Skip to main content

JavaScript Text Transformer functions

Starting with BTT 3.356 you can define custom JavaScript functions that can be used to transform text inside of BTT.

Use Cases​

All JavaScript Text Transformer functions automatically show up as actions in the BTT Clipboard Manager. This allows to transform copied text before pasting it. clipboardmanager

  • In-Place Text Replacement

Combined with the predefined action Transform Selected Text With JavaScript this can be used for replacing selected text with some transformed version:

Transformer functions also work with the Insert / Paste / Type Custom Text action.

How to Create a Transformer Function​

To create a new transformer function go to the "Named & Other Triggers" section in BetterTouchTool. Then create a new trigger and select "Clipboard Manager / JavaScript Transformer".

clipboardmanager

There you should enter a name for the transformer. Optionally you can select a pasteboard type (advanced & optional, you usually don't need that for text) and you can also select a keyboard shortcut and icon which will be helpful in the BTT clipboard manager.

How to define transformer functions​

There are three requirements for the transformer functions:

  1. The transformer functions always need to be defined as async.
  2. It must take a parameter and that parameter needs to be called clipboardContentString.
  3. It must return a string.

Inside of that function you can use all standard JavaScript and additionally the BTT additions to e.g. run shell scripts or AppleScripts.

Examples

Simple function that converts text to upper case:

async (clipboardContentString) => {
    //example
   return clipboardContentString.toUpperCase()
}

Function that creates 𝕗𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕪 𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 text:

async (clipboardContentString) => {
clipboardContentString= clipboardContentString.replace(/[a-z]/g, (char) => {
    const code = char.charCodeAt() - 97;
    return String.fromCharCode(55349, code + 56658);
  });
return clipboardContentString;
}

Function that replaces a selected math equation with its result (stupid example :-):

async (clipboardContentString) => {
   return eval(clipboardContentString);
}

Function that executes a terminal command

async (clipboardContentString) => {
  let shellScript = `date`;

    let shellScriptWrapper = {
        script: shellScript, // mandatory
        launchPath: '/bin/bash', //optional - default is /bin/bash
        parameters: '-c', // optional - default is -c (please separate additional parameters using ;;)
        environmentVariables: '' //optional e.g. VAR1=/test/;VAR2=/test2/;
    };


    let result = await runShellScript(shellScriptWrapper);
    return result
}