Legacy Organization Accounts: What It Means To Have An “Open” vs “Closed” Organization

With a TextExpander for Teams account, team Members and Snippet Groups are managed in a TextExpander Organization. There are two main types of Organizations available, reflecting two types of data management:

• Closed Organization: The Organization owns all team Member and Snippet data; this includes both shared Organization controlled Snippets as well as Member’s personal Snippet Groups. This ownership means greater detail and accuracy in usage statistics. This feature is aimed to equip organizations with controlled removal of team Members and faster onboarding using an Organization Domain. A Closed Organization is required when using Single Sign-On (SSO).

Read specific details of the organization types in the TextExpander Terms of use.

• Open organization: Each team member is free to join or leave the organization once invited. They have their own private Snippets and own that data. When they leave the Organization they take their private Snippets with them. Admins can view the aggregated usage statistics of all Snippets used and can drill down to see specific Organization Snippet usage, but not private Snippet usage.

Note: All Organizations are Closed by default. Prior to June 13, 2019, unless they required SSO, all Organizations were Open. If you are unsure of your Organization type contact Support.

Why Have a Closed Organization?

A Closed Organization is made to give the TextExpander Organization more control over the team Members and Snippet data it pays for, particularly if users are frequently coming and going.

• The Organization owns all the Snippet data from all the team members. While members can have personal Snippet Groups which only they use, and which are not shared with anyone, these Groups are not fully private to them. Personal Snippets will be visible to Organization admins through Statistics.
• Team Members can be removed from the Organization by an Organization admin, they cannot remove themselves from the Organization. Once a team Member is removed, their data (for example, their statistics history) remains with the Organization.

To go along with a Closed Organization, we suggest keeping all Snippet Groups editable only by the Group’s admin and enabling an Organization Domain to ease onboarding. With an Organization Domain, everyone using your company email domain is joined to your Organization when they create a TextExpander account.

In addition, once a new team Member is part of the Organization you can add them to a Team, which gives them access to a preselected collection of Snippet Groups, saving you from sharing groups with them one by one.

How Do I Know What Kind of Organization I’m A Part Of?

If you are unsure of your Organization type contact Support.

If your company has instituted SSO for TextExpander, you are in a Closed Organization.

How Do I Make My Organization A Closed Organization?

Get in touch with your TextExpander account rep or our support team.

The transition to a “Closed” Organization will take no fewer than 14 days. We do ask for 30 days from the date of your initial request to complete everything. Here’s a sample timeline:

Stage 1: Begin transition

• You get in touch with our support team to request this change.
• Existing TextExpander team Members are notified via email of the change to a “Closed” Organization and what this means for their data. This notification period is required by the original Terms of Service the users agreed to when they signed up. They have 14 days to move their private data to a personal TextExpander account by:
  1. Exporting their non-work Snippets from their company TextExpander account
  2. Creating a separate TextExpander account and importing their private Snippets
• Existing TextExpander team Members using an Organization Domain email address, who are not currently a part of the organization, are also notified of the organization status change as mentioned above.

Stage 2: During the transition

• During this transition to a “Closed” Organization, existing team members can continue to move their private data out of their company account.

Stage 3: End of 14 days

• The transition is complete, your TextExpander organization now functions as a closed organization.