Reusable text
Stop retyping long text in your browser
Some text you type once and forget. Other text you find yourself producing again and again, word for word, into one browser field after another. That second kind is worth saving.
What people actually retype
- Drafts written elsewhere. The piece exists in a desktop editor or a notes app and has to end up in a browser-based one.
- Notes. Research, meeting notes, a list of points you keep folding into other documents.
- Templates. A standing paragraph or set of terms that goes into every new record.
- Reports. The same framing text around numbers that change, week after week.
- Standing replies. The answer you give to the question everyone asks, typed fresh each time because it lives nowhere in particular.
The common thread is that the words are already settled. Producing them again is mechanical work, and mechanical work is what a tool should be doing.
Save it once: snippets
A snippet in Typist is a titled block of text saved to your account. It syncs to your other signed-in devices, so something you saved on a desktop is waiting on a laptop without you moving a file. Pull it into the panel, click the field it belongs in, press Start. The rules are worth knowing before you build a library:
- Free accounts keep three snippets. Pro keeps as many as you want.
- Editing a snippet you already own never counts against the limit, so a template you revise every month stays one snippet forever.
- If you drop from Pro back to free, the snippets you have are kept and keep syncing. You simply cannot add new ones until you are back under three.
- A saved snippet is the one case where your text reaches the Typist server, and it only happens because you pressed save. Everything else in the panel stays on your device. The privacy page is exact about this.
The snippets page goes into how people organise them.
Then put it wherever it needs to go
Typist types into editable browser fields: ordinary text boxes, text areas, rich-text editors built on editable page elements, and Google Docs documents, which have their own dedicated support. Click somewhere it cannot work with and it says so and asks you to click into a text field instead of failing silently. The auto typer overview lists what is covered.
It types into one field at a time — the one you have focused. It does not click, navigate, switch tabs, or fill a form's worth of fields in sequence. That narrowness is deliberate.
The routine, once it is set up
- Open the side panel on the page you are working in and sign in with Google, which is required before typing.
- Load the snippet you want, or paste fresh text into the panel.
- Click the field on the page where the text belongs.
- Choose a speed — 20 to 400 words per minute, presets at 40, 60, 100, 150, 250 and 400, default 60 — and a pacing mode: the varied pace with short pauses at punctuation, or the fast steady mode, which drops the pauses and runs roughly eight times quicker.
- Press Start. A progress indicator shows how far through the run is, and you can pause, resume or stop at any point.
For anything where the pace itself matters rather than just the finishing time, typing speed control is the page to read.
What the plans allow
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Words per day | 300 | Unlimited |
| Saved snippets | 3 | Unlimited |
| Speed and pacing control | Included | Included |
| Pause, resume, stop | Included | Included |
The daily allowance resets at 00:00 UTC, and words are counted the moment you press Start — a run you stop early still spends what it reserved. Three hundred words covers a standing reply or a template comfortably and a long draft not at all. Details on the pricing page.
Free plan: 300 words a day. A Google sign-in is required before typing.
Questions
- How is a snippet different from just keeping a text file?
- It is in the panel where you need it, already attached to the field you are about to type into, and it syncs to your other signed-in devices. No window switching, no hunting for the file.
- Can I change a saved snippet?
- Yes, and editing one you own never counts against your limit. A template you revise monthly stays a single snippet.
- What happens to my snippets if I cancel Pro?
- They stay, and they keep syncing. You just cannot create new ones until you are back under three.
- Does it work in Google Docs?
- Yes. Docs has dedicated support in the extension, because a Doc is not an ordinary text box. See auto typing in Google Docs.
- Can it fill in several fields for me?
- No. One field at a time, the one you have focused. Typist does not move between fields, click, or navigate.
- Do I have to sign in?
- Yes, with Google, before any typing happens. The permissions requested are your account identifier and your email address, nothing more.
If the problem is one big piece rather than a recurring block, see retyping a long draft or entering an essay into Google Docs.