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:
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 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:
“quote”, German „quote“, French
« quote », Japanese 「quote」. See Content language & Right-to-left support for
how a note's language is decided.“…”, ‘…’,
„…“, „…”, «…»,
« … », ‹…›, 「…」,
『…』. Choosing one applies it to every note, whatever language it
is written in.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.
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.