HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

How I Saved 250 Hours Using TextExpander

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

writing

shutterstock__Keyboard_1156391230TextExpander is a software plugin that I use every day when I write. The app takes strings of text that I use often and generates them using shortcuts, so I don’t have to type them each time. These “snippets” in TextExpander lingo save me time and allows me to focus on the important parts of my writing.

I’ve created over 100 snippets for strings of text that I type frequently. For example, each of my book titles is a snippet. My mailing address is a snippet. My speaking topic descriptions are a snippet and so is my bio. My polite “I don’t accept guest posts on this blog” email is a snippet (I get a dozen or so requests from people who want to write a guest post on my blog each week). The URL for this blog is a snippet. Even my full name - David Meerman Scott - is a snippet.

Text Expander statsAll I do is to set up a snippet enter the shortcut I designate (for example, for my bio I type dmsbio, and TextExpander drops the full text into whatever I’m typing – an email, this blog post, or anything else.

My friend, product management guru Steve Johnson, introduced me to TextExpander about 15 years ago. I don’t recall his exact words, but I like to imagine he said: “TextExpander will change your life”. If Steve said that, he was correct!

TextExpander has a neat “statistics” tab. In the past 15 years of using TextExpander nearly every day, the stats say I’ve expanded more than 47,000 snippets, have saved typing nearly 6 million characters which translates to nearly 250 hours of work.

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