Best Free Boilerplate Text Manager

Boilerplate text managers allow you to store and insert commonly used phrases into your e-mail, documents and other programs. For example, rather than typing "We have received your order," you can select the phrase from a list, press a hotkey, or type a brief shortcut text command, and it will be automatically inserted without you having to type the whole thing. These things are immensely useful. I save about 30 minutes a day by using one.

I use an old copy (version 3.0 "Lite" from 1999) of a commercial product called Perfect Keyboard which is excellent, but have not been able to find a freeware equivalent. The previous editor of this category recommended Phrase Express.  It does have an impressive feature list: it has no limit to the number of insertion items, it allows multi-line inserts, it can handle nesting of inserts within inserts, it allows the insertion of names, dates and other variables within inserts, it allows abbreviations to be automatically expanded, and more.  However, not only did I not enjoy using it, but as I've learned from the reviews over at SnapFiles, the program actually monitors what phrases you use and if it thinks that you're using it for commercial purposes by looking at the content of your phrases, it'll nag you.  Although I find any program that monitors the behavior of it's users, especially in order to present nags, detestable, I do give the makers credit in disclosing this behavior on the PhraseExpress website.

So, you may be wondering what freeware program I do recommend.  Sadly, I have not found one that I can fully and wholeheartedly recommend.  The old edition of Perfect Keyboard Lite that I'm currently using (it's almost 10 years old!) isn't free. Perfect Keyboard was never free, which is a shame because I'd recommend it in a heartbeat if it was. So I'm on an ongoing hunt for a new program to recommend here, one that offers the same simplicity and basic features as Perfect Keyboard Lite v3.0, but is completely free with no catches. Namely it has to have an easy to use and understand interface, doesn't require knowledge of a complex scripting languange in order to use, allows macros to be triggered by either a text shortcut or a hotkey (a text shortcut would be like .sig to insert a signature), allows for non-text keystrokes (like TAB and ENTER) to be used along with text, and resides in the tray area.

Now, I've done some looking around and tested out a few freeware alternatives, but so far none of them can do what I'd consider the BEST to be able to do. Here's what I tested and a few very brief notes of what I thought of each after some quick testing. Of course, feel free to try them out as they may suit your needs quite nicely.

TagKeys - As of version 2.2, there's no way to increase the width of the main window, no option to pass text through the clipboard on a per item/tagkey basis, and it doesn't allow for hotkey triggers.  I'm not too found of the interface (I'd love to minimize it to the taskbar for when I'm working with it concurrently with other programs), but with some work this could just be the best freeware option. A few features are only available to registered users: import and backups - and apparently you can't create a new "tagset" either (that's a group of "tagkeys") unless you're registered! If it can be determined where the program stores your data, that file can be backed up and restored manually, thus getting around two of the registered-only features. Still, it would be nice if ALL of the features were available for free, especially the ability to create new tagsets.

FlashTray - As of version 4.0, it could have been good, but it tries to do too many other things. Although you can remove most of the junk from the menu, you still would need to do some unusual maneuvering to get to the Hotkeys area - and when you do, it's a really tiny window with not all of the options spelled out for you (it seems to be able to handle non-text keystrokes, but it doesn't give you a quick list of the supported keys).

A few other programs I tested, but could instantly see that they were not something that I'd recommend include: LifeHacker's Texter, AutoHotKey, Ka Type In, HotKeyz, and MacroMaker.

If anyone is curious as to what I'm looking for, here are some screen shots from Perfect Keyboard Lite v3.0 from 1999: Main Screen & Macro Properties - Tab 1, Macro Properties - Tab 2, Macro Properties - Tab 3, and Macro Properties - Tab 4.  If you find a freeware program like this, be sure to send me an e-mail. It'll be brought to my attention quicker via e-mail then if you post a comment here.

Phrase Express
Website: http://www.phraseexpress.com
Download link: http://www.phraseexpress.com/download.htm
Author: Bartels Media
License: Freeware/Nagware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None

TagKeys
Website: http://www.tagkeys.com
Download link: http://www.tagkeys.com/downloads.htm
Author: Valutilities.com
License: Freeware/Shareware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None

FlashTray
Website: http://www.blacksunsoftware.com/flashtray.html
Download link: same as homepage
Author: Blacksun Software
License: Freeware
Operating Systems Supported: 2000/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Unknown
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: None

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Paul Rudoff.  Registered users may e-mail him via this form.