espanso

It’s not particularly user-friendly when it comes to adding new items. This is done via a .yml script, where you need to take care to use exactly the same format as in the examples (including the tab spaces). But apart from that, it’s the best ‘text expander’, compatible with both Linux and Windows, and for the script, simply copying and pasting ensures you don’t break it.

IF you install the espanso-gui alongside it, it's quite straightforward to use and run even for beginners. The GUI also makes it apparent that one can simply edit the .yml files in %Appdata%\Roaming\espanso\match to very easily add text strings.

The only thing that's going to block beginners is that the Windows pre-compiled binary is only available if they download the previous version 23.10 -- if they grab the latest version 24.7 from github, it's just going to be a bunch of source code and build/makefiles. It would make more sense to include the simple GUI in the espanso default installer, perhaps as a toggle-able option.

Beginners are more likely to have a much easier time with the program PepperText. There is a case when you will want to use Espanso though. For instance, the making of long list of items, especially emoji. Note that Espanso has no user interface until you add one. The way to start, is to also install this: espansoGUI Espanso and PepperText handle multiple choice, but not all expander programs do. set two entries to the same keyword. If you want to set a long list of just text to shortcuts, I suggest the program TyperTask because you can put them in the text file vs messing with yaml. Note that Espanso opens a search/launch bar when a trigger word is typed, and that might "hijack" programs like Listary if a trigger word is typed. PepperText doesn't have that issue because it pops up text vs a toolbar. On the plus, the toolbar method gives you a choice to prevent an auto-typing if you don't want it at the moment.

My favourite text expander.

Can substitute dynamically for dates, etc.

Also acts as a script trigger.

Linux standard install is CLI and lightweight. GUI available for techno-grannies.

.yml based cofiguration, extremely easy to learn. No coding experience required.

It's very simple, easy to use, and you gotta love that it's free and open source. Excellent time saver!