Long text

How to type long text in a browser without manual typing

Long text has its own mechanics. This page is about the practical side of running a thousand words into a browser field — how to break it up, what speed to set, and how much of it a day's free allowance covers.

What "long" costs by hand

English runs at roughly six keystrokes a word once you count the spaces. That makes a 500-word section about 3,000 keystrokes and a 1,000-word piece about 6,000, before a single correction. Typing it into a browser field is not hard, exactly. It is just a long stretch of sustained, entirely mechanical work where the thinking was finished before you started, and every one of those keystrokes is a chance to introduce a difference between what you meant to enter and what ended up in the box.

Typist removes the keystrokes, not the text. You put the prepared text into the side panel, focus the field you want it in, set a speed, and press Start. It goes in at that pace while you do something else, and a progress indicator shows how far along it is.

Split it into sections

A single 2,000-word run is possible and usually a mistake. Run long text in sections — by heading, by chapter, by paragraph group — for three reasons that are all about control.

You can check as you go. After each section you look at the field, confirm it landed as you expected, and then start the next. Discovering a problem after 200 words is better than after 2,000.
You risk less per run. The word count is taken when you press Start, and a run you stop early still spends what it set aside. Four runs of 250 words that you abandon during the second have cost 500 words. One run of 1,000 that you abandon at the same point has cost 1,000.
The breaks are already there. Prepared text has section boundaries in it. Use them, rather than inventing a split point in the middle of a sentence.

Splitting does not change the total. A thousand words costs a thousand words whether it arrives in one run or six. What it changes is how much of that you can lose to a single mistake.

Keep the caret where it belongs

Typist types into the one field you have focused, so between sections the thing to watch is the caret. Click back into the field, check it is sitting at the end of what you already entered, then start the next section. It does not click, navigate, or move the cursor for you, which is exactly why it will not put a section somewhere you did not expect.

Snippets for the parts that come back

If the long text has a fixed component — a standing introduction, a disclosure block, a set of standard answers — that component belongs in the snippet library rather than in your clipboard. Save it once with a title, and it is one click into the panel on any device you are signed in on. Free accounts hold three; the snippets page covers the limits exactly.

Choosing a speed for a long run

For long text nobody is reading the field as it fills, so the readable speeds are not the point. At 250 wpm a 1,000-word piece takes four minutes; at 400 it takes two and a half; the fast steady mode is quicker still. The reason to come down from the top is a heavy editor doing real work per keystroke — if a run looks strained, stop it and set something slower. The speed control page has the full table of how long each preset takes.

What the free allowance covers

The Free plan allows 300 words a day, reset at 00:00 UTC. In practice that is one decent section, or two short ones. A 1,000-word piece does not fit in a day on Free — it is four days of allowance, or Pro at $4.99 a month for unlimited words. There is no partial credit: the count is taken at Start and stopping early does not return it, so on Free it is worth being sure of the text before you press the button. The pricing page sets out both plans.

Where Typist can put it

Editable browser fields: text boxes, text areas, rich-text editors, and Google Docs documents, which have dedicated support. If you have clicked something that is not an editable field, Typist declines and asks you to click into one.