This guide covers everything you need to know to use PhraseVault® day-to-day — from summoning the window and inserting phrases to managing your library and using dynamic placeholders. If you have not installed PhraseVault yet, start with the installation guide.

The Core Workflow: Summon, Search, Insert

This is the loop you will use dozens of times a day:

Place your cursor in any text field — an email draft, a chat message, a code editor, a web form, anything.
Press the summon shortcut to open PhraseVault:
- Windows: Ctrl + .
- macOS: Cmd + .
Start typing to search. PhraseVault matches against both the phrase name and the expanded text, so you do not need to remember exact names.
Use the arrow keys to navigate the results. Results are sorted by usage frequency — the phrases you use most appear first.
Press Enter to insert the selected phrase into the previously focused app. PhraseVault hides, the text is pasted, and your original clipboard is restored automatically.

That is the entire workflow. Three seconds from thought to text.

If you want to copy a phrase to the clipboard instead of inserting it directly, click the copy button on the phrase. The window hides, and the phrase is on your clipboard for you to paste whenever you are ready.

The summon shortcut is customizable — see How to Change the Summon Shortcut.

Managing Phrases

Adding a Phrase

Click the + button in the bottom-right corner. Fill in:

Name — the search term you will type to find this phrase (must be unique)
Expanded text — the content that gets inserted
Type — Plain Text, Markdown, or HTML (see below)

Editing and Deleting

Edit: Click the pencil icon on any phrase.
Delete: Click the three-dots menu (...), then the trash icon. Deletion shows a toast notification with an undo button, so accidental deletes are recoverable.
Duplicate: Also in the three-dots menu — creates a copy named "Copy of [original name]" that you can rename.

Phrase Types

Every phrase has a type that controls how its content is inserted:

Plain Text — inserted exactly as written. Best for most use cases: email replies, code snippets, addresses, form data.
Markdown — converted to formatted HTML on insert. Works in rich-text apps like Word, Google Docs, Outlook, and Gmail. Use this for bold, italic, headers, lists, links, and tables.
HTML — raw HTML pasted to the clipboard. For apps that accept HTML directly.

For a detailed walkthrough of Markdown and HTML phrases, see How to Insert Formatted Text.

Dynamic Placeholders

Placeholders let a single phrase adapt to different situations. They use {{type:options}} syntax inside your expanded text.

Auto-resolved (inserted automatically):

{{date}} — today's date. Add an offset: {{date:+7}} for 7 days ahead. Add a format: {{date:long}} for "March 17, 2026". Combine both: {{date:+7|long}}.
{{time}} — current time. Use {{time:12h}} for 12-hour format.
{{clipboard}} — inserts whatever is currently on your clipboard.

User-prompted (shows a dialog before inserting):

{{input:Label}} — single-line text field. With a default value: {{input:Name=John}}.
{{textarea:Label}} — multi-line text area.
{{select:Label=Option1,*Option2,Option3}} — dropdown. The * marks the default selection.

Example phrase using placeholders:

Hi {{input:Name}}, your appointment is confirmed for {{date:+7|long}} at {{time}}. Please arrive 15 minutes early.

For the full reference — including locale formatting, cross-inserts, and escaping — see How Do Dynamic Inserts Work?

Importing Existing Phrases

If you are switching from another text expander, PhraseVault can import your existing library:

PhraseVault JSON — native format, full fidelity
TextExpander® CSV — fill-in syntax auto-converted to PhraseVault placeholders. Also works with Beeftext and PhraseExpress® exports.
Espanso YAML — for users coming from the CLI-based expander

The import preview shows every phrase with conflict handling (skip or overwrite per phrase), so nothing is blindly overwritten.

Limits: 10 MB or 10,000 phrases per import file.

For step-by-step import instructions, see How to Import Phrases in Bulk.

Useful Things to Know

Usage-based sorting — PhraseVault tracks how often you use each phrase and surfaces your most-used phrases first. No manual organizing needed.
Search matches content too — you do not need to remember the phrase name. If you search "appointment", it will find any phrase whose expanded text contains that word.
System tray / menu bar — PhraseVault runs in the background. Look for its icon in the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (macOS). It is always ready when you press the summon shortcut.
Autostart — enabled by default. PhraseVault launches when you log in so the summon shortcut is always available. Toggle this in Settings.
Theme — System, Light, or Dark. Follows your OS setting by default.
Database location — all phrases are stored locally in a single SQLite file. Nothing is uploaded anywhere. By default, the database is at %LOCALAPPDATA%\PhraseVault\phrasevault.sqlite (Windows) or ~/Library/Application Support/PhraseVault/phrasevault.sqlite (macOS), but you can move it to any location via Settings — including a cloud folder for multi-device use.
Multi-device use — you can point your database file to a cloud folder (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive) to keep phrases in sync across computers. See Team Sharing for setup details.
Export — export all phrases or filtered results as PhraseVault JSON for backup or transfer.

PhraseVault

Loading...

How do I use PhraseVault®?