently is that Apple provides a hidden—but documented, amazingly!—way to export your replacement pairs to a property list file. All you have to do is select the items to export (Command-A selects all) and drag them to the desktop. You can then edit that file in a text editor like BBEdit or TextEdit before reimporting it, which is merely a matter of dragging it back into the Text Replacements dialog. This export/import feature is useful in three ways:
- Backup: If you have an extensive set of text replacements, making a backup would be a sensible precaution.
- Sharing: Any Mac user can import your text replacements, so if you’ve built up a custom collection of scientific, medical, or technical replacements, you can share them with colleagues.
- Easier editing: Bulk changes might be easier to make outside Apple’s one-at-a-time interface.
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I was all ready to give you an updated version of the TidBITS AutoCorrect Dictionary that could be imported into the Text Replacements dialog, but after hours of testing, I just couldn’t make it work reliably enough.
Previously:
