Quick Start (start here)

TextWisely is ready to use out of the box with powerful features like actions, personas, and behaviors — but it’s also highly customizable.

Here’s a quick overview of what you can explore:

1. Initial Setup – Learn about settings and app configuration options

2. Core Concepts – Actions, Context, Shortcuts, Personas, Behaviours

3. Using the App – Practical workflow examples for daily writing tasks

4. Updating the App – Stay up to date with improvements and feature releases

5. Sharing Feedback – Help us improve TextWisely

⚙️ Initial Setup

TextWisely works great right after installation, but to get the most out of it, take a moment to explore the Settings – that’s a great way to understand what’s possible:

• Customize or create actions

• Define default behaviors and personas

• Set keyboard shortcuts

• Adjust app-wide preferences

🧠 Core Concepts

⚡ Actions

Actions are at the core of TextWisely. They apply transformations to selected text and work with attached context. TextWisely includes several pre-configured actions like "Fix Grammar" or "Write Email".

You can:

• Use built-in or create your own actions

• Customize prompts, behavior, tone, and language

• Trigger them from the action panel, menu bar, or keyboard shortcuts

→ Learn more about Actions

🔁 Context

Some actions can take additional input (context) in addition to entered text. For example, the "Reply email" action can use an email thread to generate the most suitable response based on the thread (context) and your draft (entered text).

To attach context, select some text before opening the app using the default keyboard shortcut “⌘\” or "Show app" from the menu bar. Actions that do not support context will use the selected text as their input.

⌨️ Running Actions

There are multiple ways you can trigger actions:

• Via the action panel: using the "⌘\" shortcut or "Show app" in the menu bar

• From the menu bar

• Custom keyboard shortcuts

→ How to assign shortcuts

⚙️ Behaviors

The Behavior setting controls what happens after an Action triggered by a keyboard shortcut or from the menu bar runs:

• Replace Selection

• Show Chat

• Copy to Clipboard

→ Compare behavior types

🎭 Personas

Personas help tailor tone and language for an action:

• Use pre-built or create your own

• Apply per-action or switch ad-hoc “⌘/”

• Optional, but powerful for writing styles

→ More on personas

📋 Action Defaults

If you generally don't require multiple personas or distinct behaviors per action, you can set action defaults in the General Settings tab. These defaults will then apply to any actions that do not have a specific persona or behavior selected.

✍️ Using the App

TextWisely is perfect for single-sentence edits or multi-paragraph rewrites (much like this guide, which was rewritten with TextWisely).

Common Workflows

☑️ Fix Grammar

Select text and use a keyboard shortcut to execute the "Fix grammar" action. The selected text will be replaced with the corrected version.

• Persona: None (Neutral) – will not change tone or text style

• Behavior: Replace Selection – fixed text will replace the selected text

✨ Improve Text

Select text and use a keyboard shortcut to execute the "Improve text" action. The selected text will be replaced with an improved version.

• Persona: None (Neutral) – will not change tone or text style

• Behavior: Replace Selection – improved text will replace the selected text

✉️ Write an Email

Type your email draft, select it, and execute the "Write an email" action. A chat window will display an email based on your draft. Refine it or use as is. You can also use this action to reply to an email by selecting your draft response along with the entire email thread; the generated email should then be based on the full thread context.

• Persona: Friendly Pro – Uses friendly yet professional tone

• Behavior: Show Chat – displays the email to allow for refinement

📤 Reply to Email

Select the email thread and trigger the "Reply to email" action. Then, enter your reply draft to receive a polished response.

• Persona: Friendly Pro – Uses friendly yet professional tone

• Behavior: Show Chat – displays the action panel with the action preselected, awaiting your reply draft

🗣️ Change Tone

Open the app and select the "Change tone" action. Use the persona picker to select the most suitable tone of voice, then submit. The text will be rewritten, applying the selected persona's voice.

• Persona: Select from picker

• Behavior: Usually not needed, as this action is best used from the action panel. However, you can apply a specific persona and "Replace Selection" behavior to always change text to the selected persona.

🇺🇸 Translate to English

Select text in a different language and use a keyboard shortcut to execute the "Translate to English" action. The selected text will be replaced with the translation.

• Persona: None (Neutral) – will not change tone or language

• Behavior: Replace Selection – translation will replace the selected text

✏️ Custom Ad-hoc Actions

For one-off text modifications, simply open the app and type your request in the message area, then submit it. You can also select text before displaying the action panel to attach it as context to your ad-hoc request.

🔄 App Updates

You can manually check for updates from the menu bar. However, we recommend enabling automatic updates in the General Settings tab to be notified of new releases, as we ship them frequently:

• Enable automatic updates in General Settings

• Check manually from the menu bar if needed

💬 Sharing Feedback

We love hearing from you! TextWisely is in active development, with features being shipped regularly. The best way to share your feedback is through our public feedback board:

• 💡 Share ideas, bugs, and requests

• ✉️ Email us: hi@textwisely.ai

• 📢 Follow us on X @TextWisely & LinkedIn

✅ You’re All Set!

Explore, experiment, and adapt TextWisely to your workflow. Share your experiments with us on X @TextWisely & LinkedIn.

Happy writing 🎉