Import from TextExpander, CSV fails, no .textexpander file available

[NiceOldGuy]

I'm brand-new to Keyboard Maestro, and having trouble importing my TextExpander text expansions.

I've downloaded and attempted the macros posted here (this one and this one) to import TextExpander exports, without success:

• When asked for an import file, the file open dialog shows the CSV files created by TextExpander but they are greyed-out, not selectable
• The other macro says start when a .textexpander file is selected in Finder. I've used FindAnyFile and can locate no files with that extension.

MacOS Ventura 13.6.7; Keyboard Maestro 11.0.2 (paid, registered) TextExpander 7.7.1

I am quite familiar with Discourse and have searched and read for an hour for a posted solution.
Kind of desperate because my TextExpander subscription renews at midnight and I'm trying to move all my expansions to Keyboard Maestro.

Thanks for your help!

[peternlewis]

I don't believe those macros work on TextExpander exports, but I could be wrong. They work on a list of lines containing the shortcut and the expansion (or the name, shortcut and expansion).

There is this one:

"Import TextExpander Group" Macro

Updated 2016-04-20: v1.0.3 adds versioning comment/changelog, improved action titles, status menu trigger (shown when Finder is active), renamed root group Like several others, I'm one of those looking for an alternative to TextExpander now that they've gone subscription-only (haven't been happy with any of the dedicated expansion apps, and I've always wanted to try Keyboard Maestro, so...). However, I couldn't find an easy way to convert my TextExpander snippets to Keyboard Maestro expansions…

Though that is from quite a long time ago, I have no idea if it still works.

I would suggest you export your expansions to a csv, and then look at that in BBEdit (or Numbers), and figure out how to change that so that so that it is lines of:

shortcut:expansion

and then use my macro here:

Create Text Expansions Macro

Here is a macro that lets you create simple text expansion macros. Simply fill in the text of the action with lines like: trigger:text where trigger is the Typed String trigger you want and text is the text you want to expand to. Then select all the actions and click the Try button at the bottom to run them once and it will create a macro for each expansion. There is no trigger on the macro since its not going to be a macro you want to run except occasionally. Note that to create a new exp…

to create the expansions, perhaps dealing with any that don't transfer well.

[NiceOldGuy]

Thanks, @peternlewis. I did a bunch of reading here and on TidBITS and decided to follow the advice to use tools specific to the task.

Took advantage of the TidBITS discount and bought Typinator, it imported my TextExpander expansions directly. And wow does it do a lot!

So now I have Typinator for simple expansions and a whole new macro tool in Keyboard Maestro. Lots of things to learn and apply to improving my workflow!