What is text expansion?

Text expansion saves time by turning shortcuts into pre-written content. It keeps your responses accurate, up-to-date, and personalized, boosting your team’s productivity.

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Text expansion is a shortcut for your typing

Powered by software that runs in the background on your computer or mobile device, text expansion tools allow you to set up a library of predefined text called snippets that can be expanded.

Here’s how it works:

Create and store your company’s most used messaging, emails, and more within your text expansion tool

Customize it with things like today’s date, fill-in-the-blank fields, timestamps, and more to personalize it

Expand it wherever you type with just a few keystrokes on any device, across any app you use

Share it with your team so they also have easy access to the content they need every day

Benefits of using text expansion

The goal of using text expansion is simple: get yourself and your team back to doing what’s most important for your business. But how does text expansion help you achieve that?

Here are the top benefits of text expansion

Saves time by reducing keystrokes

Streamline and speed up everything you type — text expansion allows you to store common customer responses, signatures, and even forms within the software. You can then access it through search or by typing a quick shortcut. You stop writing the same things over and get back to the important stuff.

Eliminates repetition from everyday work

Repetitive typing can consume up to 19 working days a year. With text expansion, you can save your most repetitive messages so all you have to do is type a short abbreviation and the rest is done for you.

Increases consistency and accuracy

Stay consistent, accurate, and current without losing the human touch. Create a library of templates that are easily accessible, always up-to-date, and tweaked to perfection. Fill-in fields allow you to personalize every message so every communication is accurate and personalized.

Share knowledge with anyone who needs it

Get information out of silos and into the hands of everyone that needs to use it. Share knowledge across departments so everyone can expand the right message whenever they need it. Update messaging in one place, and it updates everywhere, so your team is always on the same page.

More ways to leverage
TextExpander for your team

Customer support

Delight more customers

Give your customer support team the power to do what they do best without losing the human touch.

  • Resolve customer requests more quickly and consistently
  • Create a knowledge base that expands with just a few keystrokes
  • Reduce burnout and onboard new reps in a fraction of the time

Recruiting

Source candidates faster

Communicate with candidates fast. Reach them wherever they are — email to ATS to LinkedIn.

  • Respond to candidates quickly within any platform
  • Align & optimize your communication with candidates
  • Eliminate repetitive copy&paste responses across platforms

Sales

Close more deals, faster

Reach more sales prospects and your outreach goals in record time using just a few keystrokes or a quick search.

  • Send cold emails and follow up with leads in a flash
  • Get repetitive administrative work out of the way
  • Train new sales agents and keep messaging consistent

Healthcare

Embrace your calling, not the paperwork

Reduce the time you spend filling out clinical notes and reports and get back to what you were trained to do.

  • Save common patient responses and medical codes to access quickly
  • Share team-reviewed medical knowledge in one place
  • Update your team on industry or regulatory changes in one spot

It took 12 hours to get through a day’s support requests before TextExpander. Now I handle 100 tickets in less than five hours.

Abdelhamid Fakhri
Happiness Contractor

What to look for in a text expansion tool

Shopping for text expansion tools? Here are some important things
to look for when searching for the best tools for your team.

Available to use everywhere

The best text expansion tools work on any devices and platforms – wherever you work, you’ll need to have access to your content. Find a text expansion tool that is accessible on all platforms like Windows, Mac, Chrome, iOS, and Android.

Sharable

Text expansion tools are great to use for yourself, but the true power of text expansion happens when you share it with your team. This means everyone always has the right message at the right time and uses the most up-to-date and compliant content.

Secure

The security of your content is of the utmost importance, which is why you need to make sure the text expansion tool you choose never stores or sends your keystrokes anywhere and is fully encrypted. Certifications like SOC-2 Security and GDPR compliance are a bonus to keep you at ease that your data is safe and secure.

Personalizable

Use fill-ins like optional sections, drop-down menus, and more to add a personal touch to every message and to avoid mistakes like copy/pasting the wrong name into your message or forgetting to replace filler text.

Customizable

While text expansion tools have many features to improve productivity, sometimes you just need something a little more sophisticated. Look for a text expansion tool that allows scripting like AppleScript, JavaScript, and shell scripts for even more powerful automation.

Advanced Team Features

You have many options when searching for a text expansion tool, and if you’re looking for a solution for your team, you’re going to need advanced features to take your productivity to the next level. Look for features like user management through SSO and SCIM provisioning, advanced user reporting, integrations, and customized training to get the most out of your text expansion tool.

Looking for a more in-depth checklist to guide your search? Download the full checklist of what to look for today!

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Hello,
I hope this finds you well and thank you for your email. We’ve forwarded your request along to our sales representatives who can help you explore the best options for your team. Please let us know if we may help with anything else in the meantime.

Thank you!
John

John Smith
TextExpander Customer Service Representative
TextExpander.com

Reach out:
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Thanks for reaching out to learn about how to create a Snippet group; we can certainly help with that! I’ve included the instructions below for you. Let us know if you need anything else, and feel free to check out our learning center for more TextExpander tips!

Creating a New Snippet Group
To create a new Snippet Group, choose the New Group icon to the right of the search bar in your TextExpander app or choose File > New Group from the menu bar.

You can add Snippets to the group by choosing the New Snippet icon in the toolbar or choose File > New Snippet from the menu bar. You can also drag snippets from one group to another. See Creating, Editing, Deleting Snippets for more details on creating Snippets.

Great to hear from you! The best way to schedule a time to chat is via my Calendly Link. Feel free to select a 30-minute window that fits with your schedule and I look forward to speaking soon.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Questions about text expansion

Text expansion is a process that replaces repetitive typing tasks with shortcuts that expand when you type a few keystrokes. Powered by software that runs in the background on your computer or mobile device, text expansion tools allow you to set up a library of templates that you can easily insert anywhere you type.
A text expansion tool is the software or application that powers the process of text expansion. It allows you to create snippets from your common repetitive text that can be expanded wherever you type with just a few keystrokes or a quick search.
These tools allow you to utilize, customize, and add your own snippets to help you quickly add any copy you use frequently. To trigger a text expansion tool, you’ll need to type out the shortcut for the text you’d like to replace. Each snippet is linked to a template that will then replace your shortcut automatically.
While text expansion is the process of expanding, TextExpander is the powerful tool that facilitates that process. You can download TextExpander to your desktop or add an extension to your Chrome, and then it will run in the background whenever you work on your computer to expand your snippets whenever you type your abbreviations or activate search.
Everyone has different needs when it comes to text expansion, and different options have different positives and negatives. If you’re looking for a text expansion tool that expands on any device you work on and if you are interested in using text expansion for your team, TextExpander is a great option.
Getting started with text expansion is easy! We might be biased, but we suggest heading to TextExpander.com or searching for TextExpander in your Google Chrome store and downloading TextExpander on your device. Our onboarding will get you started quickly so you can expand your first snippet within minutes.
The goal of using text expansion is simple: get yourself and your team back to doing what’s most important for your business. Among its benefits, text expansion saves you time by reducing keystrokes, eliminates repetition from everyday work, increases consistency and accuracy, and allows you to share knowledge to get your team aligned.
Yes. Lots of it, and the best text expansion tools will allow you to access your stats to prove it. If you are used to rewriting the same response to a question on repeat, or copying and pasting the same piece of content you recycle every time you need it, text expansion will vastly cut down your workflow. You’ll just need to type out your snippet and the tech will instantly fill out the rest.
Text expansion tools are a major asset to anyone’s arsenal if typing is part of what you do. It can be used in many different industries and job roles like customer support, sales, recruiting, healthcare, and more. It’s especially useful for people who type a lot of the same things over and over again, for example, creating patient reports, responding to customer questions, or reaching out to sales prospects or job candidates. Basically, if you use a keyboard, text expansion can fill in any communication that you ask it to.
Text expansion works by allowing you to store commonly used phrases in the tool, and then expanding those phrases when you type a quick abbreviation or search. If you’re looking for info on specific features in a text expansion tool, check out our features.

Questions about where text expansion works

To use a text expansion tool in Chrome, head over to your Chrome extension store, search for the tool you want, click on it, and select “Add to Chrome” in the right-hand corner. Once the tool is installed, set up your snippets and get started saving time!
Before you can use a text expansion tool on your desktop, make sure the text expansion tool you choose has that option. Many tools are built as Chrome extensions only, so you would only be able to use them when online. TextExpander has a desktop option for both iOS and Windows that will allow you to use the app online and offline, whenever and wherever you need.
Yes, most text expansion tools will work in Google Docs. All you need to do is install the tool, open your Google Docs, and start typing. When you want to expand your snippet, type your abbreviation or type the search command and search for the snippet you want, and it will expand in your doc.
Yes, most expansion tools will work in your email. All you need to do is install the tool, open your email client, and start typing. When you want to expand your snippet, type your abbreviation or type the search command and search for the snippet you want, and it will expand in your email. Some expansion tools that are extensions will only work in your email if it is in a browser. TextExpander’s downloadable app will allow you to use your text expansion wherever you type, even if your email client is an app on your computer.
Yes, most expansion tools will work in your CRM. All you need to do is install the tool, open your CRM, and start typing. When you want to expand your snippet, type your abbreviation or type the search command and search for the snippet you want, and it will expand in your email. Some expansion tools that are extensions will only work in your CRM if it is in a browser. TextExpander’s downloadable app will allow you to use your text expansion wherever you type, even if your CRM is an app on your computer.
Yes! TextExpander is currently building our mobile text expansion experience, and we have an Android app in beta. Learn more about TextExpander mobile.
Yes! TextExpander is currently building our mobile text expansion experience, and we have an iOS app in beta. Learn more about TextExpander mobile.

Questions about text expansion security

Every text expansion tool has different capabilities and security measures. We can speak to the safety and security of your information within TextExpander specifically – our tool is SOC-2 and SOC-3 certified, data is encrypted and we employ many other security features and practices to protect you and your organization’s data. Learn more about TextExpander security.
Every text expansion tool has different capabilities and security measures. We can speak to TextExpander specifically and say that no, TextExpander is not a keylogger. TextExpander never stores or sends your keystrokes anywhere. TextExpander logs up to 30 keystrokes to volatile memory, and up to 300 keystrokes when you have Snippet Suggestions enabled. This small amount of keystroke data in memory enables TextExpander to do its filtering. TextExpander clears the keystroke log when you use a keyboard shortcut or arrow key when you switch applications, and of course, it clears the log when you quit. Using TextExpander does not compromise your privacy. Learn more how TextExpander handles your snippet security.

Put your knowledge at your fingertips

Eliminate repetition and save time so you can get back to doing more important things. Once you try text expansion, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it!

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