There is a particular kind of writing that eats your week without ever feeling like work. The sign-off you type forty times a month. The disclaimer that has to go at the bottom of every quote. The three sentences explaining your cancellation policy, typed out again, slightly differently, for the ninth time this fortnight.
None of it needs thought. All of it needs typing. That is precisely the sort of job worth handing to software.
The short version: save a block of text against a spoken trigger phrase. Say the phrase on its own while dictating and PeekoType types the whole block, exactly as saved. Nothing fires by accident, because a trigger only counts when it is the entire thing you said.
How it works in practice
You create a snippet with two parts: a trigger phrase such as "insert signature", and the text it stands for. From then on, saying "insert signature" and stopping produces the whole sign-off, formatting and line breaks intact.
It works wherever dictation works, which is anywhere you can type. Email, Word, a CRM box, a chat window, a form on a website. There is no integration to configure because it is simply typing on your behalf.
The snippets worth creating first
People tend to overthink this and end up with none. The trick is to notice what you have typed twice this week.
- Your sign-off. Name, role, phone number, company, the lot. This is the one everybody creates first and it pays for itself within days.
- The explanation you always give. Your lead times, your policy on deposits, how your onboarding works, what happens after someone books.
- Standard legal or compliance text. Disclaimers, confidentiality notices, the paragraph your regulator insists appears on everything.
- Addresses and long details. Office address, bank details, registration numbers. Anything where a typo actually costs you something.
- The polite no. Declining an invitation, an unsolicited pitch, or a request you cannot take on. Written once, carefully, when you were not irritated.
Five snippets covering genuinely repetitive text will save more time than fifty you never remember you made.
Choosing a trigger phrase
Two rules, both learned the hard way by anyone who has used text expansion before.
Make it distinctive. "Signature" on its own is a word you might genuinely dictate. "Insert signature" is not something you say by accident. The verb at the front does the work.
Make it memorable. A trigger you cannot recall is a trigger you will not use, and you will type the paragraph out by hand while dimly remembering you automated it once. Say the phrase out loud when you create it. If it feels natural to say, you will remember it.
The rule that keeps it safe
A snippet only fires when its trigger is the complete utterance. Say it alone, and stop.
So if you dictate "I will insert signature blocks into the template later", every word is typed as ordinary text. The trigger only activates when there is nothing else attached to it.
This is the same principle behind spoken punctuation commands and voice editing, and it is what lets you leave all three switched on permanently without ever bracing for a surprise.
Snippets and vocabulary are a pair
Text snippets solve repetition. Custom vocabulary solves recognition. Together they cover the two things generic dictation software cannot know about you: what you write repeatedly, and what words you use that nobody else does.
Both live on your own machine, both take five minutes to set up, and both pay back that time within about a day of real use. If you only do one thing after installing dictation software, do these two.
Who gets the most from it
Anyone with a high volume of near-identical correspondence. Estate agents sending the same viewing confirmations. Small business owners quoting the same terms. Therapists and clinicians writing structured notes with a standard preamble. Solicitors with standard clauses.
The pattern is always the same. If you have ever thought "I have typed this before", it belongs in a snippet.
Getting set up
Snippets live behind the Manage link next to the Text snippets toggle in the Smart output panel. Add a trigger and its text, save, and it works from your next sentence. Changes are staged until you press Save All, so you can experiment without breaking anything.
The full walkthrough, including every button in the editor, is in the user guide.