Horizontal rules (<hr> equivalent) in snippets for Apple Mail (Rich Text, no HTML)

Have a question?
1

I’m looking for a way to insert horizontal rules in TextExpander snippets for Rich Text emails in Apple Mail – visual separators like the ones commonly seen in Markdown editors, where typing --- automatically creates a full-width horizontal line.

Background:

  • What I’m trying to achieve is a true horizontal rule, inserted directly via snippet – without using HTML email.
  • I came across this JavaScript/HTML workaround, which is technically interesting, but not applicable here because it requires HTML formatting.

What works (but isn’t practical in my workflow):
The Raycast Notes app lets you create properly formatted content with a horizontal rule and paste it into Apple Mail – it renders correctly.
However, since I write a large number of emails daily, using an external app as an intermediate step is too time-consuming.

So my questions to the community:

  1. Is there any way to embed horizontal rules directly in Rich Text snippets in TextExpander?
  2. Does TextExpander support any internal RTF formatting that could achieve this?
  3. Has anyone found a working solution specifically for Rich Text in Apple Mail, without relying on HTML maybe via third-party tools?

Any tips or insights would be greatly appreciated – thanks in advance!

1 Like
2

The short answer is “no,” but I can confirm that Rex’s JavaScript/HTML workaround will work in Apple Mail. What Mail calls Rich Text is actually HTML and inline CSS—Apple hides the code from you.

Let me know if I can help you create a custom Snippet.

3

Thanks for the clarification that Apple Mail uses HTML under the hood — I honestly didn’t know that before.
That’s helpful context.
However, it leads to the following problems when using Rex’s workaround:

Rex’s HTML/JavaScript snippet technically works – horizontal rules (<hr>) do appear when inserted.
But: as soon as you reply to that email or edit anything inside Apple Mail, the structure breaks.

  • The horizontal line is either removed or rendered inconsistently
  • Apple Mail resets the reply block to system defaults (13px Helvetica on macOS, 17px San Francisco on iOS)
  • Inline styles are discarded or partially overridden
  • You end up with mixed formatting in the same message thread

Bottom line: You can’t rely on HTML-based snippet output if you plan to reply to or modify the email in Apple Mail.

Also tested (and failed):
Using a snippet that only contains <hr /> , and then calling it inside another snippet using jv.expand .
Instead of inserting a line, it just outputs the raw tag as plain text .
So even nesting doesn’t help.

But here’s the actual question:
If Apple Mail renders <hr> in “Rich Text Mails”, and TextExpander can output rich text —
why is there still no native support for horizontal rules in RTF snippets?

TextExpander clearly controls paragraph-level formatting.
So why is something as basic as a horizontal separator not available as a built-in, format-stable snippet option?

Funny side note:
This very forum runs on a platform that supports Markdown and <hr> without any issue —
while TextExpander doesn’t support Markdown at all and is stuck with rich text.
That’s… ironically consistent. :wink:

1 Like
4

I have a similar workaround. I write nearly everything using Markdown syntax. My files live in an Obsidian vault, but I typically write using iA Writer. My TextExpander snippets are mostly plain text snippets or JavaScript snippets that result in plain text. If I needed a horizontal rule (<hr>) in an email, which is rare for me, I would simply Copy Formatted (⌥ ⌘ C) in iA Writer. I find using iA Writer to convert Markdown to be efficient. I convert Markdown to HTML using iA Writer several times a day–Copy HTML (⇧ ⌘ C).

5

Hi Laurtiz, sorry the workaround isn’t working. I’m not sure why horizontal lines aren’t included. You may be the first person to have asked!

I would love to see TextExpander support Markdown, and I’ve spoken to the product team about this. Many of our users are saving AI output as Snippets, and most of those models output formatted text as Markdown. I don’t think it’s on the roadmap right now, but I’ll keep pressing that button.