Introduction

Boilerplate text managers allow you to store and insert commonly used phrases into your e-mail, documents and other programs.

For example, rather than typing "We have received your order," you can select the phrase from a list, press a hotkey, or type a brief shortcut text command, and it will be automatically inserted without you having to type the whole thing.

These things are immensely useful. I save about 30 minutes a day by using one.

Rated Products

PhraseExpress  

Has an impressive feature list with no limit to the number of insertion items, multi-line inserts, auto expansion of abbreviations and more.

Our Rating: 

4

License: Free (Private/Educational use)
Platforms/Download: [field_blackberry_download] | iOS | Mac OS | Windows (Desktop) |
Version reviewed: 12
Gizmos Freeware

Our Rating: 4/5 4

Summary:

No limit to insertion items, multi-line inserts, nesting of inserts within inserts, insertion of names, dates and other variables within inserts, abbreviations auto expanded, etc.

Monitors what phrases you use, Nagging if detected using it for commercial purposes.

Read more...

License: Free (Private/Educational use)

No limit to insertion items, multi-line inserts, nesting of inserts within inserts, insertion of names, dates and other variables within inserts, abbreviations auto expanded, etc.

Monitors what phrases you use, Nagging if detected using it for commercial purposes.

Read full review...

Tagkeys  

Auto-insert text and graphics by simply typing a 'tag'.

Our Rating: 

4

License: Free (Limited features)
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) |
Version reviewed: 2.2
Gizmos Freeware

Our Rating: 4/5 4

Summary:

Some tagsets, such as for HTML, Zip Codes, SQL Basics,etc., are available.

Limited window size, no option to pass text through the clipboard on a per item/tagkey basis, doesn't allow hotkey triggers, some features restricted to registered users.

Read more...

License: Free (Limited features)

Some tagsets, such as for HTML, Zip Codes, SQL Basics,etc., are available.

Limited window size, no option to pass text through the clipboard on a per item/tagkey basis, doesn't allow hotkey triggers, some features restricted to registered users.

Read full review...

FlashTray Pro  

Functions as a boilerplate text manager using keyboard macros in addition to being an app launcher.

Our Rating: 

3

License: Free
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) |
Version reviewed: 5.0
Gizmos Freeware

Our Rating: 3/5 3

Summary:

Seems to be able to handle non-text keystrokes, but without a quick list of the supported keys.

Need to do some unusual maneuvering to get to the Hotkeys area, a tiny window without all options spelled out.

Read more...

License: Free

Seems to be able to handle non-text keystrokes, but without a quick list of the supported keys.

Need to do some unusual maneuvering to get to the Hotkeys area, a tiny window without all options spelled out.

Read full review...

Other Programs

Other Programs To Be Reviewed:

Perfect Keyboard (Free Edition), type fast, fill forms, and automate data entry of all kind with this text expander for Windows.

Other Programs Tested but Not Recommended:

A few other programs I tested, but could instantly see that they were not something that I'd recommend include: LifeHacker's Texter, AutoHotKey, Ka Type In, HotKeyz, and MacroMaker.

Related Products and Links

You might want to check out these articles too:

• Best Free Web Form Filler/Password Manager
• Best Free Clipboard Replacement Utility
• How to Copy and Paste in the Windows Command Prompt
• Tiny Utility Quickly Converts Clipboard to Plain Text

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