Text Expander

How it works

1. Turn it on

   Open PowerToys Settings, select Text Expander and turn on Enable Text Expander.

2. Add a snippet

   Select New snippet, then give it a trigger, such as !mysig, and the text it should turn into. You can also start from an example.

3. Type the trigger

   In email, chat, your browser or any other app, Text Expander swaps the trigger for your text as you type.

Make it yours

Write your first snippet

The easiest way is New snippet in Settings. You can also edit the snippet file in any text editor. Write one snippet per line, as trigger=replacement. For text with several lines, put trigger<<< on the line before it and >>> on the line after it.

!myemail=you@example.com
!mysig=Best regards,\nYour Name
!today={{date:dddd, MMMM d}}
!reply<<<
Hi {{prompt:Name}},

Thanks for getting in touch. $|$

Best regards,
Your Name
>>>

Start triggers with a symbol such as ! so they don’t fire in the middle of a word. In a one-line snippet, \n starts a new line and \t adds a tab.

Variables

• {{date}}

  Today’s date

  !ddate={{date}}

  Due 10/18/26

• {{time}}

  The time

  !ttime={{time}}

  Called at 09:41 AM

• {{datetime}}

  The date and time

  !ddt={{datetime}}

  Updated 10/18/26 09:41 AM

• {{isodate}}

  The date as year, month and day

  !isodate={{isodate}}

  report-2026-10-18

• {{date:dddd}}

  The date in a format you choose. dddd is the day of the week, and MMMM d, yyyy is the full date.

  !longdate={{date:dddd, MMMM d, yyyy}}

  Sunday, October 18, 2026

• {{clipboard}}

  What’s on your clipboard

  !link=Here’s the link: {{clipboard}}

  contoso.com/q4-plan Ctrl+C

  Here’s the link: contoso.com/q4-plan

• {{prompt:Name}}

  Something you type each time the snippet runs. Text Expander asks for it using your label, here “Name”.

  !hello=Hi {{prompt:Name}}, thanks for reaching out!

  Hi Elaine, thanks for reaching out!

  Text Expander Name OK

• $|$

  Where the cursor goes once the snippet expands

  !todo=// TODO: $|$ ({{isodate}})

  // TODO: (2026-10-18)

Frequently asked questions