Quick, think of a word or phrase that you type numerous times a day, every day …
How about your email address? Or your phone number? Your mailing address? A client name, or a judge’s name? How often do you mistype those items? How often do you have to correct a typo? All those seconds add up, not to mention the fact that wasting all that time is frustrating.
What if your computer could type for you? After all, computers are supposed to help with mundane monotonous tasks.
Three Simple TextExpander Snippets to Help Reclaim Your Typing Time
TextExpander saves you time immediately because it can type for you. And not only does TextExpander save you time, but it’ll also make you a better typist because it’s 100 percent accurate every single time. No typos or misspellings!
First, get TextExpander. If you don’t already have it, you can download a free trial at www.textexpander.com for either Windows or Mac.
Once you have TextExpander installed, you’re ready to start with your first Snippet. Select “Plain Text” from the drop-down and in the big blank Content box, type what you want TextExpander to type for you.
At the bottom, you’re going to give your Snippet a name (label) — and then the fun part is to pick a short, simple, easy-to-remember abbreviation. This abbreviation is what you will type to trigger TextExpander to expand out the content. (Think hard-to-type words or phrases, entire clauses, even code.)
Snippet 1: Email Address
How many times a day do you type your entire email address? How often do you mistype it and have to take extra time to backspace, make corrections and double-check that it’s correct? That is all an extravagant waste of time.
In TextExpander, just create a new Snippet and put your email address in the Content box. Make triple-sure it’s correct because this may be the last time you ever have to type the whole thing out.
Now give it a label like “Email Address” and think of a short, simple, easy-to-remember abbreviation like “bizmail” — make sure it’s not something you would not type in your daily workflow. Otherwise, the Snippet would be expanding and inserting text all the time.
From now on, instead of typing your entire email address, just type the short abbreviation — this can be in Microsoft Word, or an email message, a PowerPoint presentation — wherever you have a blinking cursor.
When you type the short abbreviation, TextExpander types your whole email address for you. And it’s 100 percent accurate every time!
Snippet 2: Phone number
How often do you type your office phone number, or mobile phone number, or home number? Phone numbers are great for TextExpander because of all the spaces, and parentheses and dashes — that’s typing that TextExpander can handle for you.
Type your phone number in the Content box, give it a Label, and a short Abbreviation like “bizphone” or “mobphone.” Now, wherever you need to type a phone number you just type your short abbreviation and let TextExpander type the whole thing for you.
Snippet 3: Office Mailing Address
If you manually type out your entire office mailing address, you are absolutely wasting time. Create a new Snippet and type your office mailing address in the Content box. Give it a label and an abbreviation like “offadd.” Now you type just six characters and TextExpander immediately saves you from typing 84 characters. Plus (you guessed it), it’s 100 percent accurate!
New Online Course: “TextExpander for Lawyers”
By now you understand the power of TextExpander and how much time and frustration it can save you. If you’re ready to learn more about how to exactly integrate TextExpander into your daily workflow, visit my new online course called TextExpander for Lawyers, where I give you everything you need to know, step-by-step, on how to save time doing something you’re already doing — typing! Just visit www.textexpanderforlawyers.com to read through the page, get your questions answered, and watch the free videos in the course.
Editor’s Note: This article republished with permission of the author and first publication – Attorney @ Work.