They have many names. The dictionary calls them boilerplate text, but you’ll also find them as stationery, AutoText, templates, canned text or text macros. The idea is always the same: type a text once – use it many times.

How many times are you typing the same answers again and again to customers that are asking always the same questions (probably ignoring any FAQ)? Test it! For the next twenty answered mails, pause for a second and think if you didn’t write that answer (complete or in parts) before. You’ll see that it happens more often than you thought.

Having canned text or text macros handy can be a great time saver and taking a little effort organizing the text can quickly pay off. You just have to start it and the more boilerplate replies you have ready, the more time you can save.

Read the in deep discussion of the uses of boiler plate text is in the article Thomas Holtz (reproduced here with permission of the author) published in the September issues of the ASPects, the monthly magazine of the ASP.

Read the full article: boilerplatetext.pdf (40KB)

Technorati Tags: Boilerplate text, text substitution, technical support