Hi Scott,
> Update: Apparently, this has to do with how MS Word pastes strings from the clipboard. It trims spaces, I guess.
Same results and conclusion on my side. If used in Notepad, the ending character is preserved. This is a MS Word issue.
> I tried switching the hot string to 'macro mode' but *no* triggers are preserved in this mode. Thee doesn't seem to be a solution that bypasses the clipboard.
The end character option is supported only in Text mode at this time. I'll investigate to see if keeping the end char in Macro mode can be an option to bypass the Clipboard issue.
> If I set a hotstring to "macro mode" and trigger it in VS Code, I always get some partial substitution like this: 'zzirInternal Revenue Servic'
I could not test it in VS Code. Unfortunately, there must be some particular functionalities/automation of this editor interfering with the hotstring replacement.
> Curiously, if I trigger QAP hotstrings in VS Code, I sometimes get the current contents of the clipboard, rather than the hot string text.
This was reported once but was intermittent. I added a configurable delay in the Hostrings options (Various Advanced Options). Try increasing the 4th delay to give more time before the original Clipboard is restored.