How to Improve Technical Support Using Canned Responses

Tips and Tricks: How to Use Canned Messages for Help Desk and IT Support and When Not to Use Them

For anyone in IT/Tech Support/Help Desk work, you see the same questions and responses repeating on a regular basis whether it's in email, live chat, or even Facebook support. Without software assistance, the sheer amount of time needed to type each response would overburden even the best staffed technical support team. Thankfully, this is where text expander programs like FastFox come in.

Commonly Used Support Canned Responses

While each company's common support needs vary quite a bit, there are a common set of responses that are nearly universally useful in technical & help desk support. The following, when used in conjunction with a readily available cheat sheet of information, will make providing support efficient and effective:

• Greetings
• Answers from company FAQ
• Requests for customer information
• Links to frequently used webpages
• Individual product pages
• Commonly needed tools, directories, parts
• Support phone #s and email addresses
• Delay/Apology message
• Refund request-response

How to Use Canned Responses Appropriately

So while text shortcuts provide much-needed relief for support members, all customer service agents need to keep in mind two things at all times when providing live support to avoid misusing canned responses:

1. Information Flow
2. Conversation Flow

When used appropriately, canned responses can be a helpful tool for agents to expedite the chat or to provide standard information. But agents must be sure that the information they provide actually addresses the customer’s question, and canned responses don't apply well in all situations.

Inappropriate usage of canned responses in response to questions can break information flow, which undermines consumer confidence that the agent actually understands the company products. It also puts additional responsibility on the customer to decipher the information to find the answer - any information that can be easily provided should be given without asking the customer to read through a webpage, e.g:

Customer: "What are the pricing options for [Service]?"

Bad: "You can find our pricing options here: website.com/pricing"

Good: "The basic service costs $X/mo, while our plus service costs $Y/mo. For enterprise applications, I will have to get you in contact with our sales team. To see the differences between the tiers, please read through the options here: website.com/pricing"

With the power of canned responses, both answers would take the same amount of time to type out, but the latter is significantly more informative and friendlier.

In terms of conversation flow, most help desk operators are usually trained to instantly open with a canned greeting the second they are connected in chat, e.g:

"Hello, my name is Nick, and I will be helping you today. What seems to be the problem?"

While it seems like a safe catch-all greeting, it fails to take into account potential conversation flows. Since many chat programs don't connect a user to support until they have placed the first line of text, many customers start with the problem first before getting connected.

If the customer has stated the issue already, and the first response is the one above, the "What seems to be the problem?" part indicates that the customer service representative has not read the customer's inquiry before responding.

Conclusion

Canned responses using text expanders like FastFox are a necessary and powerful tool for technical support staff, and when used properly, gain a customer's respect and confidence.

Click here for a quick lesson on how to set up shorthand text shortcuts for technical support responses.

Click on the link to download or purchase:

FastFox Shorthand Text Expander by NCH

8 Most Useful Canned Response Email Templates for Business

How to Send Business Emails Faster and More Efficiently With Canned Responses in Gmail, Outlook, or Thunderbird Using Text Expander Software

Prewritten, aka, canned responses have become one of the most important software tools available for any business professional, whether you are working in sales, customer support, or management.

With the sheer number of daily emails that come in for any successful modern business, there are common situations that can be handled with a well-written email template. Below are a few common ones for business use.

Example Business Email Templates:

Greeting/Inquiry

A polite but professional email opens the doors and sets the tone for future correspondence.

Hello [Recipient],

My name is [Name] emailing you on behalf of [Company] -

We are interested in your [Product/Service], and would like to know more about availability, pricing, and any bulk discounts you may offer.

Looking forward to your response.

Sincerely,
[Name/Email Signature]

Message Received, Will Respond Soon

Sometimes you are so overloaded with messages and tasks to handle that you might have to politely ask the other party to wait for a proper response. Instead of just leaving it off for later, acknowledging that you have received a response and telling them that you will respond will buy you time to formulate a proper email when you have time.

Hello!

Wanted to let you know that I have received your email and that I will respond shortly. Please forgive the delay, and know that a proper response is on the way.

Thank you!
[Name/Email Signature]

Invoice/Payment

A well-written invoice email may help get you your hard-earned payment on time with less hassle.

Dear [Client],

We are contacting you in regard to a new invoice [Invoice #] that has been created on your account on [Date Created]. You may find the invoice attached. Please pay the balance of [Amount] by [Date Due].

You can pay by mailing a check to:
[Company Name/Address]
or using our online payment option below
[Link to Payment Portal]

We look forward to conducting future business with you.

Sincerely,
[Name/Email Signature]

Bug/Order Error

Sometimes you or your business makes a mistake. No need to fret; acknowledging the error and making a commitment to fixing it reduces frustration and might prevent a bad review!

Hello [Recipient],

We have just reviewed your email. We're so sorry about the [Issue]!

I'm going to investigate what's going on and get back to you, and we'll make sure this gets fixed ASAP.

In the meantime, let me know if there's anything I can do to make sure you have a great experience with us and not let this hamper our relationship in the future.

Sincerely,
[Name/Email Signature]

Refund

Not every issue gets resolved successfully, and when that is the case, a refund is usually in order. Taking the time to write them a short letter alongside the refund just might convince them to come back at a later date.

[Recipient],

We have received and processed your request for a refund.

I'm sorry we didn't live up to your expectations and have completely refunded your charge. It will show up as a credit in your bank statement within the next business day or so.

Let me know if I can assist you further, and we hope to regain your business at a future date.

Thank you,
[Name/Email Signature]

Cancel Service/Ask for Refund

When a service you have paid for doesn't quite live up to your needs, it's time to request a cancellation and possibly a refund.

Hello,

I am contacting you in regards to account [Account Info].

Unfortunately, I am no longer in need of your service, and I want to cancel ASAP. Please let me know when it has been canceled alongside any billing notices associated with the account.

Thank you for your assistance,
[Name/Email Signature]

Reschedule/Cancel Appointment

Life and emergencies often get in the way of business, and when it does, it's polite to notify the other party as early as possible and offer them the ability to reschedule.

[Client],

I'm very sorry - something has come up, and am going to need to reschedule our appointment.

Let me know your availability. I will try to accommodate your schedule.

Again, sorry for the change of plans.
[Name/Email Signature]

Do Not Contact/Unsubscribe

When spammers or unsolicited emails find you, a hard stance is often needed to stop them from pestering you.

Hello,

I have tried to unsubscribe from your email list on multiple occasions with no success.

Please manually remove me from this list ASAP. Remove me from any corresponding lists as well.

I will start marking as spam any emails received from you from here on out.

(Optional) If this continues, I will have no choice but to report you to my Email provider as well as the FCC.

Thank you.

[Name/Email Signature]

Save 100's of Hours by Combining Email Templates With Text Expander Software 

Now that you have the email templates to use, save even more time by binding them to text shortcuts using FastFox Shorthand Text Expander. FastFox allows users to make keyboard shortcuts trigger full paragraphs, email signatures, and images to optimize your email response times!

To learn how to use FastFox for efficient business email management, read the following: How to Use Email Shortcuts for Your Business

Click on the link to download or purchase:

FastFox Shorthand Text Expander by NCH

Most Common Medical Shorthand Abbreviations for Medical Transcriptionists

Software Tips and Tricks: Abbreviations to Use in Text Expander Programs for Medical Transcriptionists

Text Expander programs like FastFox have made it into part of the core toolkit used by medical transcribers next to dictation software and foot pedals.

Such macro software has shown to improve output as well as reduce the number of mistakes, something highly important in an environment where minor typos can affect a patient's medical history and assistance from spell check/autocorrect tools is nearly non-existent.

Below is a list of the most commonly used medical abbreviations, organized by usage type and alphabetically. This list has been optimized for Medical Transcriptionists to use in FastFox Shorthand Software.

How to use this list:

• Read the How-To article on using FastFox for Medical Transcription, and add the shortcuts/words accordingly.
• Remember that usage of terms changes drastically based upon the specialty of the doctor; these are just the most common medical phrases in use. Use the save/load list function of FastFox to change your abbreviation list quickly and easily to match your client's needs.

Anatomy/Physiology

• CNS central nervous system
• CSF cerebrospinal fluid
• ECF extracellular fluid
• ENT ear nose and throat
• GI gastrointestinal
• GU genitourinary
• ICF intracellular fluid
• IM intramuscular(ly)
• RBC red blood cell
• SC subcutaneous(ly)
• WBC white blood cell

Compound/Chemical

• HLA human leukocyte antigen
• PMN polymorphonuclear leukocyte
• ACE angiotensin-converting enzyme
• ACTH adrenocorticotropic hormone
• ADH antidiuretic hormone
• ALT alanine aminotransferase 
• AST aspartate aminotransferase 
• ATP adenosine triphosphate
• BCG bacille Calmette-Guérin
• Ca calcium
• cAMP cyclic adenosine monophosphate
• CK creatine kinase
• Cl chloride; chlorine
• CO2 carbon dioxide
• CPK creatine phosphokinase
• CPK-MB creatine phosphokinase muscle bandisoenzyme
• DNA deoxyribonucleic acid
• D/W dextrose in water
• G6PD glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
• Hb hemoglobin
• HCl hydrochloric acid; hydrochloride
• HCO3 bicarbonate
• Hg mercury
• HMG-CoA hydroxymethyl glutaryl coenzyme A
• IgA immunoglobin A
• IL interleukin
• K potassium
• LDH lactic dehydrogenase
• Mg magnesium
• N nitrogen
• Na sodium
• NaCl sodium chloride
• NSAID nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
• O2 oxygen
• P phosphorus
• PPD purified protein derivative 
• RNA ribonucleic acid
• soln solution

Disease/Diagnosis

• ABG arterial blood gas
• AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
• BPD borderline personality disorder
• COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• DTP diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis(toxoids/vaccine)
• FUO fever of unknown origin
• GVHD Graft-versus-host disease
• HIV human immunodeficiency virus
• MI myocardial infarction
• RA rheumatoid arthritis
• SBE subacute bacterial endocarditis
• SIDS sudden infant death syndrome
• SLE systemic lupus erythematosus
• TB tuberculosis
• URI upper respiratory infection
• UTI urinary tract infection

Measurement/Test/Dosage

• bid 2 times a day
• BMR basal metabolic rate
• BP blood pressure
• BSA body surface area
• BUN blood urea nitrogen
• C Celsius; centigrade; complement
• CBC complete blood count
• cGy centigray
• Ci curie
• cm centimeter
• CT computed tomography
• Cu cubic
• dL deciliter
• ECG electrocardiogram
• EEG electroencephalogram
• ERCP endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
• ESR erythrocyte sedimentation rate
• F Fahrenheit
• Ft foot; feet
• G gram
• GFR glomerular filtration rate
• H hour
• Hct hematocrit
• Hz hertz 
• INR international normalized ratio
• IU international unit
• IVU intravenous urography
• Kcal kilocalorie
• Kg kilogram
• L liter
• lb pound
• M molar
• MCH mean corpuscular hemoglobin
• MCHC mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration
• mCi millicurie
• MCV mean corpuscular volume
• mEq Milliequivalent
• mg milligram
• MIC minimum inhibitory concentration
• mIU milli-international unit
• mL milliliter
• mm millimeter
• mmol millimole
• mo month
• mol molecular weight
• mOsm Milliosmole
• MRI magnetic resonance imaging
• Ng nanogram 
• Nm nanometer 
• Nmol nanomole
• oz ounce
• PAco2 alveolar carbon dioxide partial pressure
• PAo2 alveolar oxygen partial pressure
• PAS periodic acid-Schiff
• Pco2 carbon dioxide partial pressure
• PCR polymerase chain reaction
• PET positron emission tomography
• pg picogram
• pH hydrogen ion concentration
• Po2 oxygen partial pressure 
• ppm parts per million
• PT prothrombin time
• PTT partial thromboplastin time
• q every
• Sao2 arterial oxygen saturation
• SI International System of Units
• spgr specific gravity
• STS serologic test(s) for syphilis
• wt weight

Treatment/Care

• BR bedside rounds
• CPR cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• D&C dilation and curettage
• ICU intensive care unit
• IPPB intermittent positive pressure breathing
• IV intravenous(ly)
• Npo nothing by mouth
• OTC over-the-counter 
• po orally
• prn as needed
• qid 4 times a day
• SSRI selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
• tid 3 times a day
• TPN total parenteral nutrition

Click on the link to download or purchase:

FastFox Text Expander Software by NCH

How Text Expander Software Can Save You 100's of Hours a Year

How keyboard macro programs can increase productivity through typing shortcuts

If you work as a legal/medical transcriptionist, eBay reseller, customer relations manager, data entry clerk, programmer, or web designer - a simple text expander program can help you save many hours a week by creating text typing shortcuts to fill in common phrases or code strings in your workflow. Text expansion is a bit like auto-complete on a cell phone/Google — it allows you to enter a long string of text with a shorter string. When you’re using a text expansion app, it monitors your typing, and whenever you type a specific sequence of letters, it will replace those letters with a predefined piece of text. It could be your name, your address, or a full paragraph that you’ve saved.

Think of how many things you type over and over on a regular basis and the number of seconds it takes to write each phrase - text expansion allows me to type a few letters instead of that whole string of characters. Do the math - if you are in the medical transcription field, you are often typing long words that are hard to spell (and often don't register correctly with spell check). With a short setup period with the software, you can have several common diagnoses and descriptive sentences ready to go - a paragraph that would have taken a minute or two to type up can now be written in a few seconds!

With transcription usage covered, a couple of other examples:

eBay Seller:

Have a couple of different templates or common descriptions for your items? Save each one with a different string, and halve the time needed to make each listing and get more products up and running.

Customer Relations (CRM):

If you manage support emails or a business Facebook/Twitter account, you can have frequently used responses (Thank you for the comment, please leave us a review here; Sorry to hear about your issue with our product! For technical support, please go here; etc) saved and ready to go. It will certainly make qualifying for the Facebook Page Responsiveness Badge easier for your business page!

Data Entry/Programming/Web Design:

Have a particular formula, recursive loop, file location, or coding template that is referred to multiple times in your project? Text expanders don't just store letters, you can have common code snippets saved as well to save on development time.

Give our highly rated text expander a try: FastFox Text Expander for Windows and Mac

Features:

Text Expansion and Image Insertion

• Expand keyboard shortcuts into words or phrases
• Create an unlimited number of text shortcuts
• No limit on expanded text length
• Save plain text or formatted rich text expansions
• Create a shortcut to insert images 

Shortcut and Macro Creation

• Define macros for actions using special keys
  (i.e., Ctrl, Alt, and Shift)
• Create shortcuts from multiple key commands
• Use keyboard macros within any program
• Utilize a shared shortcut file on a network to standardize stock text across your business
• Back up and restore shortcut data and groups 

Intuitive Autocomplete

• FastFox learns your most commonly typed phrases and suggests them to you as you type, so you can select and insert text on the fly.

For a quick lesson on using FastFox, read this tutorial from WikiHow

Click on the link to download or purchase:

FastFox Text Expander and Typing Shortcut Software by NCH

Smart Text Auto Complete Software

With FastFox instant text expander you can improve your typing speed and productivity not only with personalized keyboard shortcuts and shorthand abbreviations, but FastFox also learns what you type the most often and will make suggestions for completing phrases as you type with a popup alert in the corner of your screen. Just like the regular hotkey shortcuts, the auto complete feature will work while you type in any application, so you can select, insert and finish text phrases on the fly.

Bring the power of auto complete to all your typing with FastFox word expander software.

Everday Text Expansion

What do you type the most? your email address? your mailing address? maybe your phone number? or your web address? Are there any words you struggle to remember how to spell causing you to slow down and correct misspellings or typos? Or maybe you frequently browse to webpages just so you can copy and paste the links to make sure you get them correct.

We are all constantly typing, from emails to forms online, and some of the things we are typing we have to type all of the time. FastFox text expansion software lets you save those words or phrases so you can not only enter them in faster, but also avoid typos. Think of it like auto complete that will work anywhere on your computer, or like a super powered clipboard that can save much more than just one snippet of text at a time. You pick your own shortcuts and what they are short for, then whenever you type the shortcut it will be automatically replaced. So, typing something like :em could be all you need to type to enter your email address, or you could just type :sig to add a signature to the end of an email, a comment you're making on a forum. Anywhere you type, if you enter one of your text shortcuts FastFox will automatically replace it with the expanded text.

The possibilities are endless, you don't need to be a typist or transcriptionist to find things that would make useful text shortcuts, just think, what do you type the most often? Once you've created shortcuts for those common items and phrases you will wonder what you ever did without them. Spend less time typing with this fast, everyday solution.

Speed Up Typing Using Keyboard Shortcut Software

FastFox text expander software used to insert your most commonly used text quickly and easily. Expand words, phrases, images, and more to avoid typing things repeatedly and improve your typing speed and productivity.

FastFox is perfect for everyone whether you are saving shortcuts for the correct spelling of complex terminology, storing email templates and answers to FAQs, or even save your address to fill in online forms more quickly. To help you get started we just put together a tutorial video to walk you through setting up your own keyboard shortcuts and introduce you to the autocomplete text suggestion tool.

Download the free trial today. Once you get started using FastFox shorthand text expander to speed up your typing, you'll wonder what you ever did without it.

Productivity Increase on Ebay with FastFox

These days it's impossible to go anywhere without running into someone who's bought or sold something on Ebay. At any given time there are over 100 million active auction listings and each one of those was added by a seller. That's a lot of hours of work if you have several items you are selling on Ebay. I have been a seller on Ebay, and the biggest annoyance and time waster for me was repeatedly typing similar Ebay listings. Or at least it was until I found FastFox.

FastFox is a text expander for Windows or Mac. A text expander, or textexpander, is a form of shorthand software that allows you to paste a chunk of text by typing in a predefined shortcut term. This is much more valuable than a normal copy and paste feature because it can hold many shortcuts each with it's own text value associated with it. How a typing expander works is you set your shortcut term, then set your expanded text in FastFox, and once you type the shortcut term in any browser or program you have instant text conversion to the expanded text.

Now you must be asking "How can this help me to be faster when listing on Ebay?" Well, if you're like me you've dealt with listing hundreds of similar products at one time. Repeatedly typing similar text into my listing software feels like a waste of time. What I like to do is create FastFox shortcuts for all of my auction elements that are the same or remain very similar, and then make small edits as needed. It has quadrupled my productivity while listing.

My example deals with selling baseball cards. I would list a couple hundred baseball cards on Ebay at one time. All of them were from the same year and all of them were similar quality of cards. An auction title read something like: "1961 Topps - Harmon Killebrew #80 - Excellent Condition." The only things that would change in each new auction was the player's name and the card number. With FastFox I could create a basic shortcut that said: "1961 Topps - # - Excellent Condition" and fill in the other information for each card. As soon as I typed in my shortcut, "TITLE," I had most of it finished.

Where this really picked things up was in the category and description of the auction. All of my auctions were in the same category, so filling that out was as simple as typing one shortcut. It really helped to not have to go through and find the correct category. It also eliminated me putting a few cards in the wrong category. Lastly and most important was the description. No more Description Builder! With FastFox I could create a description one time and simply enter the shortcut and add in the player's name and card number. This new way of listing products really sped up my Ebay auction listing process and ended in higher profits over a shorter timeframe.

Learn more about FastFox typing expander on the NCH Software website.

Be Fast as a Fox with FastFox Text Expander Software

Hello! I'm Audrey. I just started working in the sales department at NCH Software about a month ago, and I already found my new best friend; it's FastFox Text Expander Software! You see, I send out a lot of emails answering sales inquiries, so instead of typing the same information over and over again, I assigned my email letter to a unique word in Fast Fox such as "salesinquiry". All I have to do is type my unique word/shortcut and BANG it expands to the five-paragraph email like magic. How brilliant is that? I wish I had known about this wonderful software earlier in my career. My tasks would have been a whole heck of a lot easier!

So take my advice and start using FastFox to be more efficient, like me! Simply download the free trial of FastFox Text Expander Software and you can immediately start creating your own shortcuts that will expand to a word, phrase, paragraph or more. Use your new shortcuts in emails, word documents web browsers and more to speed up all your typing tasks. Once you get started you won't want to ever type without it again.

Software You Didn't Even Know You Needed

Technology has become a huge part of our daily lives, and I am sure you could pretty easily come up with a list of devices or applications that you simply couldn't live without. But with so much technology out there, I'll bet there are programs out there that can make your life easier or more efficient that you never even thought to go searching for. The software surprises listed below will quickly climb to you must have list once you give them a try.

Shorthand Text Expander Software

Ever find yourself typing the same words, phrases or paragraphs repeatedly? Stop typing things over and over again with text expansion software. You might not think much about what you type out all the time, but if you really stop to think about it, I'm sure you could find multiple ways to use keyboard shortcuts that would save you time. Anything from inserting signatures in emails, filling out online forms, and writing long responses to customer questions don't need to be more than a few keystrokes away, instantly improving your typing speed and productivity.

Invoicing Software

Managing invoices is a never-ending process, and if you're doing them all by hand or in Excel you might be spending more time on invoicing than you need to. Invoicing software like Express Invoice allows you to set up automatically recurring invoices, where invoices can be automatically generated and sent as e-mails or faxes from the program. Express Invoice has other time saving features including mobile access, reminders for payments past due and storing item information to eliminate repeat data entry.

Timesheet Software

Another way to make invoicing easier for freelancers and other businesses that charge by the hour is using timesheet software to not only create a timesheet but track the amount of time spent on individual projects or clients.

Automatic FTP Uploading Client

Every web designer already knows that an FTP client is a must, but not all FTP clients are created equal. I personally couldn't live without Fling Automatic FTP Software, which can be used to automatically detect and upload changed files to keep files synchronized. Fling can also be used to upload files from your right click menu, so you can upload a change live without needing to open and browse through your files in the FTP client separately.

File Converter Software

If you've ever had trouble opening up an audio or video file, then you already know how helpful it can be to have a file converter on hand. With Switch Audio Converter, you can convert and compress sound files within minutes of downloading. For video files there is Prism Video Converter, plus Pixillion Image Converter, for images and Doxillion Document Converter to convert document types. Combined these software converters can help you get out of just about any file format compatibility problem.

Break Free From The Groundhog Day Typing Tedium

Most people are familiar with the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray gets trapped living the same day over and over again. While it is a funny film, I can't help but sympathize with his frustration and how hard he tries to break out of the routine and tedium of living the same thing over and over again. One thing I like about my job is that every day is different. It is nice to have different things to do to help keep things fresh, but even more dynamic jobs can have a hint of a repetitive undercurrent. On the bright side, using FastFox text expansion software helps reduce some of the monotony by helping you get through some of those tasks faster. By saving frequently used text such as answers to common questions, descriptions of the company or various products, or even phrases that you are bound to misspell or waste time correcting, you’ll get on to the next challenge quicker. And since Punxsutawney Phil forecast an early spring, using FastFox shorthand software also means you’ll get to enjoy spring sooner.

7 Programs You Can't Live Without

Prism Video Converter If you've ever had trouble opening a video file, you need Prism. Prism will let you quickly convert any troublesome video files into a more manageable format. With more formats supported than any other video converter, you'll be hard-pressed to come across a video file that Prism can't handle.

Switch Audio Converter There are a lot of different audio file formats out there, and a lot of places you might want to keep your favorite music, from CDs and iPods to your computer or online, just to name a few. Make sure you always have the right format for every song and every application with the Switch Audio Converter.

FastFox Typing Expander Ever find yourself typing the same things over and over? FastFox can be a huge helping hand at home or at work. Use keyboard shortcuts to expand to anything you commonly write and save time inserting signatures in email, filling out online forms, and writing long responses to customer questions.

Debut Video Capture Whether you want to transfer the video from a camcorder to your computer, are trying to record a video from your webcam, or even recording your screen, Debut is your single software solution for capturing video.

Express Burn Disc Burning Software Burn pictures, home movies, resumes, portfolios, or back up your files to CDs, DVDs and even Blue-Ray discs in a variety of file formats with Express Burn. Simply drag, drop and burn.

PhotoStage Slideshow Creator Bring your digital photos to life and share your favorite memories with family and friends. Tell a compelling story, display your best images, or show off your proudest moments. PhotoStage lets you combine images, video clips, music and narration in a fun and dynamic fashion.

WavePad Audio Editor No list would be complete without one of our all-time favorites: WavePad. WavePad is the perfect application for any audio project in the sound studio or at home. The easy-to-use interface will have you up and running quickly with all the powerful tools you need at your fingertips.

Stop Typing the Same Things Over and Over Again

Have you ever noticed that there are some things that you type all of the time? Some of the most common things that I find myself typing all of the time include the company description of NCH Software, a signature for when I leave comments on blogs or forums, and even a couple of answers to FAQs that seem to be constantly popping up in my email inbox, just to name a few. Being able to store these pieces of text with FastFox Text Expander is a huge help. Instead of looking up the information from the last time I answered a question, or wasting the time to write the whole thing I've typed a million times before all over again, I just need to type a couple characters and FastFox automatically expands that keyboard shortcut I chose into the complete answer/description/signature that I stored. Then I can quickly move on, or make minor edits to the text for the specific situation, and still be done in a fraction of the time.

Text Expansion Software is often sold to transcriptionists because of the boost it provides in typing efficiency. It really is an invaluable tool for helping medical and legal transcriptionists transcribe faster and reduce errors with long or complex terms and jargon, but truth be told, almost anyone can find things that they themselves type repeatedly and can benefit from having an application like FastFox to reduce this constant repetition in typing.

Transcription Made Easy: an Express Scribe Tutorial

You've heard us say it before, and we'll continue to say it until everyone knows: Express Scribe makes transcription easy. Why is that? Is it because it has variable speed playback? Yes. What about efficient file management? Of course. Can you use it with a foot pedal? Absolutely. Will it do all the typing for you while you run to the grocery store? Well...not quite, but there are many time-saving features built in so you can get to those errands (or plow through that long list of files quickly).

Thankfully, Express Scribe users out there are sharing their knowledge of the ins and outs of efficient Express Scribe transcription. The most recent example is a post at makeuseof.com entitled How to Transcribe Audio & Video Files Into Text with the Help of Express Scribe. With this blog-style tutorial, you'll learn how to:

• use the basic features of Express Scribe such as loading and playing files
  
• use the variable speed playback feature
  
• set up hot-keys so you can use Express Scribe while in other programs
  
• configure a default word processor to work with Express Scribe
  
• and more

Download Express Scribe for free and use the tutorial to see how easy transcribing can be. You can practice using our free practice transcription files. Then, when you're ready to go pro, use our other typing utilities to save you even more time: FastFox text expander will insert frequently used words, phrases and paragraphs so you don't have to type them over and over; TexTally word counter will make billing and invoicing a breeze; and see our other Dictation and Transcription software for more valuable tools.

FastFox Word Expander - Complete Medical Transcription Quickly & Easily

One of our oldest and most popular applications is Express Scribe transcription playback software. This is a popular transcription software utility for typists but it is only of the applications we have that a transcriptionists should consider for their arsenal. Anyone who does large volumes of typing for anything from a legal office to medical transcription or customer support where you need to type out the same thing repeatedly will also find the FastFox Typing Expander a priceless typing utility.

If you are looking for a faster way to type out complex phrases or more efficiently download FastFox Typing Expander then create your own shortcut hot key commands for all the common phrases, words or responses you want to store. Add complex legal or medical terminology to reduce misspelling and mistakes for added efficiency.

1. Open FastFox and click on the green '+' icon, or press CTR+N (CMD+N on Mac) to create a new shortcut.
   
2. Enter the shorthand abbreviation for the shortcut in the "Keyword" field
   
3. If you need complex formatting such as color, font and weight (e.g. bold or italics) select "Rich Text" from the drop down menu.
   
4. Place your complex medical term or other text in the "Expansion" field
   
5. Save and repeat for all the terminology you want shorthand expanders for
   
6. Then with FastFox running in the background you can use your new shortcut in any word processor, your shorthand will automatically expand for you.
   

Tip: Avoid using common words for your shortcuts since every time you type one of your shortcuts FastFox will expand it with your linked text.

Do we use our own software?

In one word... Yes.

NCH Software has two office locations, one in Denver Colorado and the other in Canberra, Australia. Both locations are set up with the Axon Virtual PBx and the IVM Call Attendant. In some cases employees have extensions on both PBx systems. This allows us to call between the offices on IP Phones for no cost at all.

Someone in the Australian office can just pick up their phone and dial and extension allocated to me in the Denver office, the same if we were only located on different floors of the same building.

If I need to make a call to another business in Australia I can pick up my phone, press my Australian extension and dial a number in Australia and the call we be charged at local call rates instead of international call rates.

FastFox Text Expander is an application that nearly all staff have installed on their PCs and Macs. Our support and marketing teams use it for common responses, signatures, URLs, phone numbers and addresses.

FlexiStation is installed on all computers and we can track our work hours, log leave requests and generally see how our time is spent at work.

Our finance department works with Express Accounts to keep track of incoming and outgoing cash flow for the companies and our sales department uses Express Invoice to create quotes and invoices.

I personally use Debut Video Capture to record webcasts and KeyBlaze Typing Tutor typing tutor because sometimes two fingers for a keyboard just doesn't quite cut it. In one way or another we all use some of the software at home and in the office. Even though we have a testing department sometimes the best way to find a hidden problem, or the best suggestion, when it comes to software is to use it on a day to day level.