Special Text Boxes

by minimus

View on WordPress.org

71 Quality Score

Active Installs

14/30

With only 2,000 active installs the user base is small but respectable for a single-purpose formatting tool.

Update Freshness

25/25

The plugin was updated on 30 June 2026, signalling an actively maintained codebase that earned a perfect maintenance score.

User Rating

10/15

A 68 out of 100 from 21 voters is a passing grade but trails behind most top-rated plugins, hinting at usability or feature gaps.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads, zero resolved, means there is no public track record of help, which is risky if you run into trouble.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Tested up to WordPress 7.0 and requiring PHP 7.4, the compatibility score is at the maximum, covering modern setups.

Scores higher than 26% of indexed plugins

About

Highlights any portion of text as text in the colored boxes.

Active Installs 1k+

Rating ★★★ 3.4/5

Last Updated 2026-09-13 11:25am GMT

Requires WordPress 5.6+

Tested Up To 7.1

Requires PHP 7.4+

Security History

3 known vulnerabilities, all patched

1 High 2 Medium

Most recent: September 24, 2024

View details ▸

What It Does

Special Text Boxes lets you wrap portions of content in shortcodes so WordPress renders them as styled, colour-coded boxes (info, warning, download, etc.). It is a lightweight visual formatting tool rather than a full page builder. The plugin ships with predefined styles and a settings page to adjust colours if needed.

Who It's For

This is a good fit for bloggers, tutorial writers, and small business sites that want to draw attention to tips, disclaimers, downloads, or callouts without touching CSS. It works well for content-heavy sites where a consistent visual language for asides matters more than deep customisation.

Who Should Skip It

If your theme already includes well-styled info/warning blocks via Gutenberg patterns, a block editor plugin, or full-site editing, this overlap is unnecessary. Developers building bespoke shortcode libraries will also find it too rigid for production work.

The Bottom Line

Special Text Boxes is a tidy, recently updated utility that does one job, with an overall quality score of 72.48 out of 100. The lack of public support threads and the very modest install count give pause to anyone relying on it for a high-traffic site. Treat it as a convenient shortcut, not a strategic investment.

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