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 Text Expander Snippets to Help Reclaim Your Typing Time
Text Expander saves you time immediately because it can type for you. And not only does Text Expander 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 Text Expander. 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 Text Expander 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 Text Expander 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 Text Expander 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 Text Expander, 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, Text Expander 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 Text Expander because of all the spaces, and parentheses and dashes — that’s typing that Text Expander 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 Text Expander 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 Text Expander immediately saves you from typing 84 characters. Plus (you guessed it), it’s 100 percent accurate!
New Online Course: “Text Expander for Lawyers”
By now you understand the power of Text Expander and how much time and frustration it can save you. If you’re ready to learn more about how to exactly integrate Text Expander into your daily workflow, visit my new online course called Text Expander 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.
Since you are a faithful follower of Attorney at Work, you are welcome to use the coupon code attorneyatwork to get 10 percent off the Text Expander for Lawyers course.
Read more of Brett Burney’s tech tips on Attorney at Work:
- All Mac Law Office, Part One: Set Up
- All Mac Law Office, Part Two: Lawyers Who Use Macs: Why They Do and How They Do It
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