How TextExpander customers stopped rewriting the same things and got hours back

Think back over this week. How many times did you type an answer you’ve written before, dig through old emails for a paragraph you know is in there somewhere, or open a notes file or Google Doc just to copy a link you’ve shared a dozen times?

Most people can’t put a number on it. Each one takes a minute or two, so none of them feels like the problem. Added up across a week, they often are.

The people in this article noticed that pattern in their own work: recruiters, account managers, a school psychologist, a professor, support teams, and clinicians. Here’s where their time was going, what they changed, and what they did with the time they got back.

Before any of that, it helps to see where the time actually goes. The typing is only part of it.

Where the time actually goes when you rewrite the same things

Repeated writing rarely looks like one big task. It shows up as small detours. You leave what you’re doing, find the old version, copy it, paste it, fix the formatting, and change the details. Then you do it again an hour later.

Johnny Fan, an Account Executive at LinkedIn, sends a high volume of personalized outreach and follow-ups every day. What changed for him was the detour:

I’m not tabbing out to find a Google Doc or scrolling through old emails to copy a talk track. It’s just there.

Johnny Fan, Account Executive, LinkedIn

Many people build a system to cut down on that detour, and it helps for a while. Scott Hollinger, EdD, a university professor, kept his feedback on student papers in a Word document and then moved it to an Excel spreadsheet. What he wanted was to skip the trip altogether: “I don’t have to open another document, I don’t have to search for the text I want, I don’t have to copy and then paste.”

Meg P., a VP of Customer Strategy, described the same relief from no longer digging through old messages:

It’s so nice to have a repository of frequently used phrases, sentences, and resources at my fingertips without having to search historical messages when I just want to copy and paste what I’ve said previously.

Meg P., VP of Customer Strategy, Triangle Apartment Association

Typing is still part of it. The median U.S. adult types about 38 words per minute on a computer, according to the 2026 study behind our typing speed benchmarks, so a 60-word reply takes about a minute and a half. Send it 15 times a day, and that one reply costs about two hours a week before you include any time spent searching for the right wording.

5 things TextExpander customers did to get that time back

None of these takes long to set up, and you can start with one. Each comes from people who use TextExpander every day, in their own words from G2 reviews and customer stories.

1. Save anything you type more than three times

Bonnie A. Chen, a Key Account Manager at PackageX, uses a simple rule that takes the guesswork out of deciding what’s worth saving:

It helps me streamline my work by creating shortcuts for anything I type more than three times, whether it’s contract terms, client emails, or notes structure.

Bonnie A. Chen, Key Account Manager, PackageX

The same rule covers the small details that send you searching. Kaitlyn F., who works in customer service at The Escape Game, saves the phone numbers, emails, and addresses for every location so she doesn’t have to remember them. As she put it: “I just type the information once, create a snippet, and then adjust the personal information for the guests as needed.”

2. Start with the longest things you write

Short Snippets save seconds. Long ones save minutes every time, and they’re where customers report the biggest changes.

TextExpander cuts down my report writing by 75%. I love that I can create report templates, email templates, and codes for commonly misspelled words. It’s taken the redundancy out of writing.

Gretchen J., School Psychologist, Hampton Township School District

Megan W. turned the paragraphs she was typing “over 300 times” into short abbreviations, and writes that she’s been able to get through her caseload much faster. One reviewer in IT services put the change in minutes: TextExpander “makes 15-60 minute emails take 2-3 minutes to write.”

3. Keep the parts that change personal

The common worry about reusable text is that it will sound canned. Customers solve that with Fill-ins, fields that prompt for the details that change each time, such as a name, a date, or a next step.

William Brown, a Lead Recruiter at Gusto, uses “fill-in-the-blank” Snippets so he can “use a standard template for emails or code but still customize specific details (like a client’s name or a date) without breaking my flow.” He describes the result as a “second brain” that remembers complex links and details for him.

Nicole R., a Capital Credit Specialist at East Central Energy, combines Fill-ins with a few other options to build templates that still fit each account:

The ability to use fill-ins, optional fields, and date stamps lets me build smart templates that save significant time. It has genuinely streamlined my workflow and reduced the mental clutter that comes from typing the same things over and over.

Nicole R., Capital Credit Specialist, East Central Energy

4. Share what works with your team

Saved answers help the person who wrote them. When the whole team uses them, the savings repeat for everyone, and nobody has to solve the same question twice.

SketchUp’s eight-person support team turns each new fix into a shared Snippet. Technical Support Manager Ty Schalamon did the math on what that adds up to:

Right now, the average time savings across our support team for typing alone is approximately 20–25 hours a month per person. When you multiply the time savings by the eight people on my team, that’s immediately one additional person that we don’t have to hire.

Ty Schalamon, Technical Support Manager, SketchUp

Sharing often starts with one person. Jayne Reynolds at Befree Enterprises put it simply: “I used it at my old job, then introduced it to my next job! Everyone on our team uses it, and we save so much time!”

Shared Snippets also stay current. CompanyCam’s onboarding team keeps its knowledge base in TextExpander, so one update reaches everyone:

I can update a TextExpander Snippet, and the team has access to the most up-to-date content immediately. They no longer need to search through playlists on YouTube or files in a Google Drive folder.

Alex Williams, Customer Onboarding Manager, CompanyCam

5. Check what it’s saving you

TextExpander tracks the time your Snippets save, and some customers watch that number closely. Saskia W., an Onboarding and Customer Success Specialist at coveto ATS, is one of them:

So far, I save two hours a week, and my weekly report has put this together for me. But I’m sure I’ll be able to save even more in the future.

Saskia W., Onboarding and Customer Success Specialist, coveto ATS

That number is a floor. It’s based only on the characters you didn’t have to type, at a default typing speed of 50 words per minute. Our post on how TextExpander calculates your time savings walks through the math. Ty Schalamon’s 20 to 25 hours a month, for example, was “for typing alone.”

What customers do with the time they get back

An hour back only matters once it goes somewhere. In customers’ own words, it rarely turns into idle minutes. It goes back into the people they serve.

By using TextExpander to repeat common directions or explanations, we save an hour a day for each team member. This saves us time and money. More importantly, it means we can use that reclaimed time to help the next customer sooner, and slow down to make each response personal.

Todd Curtis, Chief Customer Officer, You Need a Budget

For clinicians, the time goes to patients. Dr. Melanie Hsu at Children’s Health Council says every keystroke saved “means I can do my job longer and see more children.” Oncologist Julien Welmant describes a different kind of relief: “Less mental load, more attention to what really matters.”

Support agents describe the same shift. Norma Yanac, a Customer Support Agent at Arb Interactive, says reusable replies leave more room for the harder parts of the job:

By using pre‑built snippets, I reduce errors, save time on routine responses, and handle a higher volume of work more efficiently. This benefits me by improving productivity, reducing mental fatigue, and allowing me to focus more on problem‑solving and customer support rather than rewriting the same messages repeatedly.

Norma Yanac, Customer Support Agent, Arb Interactive

And sometimes the change is in how the work feels. One higher education professional put it this way: “I feel joy in sending people the answers to their questions rather than resentment for having to type the same thing over and over again.”

How to estimate how much time TextExpander would save you

Those are other people’s weeks. Yours will look different, and you can estimate it in about 15 minutes using messages you’ve already sent.

1. List what you sent more than three times last week. Check your sent folder, help desk history, or chat. Replies, instructions, links, meeting details, and note templates all count.
2. Estimate the length of each one in words. A short paragraph is about 60 words. A full support answer or note template can run to 200 or more.
3. Count how often each one goes out in a typical week.
4. Do the typing math. Words × weekly sends ÷ your typing speed = minutes of typing a week. If you don’t know your speed, 40 words per minute is a fair starting point. It’s also the middle estimate we use for the math in this article, between the 38 wpm median and TextExpander’s default of 50 wpm.
5. Add the search time. For anything you copy from an old email or document, add the time it takes to find it. Even 30 seconds per send adds up.
6. Multiply by the people who send the same messages. If five teammates answer the same questions, your estimate is roughly one-fifth of the team’s.

For example, five replies averaging 80 words, each sent 10 times a week, add up to 4,000 words. At 40 words per minute, that’s 100 minutes of typing every week, before any searching. Save those replies as Snippets, use them for a couple of weeks, and compare your time-saved total with your estimate.

Treat your first number as a starting point. Customers often keep finding new things to save once they start. Annalisa V. started with long text and kept going:

TextExpander changed my working life! As a consultant, I started to use it for long text, but now I use TextExpander even for single repetitive words I use, saving so much time and avoiding repetitive and stressful functions!

Annalisa V., Consultant

Try it: build the Snippet almost everyone needs

If you schedule meetings, you probably send some version of the same reply several times a week: thanks for reaching out, here’s my calendar, pick a time. It’s a good first Snippet because it’s frequent, it’s long enough to matter, and only one detail changes each time.

Here’s how to create it:

1. Open TextExpander and choose a Snippet Group. Select the group you want to keep it in, then select New Snippet.
2. Paste the message into the Snippet editor. Use your version of the text above, with your own calendar link and name.
3. Turn the name into a Fill-in. Delete the placeholder name, then select Fill-ins on the editing bar, choose Single Line Field, name it First name, and select OK.
4. Add an abbreviation and a label. Type //meet in the Abbreviation field, something short and easy to remember, and add a label like “Meeting request reply with calendar link” so you can find it in search later.
5. Use it. In any email or chat, type //meet, enter the person’s first name when TextExpander asks for it, and the full reply appears.

A two-minute investment that pays back every week

The //meet Snippet takes a couple of minutes to create. At about 50 words, sent 10 times a week at 40 words per minute, it saves around 12 minutes of typing a week. That’s roughly 11 hours a year from one Snippet, and the two minutes you spent setting it up are paid back before the end of the first day you use it.

Each Snippet you add works the same way. Build ten like it over a couple of weeks, and you’ve spent about 20 minutes to get back more than 100 hours of typing a year, before counting the time you no longer spend searching for the old versions. That’s the trade the customers in this article made: a few minutes once, and then time back every week after.

Danny Santoro, a WooCommerce Specialist on WooCommerce’s support team, put it in money terms:

From one-person gigs to companies with hundreds of agents, TextExpander is a priceless tool that will save you time, money, and a lot of headaches. At this point, TextExpander is no longer an expense – it’s an investment.

Danny Santoro, WooCommerce Specialist, WooCommerce

When saving text won’t save you much time

Saving text won’t give you much time back in these four situations, so check your week against them before you set anything up:

• You rarely send the same thing twice. If most of your writing is new every time, a Snippet saves little. AI drafting or a good outline may help more.
• The repeated text is very short. An email address saves a second or two per use. It’s handy, but it isn’t where the hours come from.
• Everything happens inside one tool with good macros. If your help desk’s built-in macros cover all your replies and you never need them anywhere else, they may be enough. 
• Nobody keeps the shared Snippets current. An out-of-date answer costs time to fix, for the sender and the customer. Assign an owner to each shared Snippet Group.

Start with what you wrote this week

Every customer in this article started in the same place. They noticed that they’d written something before. Bonnie’s three-times rule, Scott’s move away from his feedback spreadsheet, and SketchUp’s shared fixes all began with one message that someone was tired of rebuilding.

Your sent folder already shows where your time is going. The messages you send over and over are the ones to save first.