Text fill-ins are not working here

TextExpander Talk
1

I have created a snippet with 3 fill-ins (to use inside Claude), see screenshot.

I tried this in several apps, filled in the popup fields (which stayed empty after pressing Tab), and the expansion looks like this:

What’s the translation or equivalent of the word “"?

Is this a known bug or am I doing something wrong?

Screen-Shot 2026-02-15 at 20.08.57
Screen-Shot 2026-02-15 at 20.08.571004×166 16.9 KB

macOS 26.3 (25D125) · TE 8.4.1 (841.5)

2

Should you be using Pop up menus for all three fields? A pop up is for when you have a number of set options to choose from. Can understand for first two, but last one should just be a Single Line Field, no?

Irrespective, the principles seem to work OK for me upon snippet expansion, on a mac running Sequoia.

ScreenFloat Shot of TextEdit on 2026-02-15 at 8-15-30 pm
ScreenFloat Shot of TextEdit on 2026-02-15 at 8-15-30 pm680×1319 111 KB

1 Like
3

Thanks! This was the first time I used fill-ins and I was nor aware of the difference between pop-ups and single line.

I replaced all popups with single line in the snippet and now it works fine.

Thanks again, TDK!

2 Likes
4

Yeah, I’ve run into similar odd behavior with TextExpander fill-ins, especially when using them inside apps that don’t fully support the pop-up input layer (Claude and a few Electron-based apps can be hit or miss).

A couple things that might be causing what you’re seeing:

  • Tab not registering inputs: In some apps, the fill-in window opens but doesn’t properly “commit” fields when you tab through them.

  • App compatibility issue: Certain environments don’t fully support TextExpander’s fill-in UI, so it expands with blanks or default placeholders.

  • Snippet type mismatch: Double-check whether you’re using plain fill-ins vs scripted snippets—sometimes they behave differently depending on the app.

  • Focus stealing: If Claude or another app grabs focus during expansion, the fill-in fields can stay empty even after you enter values.

One workaround that’s helped me is testing the same snippet in a basic text editor first (like Notes or TextEdit). If it works there but not in Claude, it’s almost certainly an app compatibility issue rather than your setup.

Also worth checking if there’s an update beyond TE 8.4.1, since fill-in bugs have shown up in a few mid-version releases on macOS.

If you want to compare how different snippet tools handle fill-ins or find alternatives, you can take a look here: click here