I’m a bit of a productivity fanatic- almost to a fault, as I’ll spend quite a bit of time on something that will help me accomplish a task. It works well, but when it comes to the time spent vs. the payoff, sometimes it’s questionable. With that in mind, I wanted to push out a TextExpander Public Group – a new feature for TextExpander 6, Smile Software‘s ultimate time-saving tool.

What is TextExpander?

TextExpander is a text expansion program (surprise!) for multiple platforms. It allows you to create abbreviations that expand to full bits of text or code as you type – they can be as simple as !hi changing to “Hi there!”, or as complex as !policy expanding into a twenty-paragraph, HTML friendly version of a privacy policy. From autocorrect to code and even AppleScript, it’s a great tool that I 100% suggest you invest in for yourself or a company. Note that I’m not getting paid or reimbursed in any way – I just really like it. 🙂

Sales pitch aside…

What is a Public Group?

A Public Group (linked above) is a set of these abbreviations that can be added to TextExpander 6, free of charge. They add extra features and give you quick links to whatever you set them to do.

What is the WordPress TextExpander Public Group?

The WordPress TextExpander Public Group is a group specifically designed for self-hosted, WordPress.org users. Right now it won’t work on WordPress.com or another blogging platform.

What it does is provide quick access to the most important part of your WordPress installation, saving you time clicking through administration screens and other options.

As an additional fun-fact, this was the first Public Group published by someone other than TextExpander, so… I finally get to say “FIRST!” 🙂

How do I set it up?

First, make sure that you have TextExpander 6 installed on your device. Then, head over to the TextExpander Public Groups page, find the WordPress Group, and click Subscribe. It will first load into your web portal and within a couple of minutes appear in your app, ready to use.

Alternatively, you can try TextExpander’s direct link here.

After you’ve subscribed to the group, you’ll see the “WordPress” section a Shared section on your app’s sidebar. You need to do one additional step to make this work – you have to add your URL to a custom snippet.

Adding your WordPress site’s URL

In your TextExpander app or through the web portal, add a New Snippet with the abbreviation wp.site – have it expand to your WordPress site’s base URL. Do not include any trailing slashes, meaning https://example.com/yoursite is fine, but https://example.com/yoursite/ is not.

NOTE: If you have anything other than /wp-admin/ set for your Administration section, you’ll need to create an additional snippet called wp.admin. In this snippet, add the full link to your WordPress Dashboard (INCLUDING the trailing slash), i.e. https://example.com/wp-admin/

Using the WordPress TextExpander Public Group

Once you’ve added your URL to the custom snippet, you’re all set to go! Go to your browser bar and enter any of the snippets to be taken to specific areas of your WordPress installation. You’ll of course need to be logged in to your site to see any of the administration screens. This should save you a lot of unnecessary clicking and waiting for pageloads.

What else is included?

In version 1.0 (written November 3rd, 2016), WordPress version 4.6.1 and WooCommerce version 2.6.7 have been tested and are included. Check out the sections below for future plans and changes.

Is there a quick reference I can look at aside from this page?

You bet! In a text editor of your choosing, use the snippet wp.help – this will return an abbreviated version of this guide, as well as a list of the included snippets and where they go. It will be updated, along with this page, if changes are made.

Available Snippets

Version 1.0, Updated November 3, 2016

Planned Changes

• Add links for Jetpack features.

Support, Requests, Suggestions, & Improvements

If you have any trouble using the WordPress TextExpander Public Group or see ways that it could be expanded or improved, fill out the contact form below to get in touch, and thanks for using it! 🙂