I received a new iPad on the weekend. I got a good deal from one of my friends who works for one of the big box consumer retailers. I also inherited a few challenges. I like to use text replacement tools that insert diacritics in Sanskrit words that I frequently use. As an example, I like to enter the letters pamho to produce: Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Neat. It saves time.
In the past I’ve enjoyed using an app called TextExpander on my old iPad, but guess what? If you have a Magic Keyboard, it doesn’t work in the new iPadOS. TextExpander used to work across platforms, Windows, iPadOS, and Android, which is very handy. You edit your list in one place, and it works everywhere.
Forget that now. It is a solution of the past. Here’s a workaround.
TextExpander can export snippets in a variety of formats, which can then be exported in .plist format, which can then be imported into Text Replacement, which works across Mac machines, including the iPad. I have friends with Macs who I can add these text replacements. It will take about ten minutes to upload them to my iCloud account. I found another issue. You can’t add replacements on the iPad if they have spaces in them. You can’t insert something like that with Text Replacement on iPad anymore. It won’t accept spaces; for old replacements already in the system, it still replaces them. As it turns out, you can enter them in your iCloud account on a Mac, and they will automatically be installed on your iPad. Tricks for young players.