You don’t have to remember these. In the snippet editor, click the Insert menu (above the text, on the right) and pick a code. Its submenus are Date, Time, Date/Time Math, Fill-ins, Snippet, Key, Clipboard, Calculation, Condition, AI ✨, Cursor, Delimiter, and Percent Sign (%).
Fill-ins
Fill-ins open a small window where you type or choose values before the snippet is inserted. See Fill-ins for a walkthrough.
Code
What it does
%filltext:name=Name:default=Sam:width=20%
A single-line text field. All settings are optional.
%fillarea:name=Notes:default=:width=30:height=5%
A multi-line text box. width and height are in characters and lines.
%fillpopup:name=Size:Small:default=Medium:Large%
A pop-up menu. Options are separated by colons; default= marks the option chosen at first. Without it, the first option is chosen.
%fillpart:name=PS:default=yes%…%fillpartend%
An optional section with a checkbox. The text between the two codes is included only when the box is checked. default=yes (or true or 1) checks it at first.
%filltop%
Opens the fill-in window at the top center of the screen instead of near the text cursor.
Settings inside a fill-in: name=, default=, width= (not for pop-ups) and height= (multi-line boxes only). Fields with the same name share one value, so you type it once.
Date and time
Names of months, weekdays, and AM/PM follow your Mac’s language and region settings. Examples are for Monday, January 5, 2026, at 2:05:07 PM in New York.
Code
Shows
Example
%Y
Year, four digits
2026
%y
Year, two digits
26
%B
Month name
January
%b
Short month name
Jan
%m
Month number, two digits
01
%1m
Month number, no leading zero
1
%A
Weekday name
Monday
%a
Short weekday name
Mon
%d
Day of the month, two digits
05
%e
Day of the month, no leading zero
5
%j
Day of the year, three digits
005
%H
Hour, 24-hour clock, two digits
14
%1H
Hour, 24-hour clock, no leading zero
14
%I
Hour, 12-hour clock, two digits
02
%1I
Hour, 12-hour clock, no leading zero
2
%M
Minute, two digits
05
%1M
Minute, no leading zero
5
%S
Second, two digits
07
%1S
Second, no leading zero
7
%p
AM or PM
PM
%z
Offset from GMT
-0500
%Z
Time zone abbreviation
EST
%date:yyyy-MM-dd%
Any custom format, using Unicode date patterns
2026-01-05
Capital and small letters mean different things: %1m is the month, %1M is the minute. %d pads with a zero, %e doesn’t.
Date and time math
Put %@, a plus or minus sign, a number, and a unit before your date codes. Every date code after it uses the shifted date.
Code
Shifts the date by
%@+1Y
Years
%@+1M
Months (capital M)
%@+15D
Days
%@-1D
Days back (yesterday)
%@+2h
Hours
%@+30m
Minutes (small m)
%@+45s
Seconds
More examples on Dates & Times.
Clipboard and other snippets
Code
What it does
%clipboard
Inserts the text currently on the clipboard.
%snippet:sig%
Inserts another snippet by its abbreviation (here sig). Snippets can include snippets up to 8 levels deep. If no snippet has that abbreviation, nothing is inserted.
Calculations, conditions, and AI
Code
What it does
%calc:{qty}*{price}:2%
Works out a sum. :2 at the end means two decimal places. See Calculations & Conditions.
%if:{field}%…%else%…%endif%
Includes text only when a condition is true. %else% is optional.
%ai:Write a polite reply to: {clipboard}%
AI writes this part when the snippet expands. Needs an AI provider (Setting Up AI).
{name} means “the value of the fill-in called name,” and {clipboard} means the clipboard text. These references work only inside %calc, %if, and %ai, so curly braces in ordinary text (CSS, code) are left alone.
Keys
%key:name% presses a key while the snippet is being typed, for example to move between fields in a web form.
Code
Presses
%key:tab%
Tab
%key:return%
Return
%key:enter%
Enter
%key:esc% or %key:escape%
Escape
%key:space%
Space
%key:backspace%
Delete (backwards)
%key:delete% or %key:forwarddelete%
Forward delete
%key:up% / %key:uparrow%
Up arrow
%key:down% / %key:downarrow%
Down arrow
%key:left% / %key:leftarrow%
Left arrow
%key:right% / %key:rightarrow%
Right arrow
%key:home%, %key:end%
Home, End
%key:pageup%, %key:pagedown%
Page Up, Page Down
Key names are not case-sensitive. An unknown key name is left in the text as typed.
Cursor and selection
Code
What it does
%|
Puts the text cursor here after expanding.
%\
Used after %|: selects the text between the two codes.
%<
Moves the cursor one place left after expanding.
%>
Moves the cursor one place right.
%^
Moves the cursor up one line.
%v
Moves the cursor down one line.
Example: <b>%|</b> types <b></b> and leaves the cursor between the tags.
Delimiter and percent sign
Code
What it does
%+
Keep the delimiter (the space, Return, etc. you typed after the abbreviation), whatever your setting.
%-
Drop the delimiter, whatever your setting.
%%
A literal percent sign.
See Delimiters for what a delimiter is.
Rules worth knowing
A code runs to the next %. So a prompt, condition, field name, or default can’t contain a % sign, and fill-in settings can’t contain a colon.
Write %% for a real percent sign, e.g. Save 20%% today.
Anything that isn’t a known code is left exactly as written, so 100% sure still types “100% sure”.
Script snippets (AppleScript, shell, JavaScript) don’t use these codes; their output is inserted as-is. See Script Snippets.
Related: Fill-ins · Dates & Times · Calculations & Conditions · AI Features