Convert
Convert menu
Section titled “Convert menu”The Convert menu includes an option for export to CSV file and options for conversion from other text expander programs. For each program, an export file is required. The format of the file varies between programs.
The convert function acts on an export file (or AutoHotKey file) to generate an Espanso match file. For each match, there will be a trigger and replacement text. A label will also be created if found in the exported file. The match file will be shown in a new editor tab, where it can be reviewed before saving.
Convert settings
Section titled “Convert settings”The Settings dialog includes a Convert page with settings for the new match file. There are options to:
- Apply alphanumeric sort to matches
- Add word triggers to all matches
- Apply case propagation to all matches
- Remove duplicate matches
- Separate matches by an empty line
From aBreevy8
Section titled “From aBreevy8”To convert from aBreevy8 (formerly known as Breevy) an aBreevy8 BVY export file is required. This is file with XML format which contains 8 fields. Only 3 of the fields are used during conversion.
From aText
Section titled “From aText”An aText CSV export file is required. This contains 31 fields, although only 3 are used during conversion.
From AutoHotKey
Section titled “From AutoHotKey”An export file is not required as the export function can handle an AHK file directly. Hotstrings that expand text are converted (standard single-line auto-replace hotstrings) and an alphanumeric sort is applied to the match file.
From Beeftext
Section titled “From Beeftext”A Beeftext CSV export file is required. This contains 3 fields, all of which are used during conversion.
From PhraseExpander
Section titled “From PhraseExpander”A PhraseExpander CSV export file is required. This contains 5 fields, although only 3 are used during conversion.
From PhraseExpress
Section titled “From PhraseExpress”The Convert menu does not include an entry for PhraseExpress. This is because PhraseExpress exports to a binary format that is only suitable for use in another copy of PhraseExpress. Export to another text expander would require use of an automation tool to create a script that could copy match elements from the PhraseExpress window.
From TextBlaze
Section titled “From TextBlaze”A TextBlaze JSON export file is required. This contains 5 fields, although only 3 are used during conversion.
From TextExpander
Section titled “From TextExpander”A TextExpander CSV export file is required. This contains 3 fields, all of which are used during conversion.
Current file to CSV
Section titled “Current file to CSV”The current file is converted to a CSV file. Only the following match file keys are added:
triggerreplacelabelwordpropagate_case
Only matches with standard triggers are converted, not those with Regex or multi triggers. If the replacement text for a match contains a multiline string it will be converted to a single line. Empty lines within a multiline string are replaced with \\n. Double quotes within replacement text are escaped with double quotes in line with standard practice for the CSV format.