How TextExpander customers went from their first Snippet to a daily habit

Think about the last piece of software you signed up for at work. How long was it before it gave you anything back? How many evenings went into tutorials, settings, and figuring out where things live? And is it still open on your screen today?

Plenty of tools ask for a lot of setup before they save you a minute, so it’s reasonable to expect the same from the next one. The people in this article expected it too. Some of them describe themselves as easily overwhelmed by new software. One almost didn’t try TextExpander at all.

Here’s how they got started, the habits that made it stick in the first week, and how their teams brought new people up to speed.

Before the how-to, it helps to see why new tools so often stall before they save anything.

Why new tools stall before they save you anything

Most new software asks for a change in how you work. You learn a new interface, move your information into it, and build new habits around it, all while your regular work keeps arriving. If the payoff takes weeks, the tool quietly goes unused.

Kayce Hodos, a therapist who runs her own counseling and coaching practice, knows that pattern well. What made the difference for her was how quickly the first few Snippets paid off:

It’s so easy to get started. I tend to get overwhelmed by learning a new software or tool, but as soon as I had my first few snippets created and started using them consistently, I wondered how I ever filled out forms without them!

Kayce Hodos, Owner & Therapist, Kayce Hodos Counseling & Coaching

The other worry is memory. Shortcuts sound like one more thing to learn. Heather Ritchie, a content marketing strategist who runs her own business, nearly skipped TextExpander because of it:

Seriously, I don’t know how I survived running my business before TextExpander. On average, it usually saves me at least 30 – 60 minutes a week. Not bad, right? I almost didn’t try it two years back, because I didn’t think I could get used to keyboard shortcuts, but now it’s second nature!

Heather Ritchie, Certified Content Marketing Strategist & AI Systems Architect, Writer’s Life for You

TextExpander asks for less up front. Once the app is installed and you’re signed in, it runs in the background. A Snippet is the text you reuse plus an abbreviation you type to insert it, and it works in the apps you already use. 

That’s the whole idea, and it’s most of what you need to know on day one.

5 things TextExpander customers did to get up and running fast

None of these takes more than a few minutes. They come from people who use TextExpander every day, in their own words, from G2 reviews and customer stories.

1. Start with what you type every day

The fastest first Snippets are things you already type without thinking: your email address, your signature, your phone number, a reply you send most days. TextExpander’s getting started guide suggests the same starting point. 

Mario Jimenez, a Merchant Experience Partner at DoorDash, described his first day this way: “I just registered my work email and started setting up scripts.”

Cat Hennebury, a legal secretary at Stonebridge Law, found the first steps as simple as the daily use:

I use it with all my software, and the snippets work throughout, which is incredibly convenient. The initial setup was as easy as pie, and creating snippets is just as simple.

Cat Hennebury, Legal Secretary, Stonebridge Law

2. Keep working where you already work

TextExpander doesn’t ask you to move your writing into a new app. You keep writing in your email, chat, help desk, or documents, and your Snippets expand there. A client service coordinator put it plainly: “We can use it in Salesforce, Microsoft Office, or literally any other text box.”

For David Piscorik, a CPA and partner at Stancil CPAs, that meant one set of Snippets on every device he uses:

I like its ease of use and cross-platform support, which allows me to draft a form email from my laptop, iPad, or iPhone with ease. TextExpander was super simple to install, which made the initial setup smooth.

David Piscorik, CPA, Partner, Stancil CPAs

3. Memorize one shortcut, and let search remember the rest

You don’t have to memorize every abbreviation. TextExpander has a search window that finds Snippets by label, abbreviation, or content, and Jen W., who works in support at Tettra, leans on it: “I love the keyboard shortcut to find a snippet, which helps me work quickly.” Giving abbreviations a shared prefix also helps. Our post on the abbreviation prefixes TextExpander experts use shows how.

Valentina Alividsa, who works in customer experience at Remote, learned it on her own:

It’s easy to use because once data is saved with abbreviations, typing the abbreviations quickly expands to the full text I need. It’s very user-friendly, and I could learn to use it myself and navigate it easily. It’s easy to set up and start using, which is important to me.

Valentina Alividsa, Customer Experience, Remote

4. Borrow before you build

You don’t have to write every Snippet from scratch. TextExpander’s Public Groups offer ready-made Snippet Groups to browse for ideas, and teams often share their own. Meredith S., a nurse practitioner, starts from her facility’s Snippets and makes them easier to remember:

Easy to create snippets and edit them, saves me a lot of time on documentation while also allowing me to provide details. If your facility creates Snippets, you can also copy them to your own and change the abbreviation so that it is easier to remember.

Meredith S., Nurse Practitioner, Firsthand Cares

Ida Jardines, a registered representative at Martin & Company Tax & Wealth Advisors, gets ideas from the app itself. She enjoys that “it picks up on when I’m doing something repetitive and suggests creating a Snippet,” and adds that creating Snippets is “easy and user-friendly, with everything spelled out for you.”

5. Bring your team in once it works for you

Some teams adopt TextExpander the way Michael Purdin’s team did: one person uses it, likes it, and brings it to everyone else. Michael, a Customer Success Team Lead at Netwrix, has used it for more than 12 years:

I was a personal user of TextExpander for years, and then once I became a leader, I implemented TextExpander for use department-wide, and we switched to an enterprise account. It’s been a huge problem solver for us as it allows our engineers to use pre-approved templated responses to common issues, as well as ensuring that our internal notes and documentation follow our requirements.

Michael Purdin, Customer Success Team Lead, Netwrix

Team setup doesn’t have to be a project. Sofia Urrutia-Lopez, a team manager at Intellica, says “Sharing across the team is easy,” and Doris Njoku, an acute care nurse at Imagine Pediatrics, notes that “the setup of TextExpander was easy for the team.”

What getting started looks like for a team

On a team, being easy to learn comes down to one question: how soon can a new person do the job without asking for help? Customers say that happens much faster when the team’s answers are already saved in shared Snippets.

At Amaze Health, a telehealth provider with 87 employees, new hires start with the shared library on their first day. Julia Ball, Director of Primary Care Services, says new users are usually “using it within the same day.” Amwell’s support team builds it into training from the start:

When we train new agents, one of the first things we do is show them TextExpander. It makes onboarding so much easier.

Manager, Network Operations Center, Amwell

Robert Leslie Jr., a Customer Onboarding Manager at CompanyCam, describes what that’s like as the new person: “I didn’t have to ask as many questions. I would just go to TextExpander, find the Snippet, and be able to give my customers the information that they needed.” Sarah Mayo, in Product Success at SyncOnSet, sees it from the team’s side: “new teammates are trained up in a fraction of the time.”

At SketchUp, where every new fix becomes a shared Snippet, the support team’s library doubles as its training manual:

We’re now more organized, so it’s a lot easier for someone new to jump right in. We hired someone a few weeks ago, and they’re already answering tickets because that knowledge base is there. With TextExpander, they can find an issue and answer that ticket without having to consult with anyone.

SketchUp support team

SketchUp’s Technical Support Manager, Ty Schalamon, remembers his own first week: “TextExpander was actually the second thing I learned about, after how to use the espresso machine.”

How to determine your first 5 Snippets in 15 minutes

Those are other people’s first weeks. Yours starts with the writing you already do, and you can find your first Snippets in about 15 minutes.

1. Open your sent folder and your chat history. Look back over the last week or two.
2. Mark anything you typed more than three times. Replies, instructions, links, addresses, meeting details, and sign-offs all count.
3. Pick the five you send most often. Frequency matters more than length when you’re building the habit.
4. Give each one a short abbreviation with a prefix. A semicolon or other character you rarely type, followed by a short word, keeps abbreviations from firing by accident.
5. Use them for a week before adding more. Once the first five feel automatic, add one new Snippet whenever you catch yourself retyping something.

Expect the list to grow. Customers often start with a handful and keep going once the first ones stick. Mishelle Fisher, in Senior Customer Success Operations at RocketReach.co, found uses everywhere:

I created at least a hundred for various uses. I would use TextExpander in Slack for FAQs, to live chat with customers, to easily give business hours in various time zones, to quickly create templated blocks in any doc or email…

Mishelle Fisher, Senior Customer Success Operations, RocketReach.co

Try it: create your first Snippet in two minutes

If you talk with clients, candidates, or colleagues, you probably send a version of the same follow-up after most calls: thanks for your time, here’s what happens next. It’s a good first Snippet because it’s frequent, it’s long enough to matter, and only two details change 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. Add the message in the Snippet editor. Type the follow-up shown in the screenshot above, with your own name in the sign-off.
3. Turn the name and the next step into Fill-ins. Delete the placeholder name, then select Fill-ins on the editing bar, choose Single Line Field, name it First name, and select OK. Do the same for the next step, and name that field Next step.
4. Add an abbreviation and a label. Type ;fup in the Abbreviation field and add a label like “Follow-up after a call” so you can find it in search later.
5. Use it. In any email or chat, type ;fup, fill in the person’s first name and the next step when TextExpander asks for them, and the full follow-up appears.

Two minutes to set up, minutes back every week

The ;fup Snippet takes about two minutes to create. At about 45 words, sent 10 times a week at 40 words per minute, it saves around 11 minutes of typing a week. That’s almost 10 hours a year from one Snippet, and it pays back its setup time the first day you use it.

Your first five Snippets work the same way. Ten minutes of setup, spread over a week, buys back hours of typing over a year, before counting the time you no longer spend hunting for the last version you sent. That’s why the customers in this article describe getting started as the easy part.

Dustin Hahn, an Inside Sales Rep on CompanyCam’s sales team, noticed the payoff almost right away:

Right after we got hooked up with the trial, I fell in love with it and how much time it was actually saving me. I didn’t have to keep typing repetitive things or worry about typos because I could just hit a few keys and everything gets typed out correctly.

Dustin Hahn, Inside Sales Rep, CompanyCam

When getting started takes longer than it should

Customers describe setup as quick, but these four situations can slow it down, so plan around them before you start:

• Your abbreviations are real words. If “thanks” expands into a paragraph, you’ll trigger it by accident. Start each abbreviation with a character you rarely type, like a semicolon.
• You build 50 Snippets on day one. A big library you can’t remember is harder to use than five you know by heart. Add Snippets as you notice repeats.
• Your company restricts what you can install. You may need IT to approve the desktop app before you can use it at work. Check with them first so you aren’t stuck halfway.
• A team rollout has no owner. Shared Snippets need someone to keep them current. Name an owner for each shared Snippet Group before you invite everyone.

Start with one message you’ll send tomorrow

Every customer in this article started the same way, with one or two things they were tired of typing. Kayce’s first few Snippets, Mario’s scripts, and Michael’s move from personal use to a whole department all began with a single message saved once.

Look at what you’ll send tomorrow. The reply you’ve already written a dozen times is your first Snippet.