Typedesk – Increase your productivity with this typing tool

Are you looking to become more productive in your typing? If you answer emails, write answers in general, or just communicate, you know how time consuming it can be. Writing the same answers over and over again with slight adjustments can be frustrating. Today’s product showcase is TypeDesk, a productive writing tool that via templates, can help you become even more productive. So without further Ado, let’s dive into TypeDesk and let me show you the platform.

We are now inside the platform of TypeDesk. It is a very simple platform and it’s easy to use and the design is very well optimised. Here you can see that we have a list of all of our canned responses that we can easily copy paste into whatever programme we want to use it in. Now, what I will recommend you doing first is setting up your account, because whatever you write on your account, you can use automatically in your responses. In here you set your first name, last name, what your role is, and your business name.

1. Features of TypeDesk
2. TypeDesk pricing
3. Alternatives to TypeDesk
4. Future of TypeDesk
5. TypeDesk Use Cases
6. Pros & Cons using TypeDesk
7. My experience using TypeDesk

Features of TypeDesk

Furthermore, we have subscription and settings up here. In the settings it is just very simple right now you can make a quick search shortcut, which is alt + C right now and then you can easily find your canned responses. But there is also a search up here, so it is up to you whether you use shortcuts or not. When you just sign into TypeDesk, you have already some responses made for you already. These you can use just to test out or to see how you really utilise and use TypeDesk.

I have created this one myself and I have bookmarked it up here so I can easily, basically just press enter and now I have copied it to my clipboard. I can then taste it into wherever I need this response. However, this one has a GIF of Homer Simpson saying WooHoo, it is not possible everywhere to use this GIF. For instance, if I go to a Google docs here and I press command V, you can see that the GIF of Homer Simpson did not make it to the Google Docs.

So just be aware of this, if you’re using GIFs or images, it can be that it’s not possible to paste it into where you need it. But while we are in Google Docs, I want to show you the Chrome extension that they have made. Up here you can basically see that I have more or less the same view as we saw just before with all of my responses here. If I want to use one of these responses again, I just press enter and then you can see that it automatically for me. Inserts the text into my Google Docs.

Basically, it just insert where the cursor is right now so you can use it wherever you are on the internet. Right now they only have a Chrome extension, so if you’re using Safari, you have to be a bit patient or just use Chrome until they have a Safari extension. They do have desktop apps as well, and soon they will also have the mobile apps, as I will also mention briefly later in the video. Now we are back in TypeDesk here and I want to show you how easy it is to create a new response. In here we give this response a name, I will call this one YouTube video.

Down here we can then type in the text we want. So here we can say Hi, and here I’m missing a variable as the visitor or the receiver’s name. But right now it’s not possible. So I’ll just not put anything in.

I can put like a dummy variable, but of course I don’t have to. Then we basically just start typing out. Over here you can see we have some general variables. We have some dynamic variables, and then we have custom placeholders, and these custom placeholders can be anything from a gender to morning afternoon conditional. So let’s say that I don’t want to say Hi.

I want to say good morning or good evening based on the time. So what I would do is I would remove Hi, I would go in here and then say when it’s morning, it has to say good morning and when it’s afternoon, it has to say good evening. And then I’ll just insert variable and you can then see up here my variable has been inserted. I will just make a little space between and now we have the good evening or good morning.

Depending on the time that this template is using. I will then write some simple text, here I want to insert a date. What I can do is then I can add the date here as a variable or of course I can just type it in. So let’s say that I send an email every Monday.

Then I know that the last time I sent an email was a Monday. So I’ll just say seven days ago and then insert variable. Here it will be replaced with the date. Now I will just say regards, and then I will add my full name. I will add my role and I will add my business name. And these three elements was what I shown you in the beginning of the video where it is that we enter our full name, we enter our business name and our role.

It will now take that information and plot into the template. But here you can see that we have a very simple template. We can make it more advanced if we do want to. We can add random values. We can even add a select with multiple options where it is that we choose what options we want to use in our template.

Now another element I want to show you is variants. Variants can be used for multiple things. Let’s say that you have the same answer, which is adjusting slightly on some elements. You can make a variant with each of these adjustments, so you have a variant for exactly your needs. It can also be that you want a variant in English.

You want one in German and one in French. That is also possible within the variant. Basically, it can be whatever you need it to be. The last element here is settings.

Here you can choose whether you want to be able to use this specific response with a shortcut. It can be signature. It can also be how are you? And then you can add a private note that only you can see about this template. This can be a short description describing what this template can be used for.

Last but not least, you can choose whether to be copied as plain text or as HTML. Often when you use images or GIFs do not enable this one. Otherwise it will not look good when you copy and paste it. But when we are satisfied, we can then save the response and now it’s ready to be used. What I can do is I can press enter and we have now copied it.

I am now inside Google Docs and I’ll just press command V and you can see right now it’s saying Good evening, the receiver name. I need to fill out myself and then how are you? I haven’t heard from you in a while. Last I heard from you were Thursday. Down here you can see that it says regards my name, my role, and my business name.

This is how easy it is to build out the responses, use them and you can even make them more advanced. As I just shown you.

TypeDesk pricing

Now let’s take a look at the pricing structure. It is very simple. It consists of two plans. You can either use TypeDesk completely free where you have ten canned responses per month, or you can upgrade to the premium plan, which only cost $4. When you do look at the functionality and everything that TypeDesk brings to you the $4 are very fast earned home.

Alternatives to TypeDesk

Now moving on to the alternative to TypeDesk. It is TextExpander and PhraseExpress. These tools are very similar. However, the design we see within TypeDesk I do enjoy a lot more. Now another thing I want to bring to the table is you have to remember that mail programmes themselves can often do what it is. TypeDesk is actually offering us here.

However, when we do look at the mail programmes, it can be sometimes limited and sometimes more personalised. For instance, I’m using Spark Mail app and within that app I can really personalise the templates that I built. I can even use the name and the information from the email that I received. Doing this, I can make my response even more personalised than we can see right now within TypeDesk, so it will be interesting to see how TypeDesk will stay relevant in the future, especially if these mail programmes will keep on improving their templates.

Future of TypeDesk

Now, when we look at the future of TypeDesk, they are working on a lot of different elements. As you can see here.

Now, three things that I really noticed is that they’re working on a mobile app so we can use TypeDesk on all of our mobile devices and still be productive. Furthermore, they are working on attachments in our templates. So when it is you build out a canned response, you can add a file to the canned response, which means that when you use that response, the file will automatically be attached to the actual response. Last but not least, they’re working on additional user fields. See, I would like them to take a step further and then add custom fields so they don’t have to add specific fields, but we can choose what fields we find relevant for all of our colleagues and ourselves.

TypeDesk Use Cases

Now I want to share some use cases with you where it is I find TypeDesk relevant. However, for type is to really be integrated as a part of all of our systems. We need integrations to come to TypeDesk.

Now the first use case is if you are a customer support team. TypeDesk is perfect for you because often within a customer support you write a lot of the same answers. So if your colleagues or yourself can basically just copy paste answers and TypeDesk will automatically fill out the fields which are variable. Then you will save a tonne of time. But for this to be even better, it should be an integrated part of the customer system that you are using for all of your customers. Another use case can be if you’re a social media manager, you often receive a lot of messages on all of your social media.

If you can use TypeDesk to answer all of these messages, you have time to answer even more messages because you can use all of these templates. Here we can’t really use an integration in the same way we can with customer support. However, you can still use the copy paste functionality, which will still save you a tonne of time. Now the last case I want to share with you is if you are an email warrior. If you answer a tonne of emails every day, there is a good chance that you write some of the same emails, maybe with slight adjustments.

Here TypeDesk is perfect for you because you can basically copy and paste all of the answers you need into your emails. So what would take five to six minutes before now takes less than a second. And if you add that up in the end of the day, that’s a lot of time.

Pros & Cons using TypeDesk

Now moving on to the pros and cons of TypeDesk starting with the pros. They have a beautiful and to use design I can add GIF’s to my answers and they have a Chrome extension that works very well. Whereas for the cons, I’m missing integration to my mail app, I’m missing a Safari extension. I would like to be able to customise my own shortcuts and I can’t use variables from the receiver.

My experience using TypeDesk

With TypeDesk, you save an enormous amount of time if you find yourself writing the same answer or email over and over again. The flexibility within TypeDesk is fantastic.

And with the mobile app coming up, I’m only missing a Safari extension in order for me to be complete. Overall, I will give type at four stars. But yea that is my review of TypeDesk. I hope that you liked the video and if you did, please give it a thumbs up. If you have any questions to TypeDesk or other products you would like me to review, please leave a comment down below.

Thank you so much for watching. Let’s catch up on the next one.