Type a little.
Paste a lot.
Shorthand is a free text expander for macOS. Type a short trigger like /sig anywhere, and it instantly becomes your full signature, canned reply, or image. Rich formatting included, in every app on your Mac.
How it works
Three moves. That's the whole app.
Make a snippet
Open the command center, type what you want to reuse, style it with the toolbar. Give it a short trigger like /sig or /addr. No code, no HTML.
Type the trigger anywhere
Email, chat, browser, notes, CRM. If you can type in it, Shorthand is watching for your shortcuts there.
Watch it expand
The trigger deletes itself and your full snippet lands in its place, bold text, links, images and all. Your clipboard is restored right after.
Features
Everything the paid expanders do. Free.
Works in every app
Not a browser extension. Shorthand expands in Mail, Slack, Safari, Chrome, Notes, your CRM, anywhere you can type.
Rich text, no HTML
Bold, colors, highlights, lists, headings, links. Style snippets in a real editor and they paste with formatting intact.
Images too
Paste or drag PNG, JPG, or GIF into a snippet. A /logo shortcut can drop your actual logo into an email or chat.
Fill-ins that think
{date}, {time}, {clipboard}, and {cursor} fill themselves in at expansion time. Dates support any format you want.
Visual command center
Searchable snippet list, live preview, and a Try It Out box so you can test a shortcut before you rely on it.
Quick picker
Forgot a shortcut? Press ⌃⌥S anywhere for a small, searchable list. Click a snippet and it drops at your cursor. Pin it open or call it up on demand.
Conflict warnings
If one shortcut would block another, Shorthand flags it right in the sidebar before it bites you.
Private by design
No account, no network calls, no analytics. Snippets live in a local file. Password fields are invisible to it, by macOS design.
Free and open source
MIT licensed. Read every line of code, build it yourself, or grab the download. No trial, no subscription, no upsell.
The command center
A real editor, not a config file.
Click the bolt in your menu bar and the command center opens: your snippets on the left, a full rich text editor on the right. Here's what you're looking at.
Install
Up and running in two minutes.
Shorthand is free and open source, not notarized through Apple's paid developer program. That means macOS shows a scary-looking warning on first launch, and the app needs one permission to do its job. Both take seconds.
Option 1: Terminal install, no warnings at all
Once Shorthand.zip from your email lands in Downloads, paste this one line into Terminal (find it in Applications > Utilities). It puts Shorthand in Applications, clears the safety flag, and launches it.
Option 2: Download normally, then approve it once
- Download and unzip. Enter your email up top and we'll send you Shorthand.zip. Double-click it. You get Shorthand.app.
- Drag Shorthand.app into Applications.
- Open it. You'll see the warning shown here. Click Done. Not "Move to Trash". This is macOS being cautious about any app that isn't in its paid developer registry, not a malware detection.
- Approve it in System Settings. Open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom Security section, and click Open Anyway, then confirm.
- Done with part one. Look for the bolt icon in your menu bar. One more step below and you're expanding.
Last step for everyone: allow Accessibility
A text expander has to see what you type (to spot your shortcuts) and type for you (to expand them). On a Mac, both live behind one switch: Accessibility. Shorthand asks the first time it runs.
- Shorthand prompts you on first launch. Click "Open System Settings" in the prompt, or go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility yourself.
- Turn on the Shorthand toggle. If it's not in the list, click + and pick Shorthand from Applications.
- That's it. No restart needed. The dot in the command center turns green within a couple of seconds, and your shortcuts are live everywhere. Test one in the Try It Out box.
./build.sh.
Cheat sheet
Everything Shorthand responds to.
| You do this | Shorthand does this |
|---|---|
Type a shortcut, like /sig | Deletes the shortcut and pastes the full snippet in its place |
Press ⌃⌥S anywhere | Opens the quick picker: search your snippets and drop one at the cursor |
Put {date} in a snippet | Expands as today's date, written out (July 3, 2026) |
Put {date:MM/dd/yy} in a snippet | Date in any format you specify (07/03/26) |
Put {time} in a snippet | The current time (2:41 PM) |
Put {clipboard} in a snippet | Whatever you most recently copied, dropped right in |
Put {cursor} in a snippet | Your cursor lands exactly there after expansion |
| Paste or drag an image into the editor | The image expands with the snippet, even into Gmail or Slack |
| Click the menu bar bolt | Command center, pause switch, copy a snippet, start at login |
| Type in a password field | Nothing. Secure fields are invisible to Shorthand, by macOS design |
FAQ
Questions people ask.
Is it really free?
Yes. Free forever, MIT licensed, no trial, no locked features, no account. It was built to replace a paid subscription tool and is shared in that same spirit.
Why does it need Accessibility permission?
Text expansion is, mechanically, two things: noticing that you typed a shortcut, and typing the replacement for you. macOS gates both behind the Accessibility permission. That's the whole reason. Shorthand asks once on first launch, and the command center shows a green dot when everything is working.
So it can see what I type. Should I be worried?
Fair question, and worth asking of any expander. Shorthand keeps a rolling buffer of only the last few dozen keystrokes, in memory, purely to match against your shortcuts. It writes nothing to disk except your own snippets, contains zero networking code, and shows no analytics or telemetry. Password fields use macOS secure input, which hides typing from every app, Shorthand included. The entire source is public on GitHub, so you can verify all of this yourself rather than trust a privacy policy.
macOS says it "could not verify" Shorthand. Is that bad?
It's normal and expected for free apps. Apple shows that message for any app whose developer doesn't pay for the $99/year Apple Developer Program, and since Shorthand is free, that fee isn't happening. Nothing harmful was detected; Apple simply doesn't have the developer in its paid registry. Click Done in the warning, then System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, Open Anyway. You do this exactly once. The Terminal install option skips the warning entirely.
Where do my snippets live?
In a single local file: ~/Library/Application Support/Shorthand/snippets.json. It's yours: back it up, sync it, edit it by hand if you like. The command center reads and writes the same file, and picks up outside edits instantly. Nothing ever leaves your Mac.
Does it work in every app?
Anywhere you can type, with one sensible caveat: apps that only accept plain text get the plain text version of your snippet automatically. Rich formatting lands wherever rich text is accepted: Mail, Notes, Slack, Gmail and most web editors, Word, and so on.
What happens to my clipboard?
Expansion works by briefly placing your snippet on the clipboard and pasting it. Whatever you had copied before is put back about a second later, automatically.
Can I pause it?
One switch, two places: the toggle at the top of the command center, or Pause Expansion in the menu bar bolt menu. Shortcuts stop expanding instantly and start again just as fast.
How do I uninstall?
Quit Shorthand from its menu bar icon, delete Shorthand.app from Applications, and remove the ~/Library/Application Support/Shorthand folder. You can also remove it from the Accessibility list in System Settings. That's everything.
Can I build it from source?
Yes. Clone the repo, run ./build.sh, and it builds and installs Shorthand.app for you. You need the Xcode Command Line Tools, nothing else. The whole app is a small Swift package.
Like free Mac tools? Meet Ledge.
A drag-and-drop shelf for your files. Start dragging and a shelf appears; park things, then drag them out where they belong. Same shop, same deal: free and open source.
Stop typing the same thing twice.
Download Shorthand, freemacOS 13 or later. Universal for Apple Silicon and Intel.