Sprint Shortcuts
Type three characters. Get the whole sentence.
A shortcut is a short trigger and the text it becomes. SprintText watches for the trigger as you type, and the moment you finish it with a space, a full stop or a newline, it swaps in the real text.
Interactive demo — a web recreation of the SprintText keyboard, not a screenshot.
Type a three-character trigger, press space, get the whole sentence.
Anatomy
What makes a good trigger.
- Short, but not too short. Two or three characters is the sweet spot. SprintText enforces a minimum length — adjustable from one to six — so a stray keystroke cannot fire a paragraph.
- Unlikely to be a real word. Repeated letters (yyy, zzq) or a leading punctuation mark (;;sig, .addr) are safest.
- Word boundaries are respected. A trigger starting with a letter or digit only fires at the start of a word, so yyy is never set off by typing “myyy”. A trigger starting with punctuation carries its own boundary.
- Case follows what you typed. By default, typing the trigger capitalised capitalises the first letter of the expansion. You can switch a shortcut to insert its text literally instead.
Placeholders
Expansions can fill themselves in.
Anything inside braces resolves as the text is inserted. Unknown tokens are left alone, so a stray brace in ordinary prose survives untouched.
| Placeholder | Becomes | Useful for |
|---|---|---|
{date} | Today’s date, formatted for your region | Meeting notes, invoices, log entries |
{time} | The current time | Timestamps, handover notes |
{datetime} | Date and time together | Records you will read back later |
{weekday} | The name of today | “Speak on {weekday}?” |
{day}, {month}, {year} | The numbers on their own | Reference numbers, file names |
{monthname} | The name of the current month | Reports and subject lines |
{cursor} | Nothing — it marks where your caret lands | Templates you finish by hand |
Starting points
Shortcuts worth making in the first five minutes.
The best candidates are the sentences you have already typed twice this week.
| Trigger | Expansion |
|---|---|
yyy | Thanks for sending this over. I’ll take a look and get back to you shortly. |
omw | On my way — see you shortly. |
;;sig | Your sign-off, title and contact details |
.addr | Your full postal address on one line |
nnn | Notes — {date}{cursor} |
zzcal | Does {weekday} afternoon work for you? Happy to send an invite. |
How to
Making your first shortcut.
-
Open the SprintText app
The Shortcuts tab is the first thing you see. Tap the plus button, or “Create your first shortcut” on the empty state.
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Type the trigger and the text
Keep the trigger short and unlikely. Paste in the sentence, paragraph or template it should become.
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Choose when it fires
By default a space, a punctuation mark or a newline triggers the expansion. You can also set it to fire the instant the trigger is complete.
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Try it
The Try It tab has a scratch field. Switch to the SprintText keyboard with the globe key, type your trigger, press space.
Questions
Shortcut questions.
Do shortcuts work in every app?
They work anywhere the SprintText keyboard is the active keyboard on iPhone and iPad — Messages, Mail, Slack, notes apps, browser fields. A few system fields, such as passcode entry, do not accept third-party keyboards at all; that is an iOS rule, not a SprintText limitation.
What happens if a shortcut fires when I did not want it to?
Press backspace immediately. SprintText holds an undo record for exactly one keystroke after an expansion and restores your trigger character for character, including the delimiter you typed. After the next keystroke the undo record is discarded, because by then you have moved on.
Can a trigger expand in the middle of a word?
Not by default. Triggers that begin with a letter or a digit require a word boundary. There is a setting to allow mid-word expansion if you want it, and triggers that begin with punctuation carry their own boundary and always work.
How many shortcuts can I have?
Enough on the free tier for everyday use. An unlimited library, with folders and favourites for keeping it organised, is part of SprintText Pro — see pricing, where the exact limits will be stated before anything is charged for.
Can I import shortcuts from another app?
Import and export are part of the Pro feature set. If you have an existing library you want to bring across, get in touch and tell us what format it is in.