Automatic replacements

Automatic replacements#

As you type in a text note, certain character sequences are replaced with the typographic symbol they represent. Typing (c) gives you ©, ... gives you …, and "quote" gives you “quote”.

These replacements are not applied inside code blocks or inline code, and pasted text is never affected — only text you type. If you have pasted a code snippet, or written one inside a code block, its characters are left exactly as they are.

Once an automatic replacement takes place, it can be undone by:

• Pressing Backspace immediately after a replacement undoes it and restores what you typed.
  • Note that this consumes the undo, so a further Ctrl+Z might delete your typed text.
  • Pressing Space or changing the cursor position disables this functionality.
• Pressing Ctrl+Z, which works even after pressing space.

Each group can be turned off in Options → Text notes → Automatic replacements.

Group	What it replaces
Punctuation	... with an ellipsis (…), and -- and --- surrounded by spaces with an en dash (–) and an em dash (—)
Mathematical symbols	fractions such as 1/2 with ½, and the operators <=, >=, !=, <- and -> with ≤, ≥, ≠, ← and →
Copyright and trademark	(c), (r) and (tm) with ©, ® and ™
Quotation marks	straight quotes with typographic ones — see below

Quotation marks#

Quotation marks are configured separately from the rest, with one setting for the double quote key and one for the single quote key, because which pair belongs on which key differs between conventions — British typography traditionally sets a quotation in ‘…’ where American sets it in “…”.

Each offers:

• Based on the note's content language (the default) — English gives “quote”, German „quote“, French « quote », Japanese 「quote」. See Content language & Right-to-left support for how a note's language is decided.
• Disabled, straight quotes stay straight.
• A specific pair — “…”, ‘…’, „…“, „…”, «…», « … », ‹…›, 「…」, 『…』. Choosing one applies it to every note, whatever language it is written in.

Custom replacements#

You can add your own under Options → Text notes → Automatic replacements → Custom replacements. Type the text to replace and the replacement, then press Enter. Existing ones are shown as chips and removed with the × on each.

A custom replacement is applied when the text is typed as a whole word and followed by a space, so longer words that begin with it are left alone — a TN replacement does not rewrite the end of BTN, and TNT can still be typed.

Capitalisation follows what you type, unless the replacement has capitals of its own:

Replacement you defined	You type	You get
teh → the	teh / Teh / TEH	the / The / THE
TN → Trilium Notes	TN or tn	Trilium Notes (unchanged — it has capitals)

The text to replace is matched literally; it is not a pattern. Typing a replacement whose "text to replace" already exists updates that entry rather than adding a second one.

Characters that only look replaced (ligatures)#

If you see != displayed as ≠ or -> as → inside a code block, that is not a replacement — replacements never run there. It is a font ligature: the default monospace font draws certain character pairs as a single symbol. The underlying text is unchanged, and copying it out gives you back != and ->.

This can be turned off with Options→ Appearance → Fonts → Programming ligatures.