This article uses the case of TEXT to examine the possibility that an online academic peer-reviewed journal might operate as a textbook. Following Lave and Wenger (1991), Wenger (2006), Horsley, Knight and Huntly (2010) and others, it considers concepts of communities of practice, examines the role TEXT has taken in its community, analyses TEXT editorial practices and compares it with the practice of textbook editors, and compares elements of textbook production and usage with TEXT's profile. Finally, the article looks briefly at the migration of textbooks from paper to smart applications and how this relates to TEXT as textbook.