Lesser-known features

Shortcuts & Tips

Labs

Enable Tumblr Labs to enjoy some experimental features, as mentioned in our blog post.

Post by extension

For posting something you find online without leaving the page you’re on, download the Tumblr extension for your browser. Chrome users can head here, and Firefox users can download it here.

Just click the extension icon on your browser's toolbar to open a post form in a new window. It’ll be pre-filled with things from the page you’re looking at, including source information (one less thing to worry about). Add anything you want to the post, then either publish it immediately, queue it for later, or save it as a draft.

@mentions

Get someone’s attention by shouting their name. Type @their-username in a post or reply. When you publish, they’ll hear you calling in a notification.

Add inline images from the web

Paste an image’s URL into the post form and poof, the actual image appears in its place.

Change default text editor

If you use Markdown or HTML for all of your posts, you can choose to make either of those the default text editor in dashboard settings. You can always flip back and forth while you’re making the post. This just saves you a click.

Keyboard shortcuts

Throw away that pesky mouse. Type shift + ? while you're on the dashboard to see all our keyboard shortcuts, and type "j" to activate.

Inexplicably, keyboard shortcuts also work in our mobile apps if you have a bluetooth keyboard connected—but you’ll have to memorize them ahead of time.

Subscribe to a Tumblr

You can subscribe to a blog you follow to get notifications whenever it’s updated with a fresh post.

Tap on the person-shaped icon in the upper right corner of a blog you follow (or on the web, hover over a blog’s avatar and click the person-shaped icon). Then, tap or click “Get notifications.” You can also subscribe by visiting their URL and clicking the "Get Notifications" button that appears in the top, right corner of the screen. If you’ve subscribed to a blog, you’ll see a small lightning bolt next to the person-shaped icon when you view that blog.

To stop notifications, tap or click the person-shaped icon again and tap “Stop notifications.” If you unfollow a blog, you will no longer be subscribed and notifications will stop.

Dog ear

Click the dog ear to go directly to the post’s permalink. Hover over it to see the post’s timestamp. Hover over, move off, hover over, move off, hover, move, hover, move to watch the dog ear fold down over and over again. That’s all.

Mass post editor

Face it. You've been lazy about tagging your posts. Fix months of neglect with minutes of work by using the Mass Post Editor. It’s an archive view of your blog where you can select any or all of your posts, then re-tag them or delete them.

Select your blog from the account dropdown in the header. Mass post editor is at the bottom of the sidebar.

URL tricks

• Archive: cheezbag.tumblr.com/archive
  
  A quick view of everything on a blog. This one’s useful when you’re looking for a particular post, or if you just like squares. You can filter by month and year, or post type to help narrow your search. This won't work if your blog is hidden from the web though.
  
• Tagged: cheezbag.tumblr.com/tagged/<tag>
  
  Shows all the posts on a blog that have been tagged with that tag. Works on any blog. Well, any blog that uses tags.
  
• Chrono: cheezbag.tumblr.com/tagged/<tag>/chrono
  
  Variation on a theme: orders posts with a particular tag in chronological order.
  
• Date: cheezbag.tumblr.com/day/YYYY/MM/DD
  
  See only posts made on a specific date. Maybe you posted a bunch of things from New Year’s Eve but you have a very particular tagging system that can’t be messed around with.
  
• Random: cheezbag.tumblr.com/random
  
  Loads a random post from that blog. Do it again. There’s another one. Do it again. Yeah you got it.

See other users' likes and following lists, and share your own

This is a fun one if you find yourself liking or reblogging a lot of someone’s posts. You can see what they like at tumblr.com/liked/by/username, and see who they follow at tumblr.com/followed/by/username. To share the things you like and Tumblrs you follow with others, flip the switches in your blog settings on the web, or tap the palette icon when viewing your blog in the app adjust the settings there.

Two factor authentication

Protects your account from ne'er do wells. We text you a secondary passcode every time you log in so that even if a hacker steals your password, they still won’t be able to get into your account. Unless they also stole your phone. Moral of the story: don’t hang out with hackers.

We also support authenticator apps, if you’d rather use one of those. More info about this great security feature here. 

Lesser-known iOS features

 

Fast reblog and fast queue

If you’re not going to add a reblog comment, touch and hold the reblog button to skip the post form and save yourself precious seconds. One thing about this: the post will get reblogged to the most recent blog you posted to. Not a problem for most people, but be mindful if you switch between blogs a lot.

If you have Labs enabled, turn on FastQueue and hit the clock button that appears next to reblog. Boom, you've just sent that post to your queue.

Smash cache

Smash the cache to free up extra memory on your phone—it should run faster and crash less. Tap the account tab (the human), then "Settings," then smash your cache.

Interactive notifications

Slide your Tumblr notifications to reveal their hidden functions. On the lock screen, on the home screen, on any screen except Tumblr app screens—because that’d be redundant.

Share extension

This is a really useful one when you find a website you want to link to, or have a photo in your camera roll you want to post—it’s a little like the desktop bookmarklet. Thing is, setting it up is a little weird:

1. Open a picture in your camera roll.
2. Press the share icon. It looks like this:
3. Swipe through the list of apps and press More.
4. Turn on Tumblr (and anything else you want) and rearrange the list order however you like.
5. Press done.

Now, whenever you see the share icon (Safari, camera roll, Notes, etc.) you can post what you’re looking at to your blog without even opening the app.

Lesser-known Android features

Bump phones to share blogs

This is for phones with NFC (and it has to be turned on). Open the app and go to a blog, touch your phone to someone else’s, and that blog will open on their screen.

Fast reblog and fast queue

If you’re not going to add a reblog comment, you can skip the post form entirely by holding down the reblog button. Those precious seconds add up.

If you have Labs enabled, turn on FastQueue and hit the clock button that appears next to reblog. Boom, you've just sent that post to your queue.

Tumblr in Google results

If you see the Tumblr logo next to a Google search result, the link will open in the Tumblr app. Pretty clever, no?