Use Tapiri’s controls to pause abbreviation expansion, choose the key that completes a shortcut, or limit expansion to particular apps. Each control solves a different problem: pausing applies across apps, completion timing belongs to a snippet, and app rules decide where saved snippets are available.
You’ll need a saved plain-text snippet, an active trial or license, and working Accessibility access to test expansion. Use a blank TextEdit document for the checks below. Save unfinished snippet edits before changing settings.
1. Pause expansion for a typing session
Click Tapiri in the menu bar and choose Pause Expansion. The status changes to Paused.
Switch to TextEdit and type a known abbreviation. It should remain as typed while abbreviation expansion is paused. When you’re ready to use your shortcuts again, choose Resume Expansion from the same menu and check the status.
Pausing is useful when writing instructions that contain your own abbreviations, or when you want to type without automatic replacements for a while. You can still open the library and use Quick Search.
Closing the library window keeps expansion running. Quit Tapiri stops the app. Use Pause Expansion when you want Tapiri to remain open and available.
2. Choose when one snippet expands
Open the library and select a plain-text snippet. Under Expand, choose the timing that suits it:
| Setting | How to use the abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Immediately | Type the complete abbreviation. |
| After Space | Type the abbreviation, then press Space. |
| After Enter | Type the abbreviation, then press Enter. |
| For a beginner-friendly check, select After Space. Turn Keep space off, then Save. Resume expansion if it is paused. Type the abbreviation in a blank TextEdit document and press Space once. |
The saved content should replace the abbreviation without a trailing trigger space. If you want to continue writing after a short phrase, turn Keep space on and save again.
After Enter exposes Keep line break instead. When a supported expansion succeeds, a retained Enter is inserted as a line break. Test that behavior in the destination you use; do not rely on this setting to prevent sending a message in every chat or browser field.
3. Exclude an app from every snippet
Use a global exclusion when you want Tapiri expansion disabled throughout one app.
- Open Tapiri’s menu-bar menu and choose Settings → Expansion.
- Under App rules, click Manage Excluded Apps.
- In Excluded Apps, click Add App.
- Select the application you want to exclude.
- Confirm that it appears in the list, then click Done. These changes save immediately. Every snippet follows the exclusion, including snippets that otherwise allow that app.
You can test this with TextEdit temporarily: add TextEdit to the exclusion list, try a saved abbreviation in a fresh document, then remove TextEdit from the list when the check is complete. Use Remove beside the app to restore availability there.
4. Limit one snippet to selected apps
For a reply you want available only in a particular app, select the snippet in the library, expand Snippet Options, and click App Rules.
Turn off Available in all apps, click Add App, and select the intended app. Choose Done, then Save the snippet. With this option off, an empty app list makes the snippet unavailable for expansion.
To make it broadly available again, turn Available in all apps on and save. Global exclusions still apply.
App rules select whole applications. Choose a browser only if you want the rule to apply to that browser as an app; this control does not select an individual website.
Trace an abbreviation that no longer expands
Check in this order: Tapiri’s running status, the snippet’s saved Expand timing, the global excluded-app list, and the snippet’s own App Rules. A global exclusion wins even if the snippet’s list includes the same app.
If those settings are correct, confirm Accessibility access and try a blank TextEdit document. For a field that cannot accept direct insertion, copy the saved snippet and paste it manually. Keep the abbreviation uncommon enough that it does not collide with text you routinely write.
Resolve overlapping abbreviations
When more than one eligible snippet matches the same abbreviation, Tapiri offers a chooser. Check the names and select the intended snippet, or cancel. Give frequently confused snippets distinct abbreviations, or limit them to different apps, then save. Pattern triggers have their own completion and matching rules.