Rich text editing
Does anyone know of any plugins in any forum system that allow a much fuller rich text editing feature? I want users to write articles with images, headlines, etc. I want it to look like a web magazine article and not just a normal forum post. Then I want it to be styled to look like a Word document. I don't care about how much markup it will take to get it done. No point in worrying about performance if people aren't using your forum.
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #1 –
None that I know of ... not even "blog" software offers that AFAIK ... you have to write it offline in your full function editor software and export it as html. Maybe some adobe online stuff will do it, but don't know that it exists as a plugin per se
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #2 –
If you have no problems with HTML be the output, I feel there are several that allow quite a good result, of course it all depends on what you expect...
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #3 –
Actually..that particular need - to write texts that have certain elements like headlines, fillers etc. - is what drove me to create the boardtype feature in Protendo. I haven't come across a pure editor that do these things, but even if it was one, it would be harder to maintain a structure within that, than to create the fields yourself inside the forum script - where you can make sure everyone follow the same template(or even create new templates on the spot). IMHO anyway.
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #4 –
why using a forum and not a cms? Joomla or WP can do that
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #8 –
I am thinking of way to redesign the text editor so it is styled differently. This is, of course, a big operation which would involve work on SCEditor.
First off, I think where the editor shows up is very important. If we're talking about rich text editing and allowing the user to control more of the design of their post, where the post is being shown matters. The quick reply should look like the quick edit does (except with all of the features of the reply box). The regular post screen should do the same thing. Your signature would appear at the bottom, your user info would appear to the left. It would be constrained by the size of the display. The subject and time would appear above. Make it look like you're editing a post that was already made.
I have been using forums for 15+ years. It took me a little brain power to figure out which of the two icons I figured were font size were for font size. I still have no idea what the parameter is to change the list style. When I want to, I just use itemcodes. Most people don't even know that they can change the list style. The pre BBC looks like it should be a justify BBC. Especially in its position. My point is that they are confusing.
Mixing ideas from Word and Google, I think we should use ribbons/tabs and some of the features of Word but the styling simplicity of Gmail. Gmail uses icons for their tabs and Word uses icons. I think the icons are a little confusing at first so I would say stay away from them. I think what we have is cluttered and I like the simplicity of the Gmail tabs. Put things behind drop downs.
I know the tabs add another click for a lot of common operations but when we make the BBC buttons "prettier" and add more of them, it will quickly make the entire post screen ugly. That one click is going to be better than using brain power to search. We could, if it proves annoying, add a "common" or "favorites" tab. The common would be something we deemed to be commonly used. The favorites would be something that the user chooses.
In terms of general styling, I think the buttons should be flattened and given a little more space with a light vertical border (see screenshots).
Tab: "formatting"
I am not normally a fan of cut/copy/paste buttons on a text editor. Nobody uses them on desktop. Then I realized that I would use them on mobile. I would love to add a select button there as well so I didn't have to long press anything.
Put the left/right/center (add justify) under one "align" button like in Gmail and change the icon based on what it is currently set to. Like any button like this, just set it to whatever the last one used was when in "source" mode.
Change the font style and size so that you can actually see the name of the font instead of the icon. Same thing for the size and color.
The table button should be a modal that lets you draw the table and select options. I bet 99% of the people that use forums don't know about any of the table options. I bet 99% of the people that use tables don't know that there are table headers.
Tab: "insert"
This is all of those things that aren't normal text. Attachments, pictures, spoilers, links, code, quote, etc. Add in "message" and "user" links.
Tab: "emoticons" (nobody uses smileys anymore)
The standard web word is emoticon. Put the smileys in there. You can even add tabs under this like in Gmail.
Tab: "options"
This is where you'd have a bunch of checkboxes for this post. Anything that's not a checkbox would be opened in a modal to get more info.
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #11 –
I like having popular smileys or emoticons always shown. Can't people who want them all hidden just set them all to be displayed in the more box?
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #12 –
Yup ... I was just thinking that if you did that perhaps instead of "more" it should show a smiley button instead.
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #13 –
I agree that makes sense.
Re: Rich text editing
Reply #14 –
I am going to keep adding ideas.
After you use the "insert" ribbon to insert a table or list, another ribbon would appear and it would go to that ribbon for "table" and "list".
Table would have insert row/column above/below/left/right. Delete row/column. Merge cells. Then options: border color/width, width. Maybe a style attribute or separate attributes for striped and other styles you can extend. I think a table header should be a separate tag: thead. Same as tfoot.
The list would show the list style, allow you to increase/decrease indent the list (nesting the list) and start num for ordered lists.
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