Use Text Expanders to Email More Efficiently

We all waste a lot of time writing out emails. Many of these emails say the same basic thing, too, when you’re following up on something, sending an introduction, or emailing a process explanation—and it can be mind-numbing to type it all out over and over again. But you actually don’t need to repeat common messages all the time, nor do you need to frequently copy and paste: Instead, try a text expander to quickly send out pre-defined paragraphs and get your day moving faster.

You have a few different options, but in general, they work the same way: You type one word to trigger the insertion of another, pre-written sequence of words.

Text expansion on Gmail and Outlook

If you’re using a standard email server, like Gmail or Outlook, you can easily access a text expander. For Gmail on a browser, try Gmail Snippets, which lets you create keyboard shortcuts to trigger pre-defined blocks of text. For instance, you can set it up so that \gr triggers your standard greeting, like, “Hi! My name is Lindsey and I’m the features editor at Lifehacker. It’s nice to meet you, even by email! I’m reaching out today to…” I type that exact message all the time, and you probably have similar greetings and intros you could insert with just three keystrokes, too. It’s free, and comes with both a snippet library and the ability to edit and create unlimited snippets. If you pay $4.99 per month, you can also access email and phone support.

If you use Microsoft Outlook, the text expansion functionality is already built in. It’s a feature called Quick Parts, which you can add into your emails from the Text group of the Insert tab. When you want to add a block of text to your selection of building blocks, highlight it, go to the Insert Tab, click Quick Parts in the Text group, and click Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. A dialog box will open, allowing you to give the text a name, category, and description.

Android text expanders

For text expansion on an Android phone, you can select from a few apps:

• Typing Hero is a free app that you give permission to run in the background, then allow to detect keywords. Set keywords within the app to trigger blocks of text when you need them.
• Textpand is available for free, but limits you to using 10 phrases. We recommend upgrading to the pro version for $2.99, because the app is great. You can choose to exclude specific apps from using text expansion, so you’re free to use your keyword phrases when texting without worrying you’ll accidentally send a friend a block of text that was only meant to populate in a work email.

For iPhone and Mac users

If you use an iPhone or Mac, text expansion capabilities are built right in. Open Settings > General (iOS) or System Settings/System Preferences (macOS), hit
“Keyboard,” and choose “Text Replacement” (iOS) or “Text” (macOS). From there, you can assign trigger phrases to automatically insert whatever text you want.

It’s generally good practice to make the trigger phrases unique. For instance, when I want to insert my email address in a text, I type “lgmail” for “Lindsey’s Gmail,” because if I set it to just “gmail,” I’d never be able to type that word in peace when I’m trying to just refer to the email app itself. Try starting trigger phrases with a symbol you don’t often use, like ^ or {.

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