A better text editor, on Forum and Blog posts[LIVE]

[Emily]

For Ning Creators and members alike, adding content is an essential part of any Ning Network. When it comes to adding text, the text editor members rely on should be as easy to use as possible. Starting tomorrow afternoon, adding and editing text on Ning will become even easier.

Previously, all text editors on a Ning Network allowed members to add photos, add links and format text. But using those tools produced HTML code that many non-technical Internet users didn't understand. So a few weeks ago, we rolled out a new, WYSIWYG editor to the forum, while still keeping an "HTML" tab so that advanced users could still edit HTML as they always had.

WYSIWYG stands for "what you see is what you get", and it means that when you're doing something like making text bold, you'll actually see bold text, instead of code for <b>bolded text</b>. In the last few weeks, we heard feedback that the WYSIWYG editor wasn't as easy to use as it could be. And so we're rolling out a number of improvements to make it an even better experience editing forum discussions on Ning, while also rolling out this editor to the blog feature:


The major improvements include:

• More space: 400 pixels of vertical space to edit the text, instead of the previous, 160 pixels
• Smaller font: A smaller font, so more text can fit in the text editor
• Resized images: Even though images in the forum and blog can't be any wider than 721 pixels (the full width of the forum and blog), they weren't being resized while editing. Now, any image added wider than 721 pixels will be resized to 721 pixels.
• Edit image: Previously, once you'd added an image to a text editor, you couldn't change the size, alignment or link unless you knew HTML. Now, in "Rich Text" mode, you'll be able re-open the Image dialog.

When working on these updates, we also realized we made an oversight when adding the WYSIWYG editor to the forum. We accidentally omitted the "Options" drop down, which allows you to customize images that you add to text. We've brought back the Options drop down, with rewritten, clearer text and the ability to customize images even if you add them via URL, not your computer.

Here's what it will look like:



All of these improvements should make editing forum discussions or writing blog posts a breeze. And we'll continue to take your feedback and improve text editors in the future.

Copying pasted text

One note about copying text from other programs or Web sites. One of the nice parts of a WYSIWYG editor is that you can copy and paste not just text, but also links, images, tables and more into your forum or blog post. However, when a WYSIWYG editor tries to maintain all those items, the outcome isn't always perfect. If you're looking to paste text and nothing more, try using the "HTML" tab, and no special formatting will be pasted.

You can usually copy and paste content into the WYSIWYG editor with good results, but the "HTML" tab is a good bet if you're just looking to copy only text.

[Hazrat Amin]

Emily,
This is creating a different type of problem in my blogs. All posts by members now have different fonts and spacing. How do I automatically maintain the fonts on my blogs? Please help.

[Tom]

I'm also get a large font as the default when I post a blog.

[Gerrick M. Warrington]

Hazrat,
I have the same problem. All posts by members have different fonts and spacing. Can anyone help? (see http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/can-nc-modify-font-sizetype-of)
Thanks!
G

[Hetokeri]

wow..That Great news Thanks For Sharing :D
O.M.G i just a new member here :D

[MetroDee]

Guys, the thing you have done to the blog editor is turned to become the messiest thing of the whole system! Today I spend 6 hours trying to create a normal looking post, but finally I gave up. Issues: 1) I initially write the code in aptana editor and then paste it into blog editor, but it overwrites my code with tons of unnessesary tags and atributes! It messes up the align and margins I set. And I can't write a post in wyswyg editor: if I add more than 1 image plus ol/ul list it just jams and overlaps! And when I open the HTML editor I see my code messed so badly that there is no way to fix it, because editor doesn't render the properly. I also cannot place a row of an image+image+image/text. It just takes hours to make it look correct when in Aptana (or any other editor) I write in 5 minutes... the result: I can't blog and my traffic is falling down. Totally frustrated...

[Evan]

Hey MetroDee!

Thanks for your feedback. I'm sorry you're seeing these issues. This WYSIWYG doesn't produce perfect code, so if you're having issues with it, I'd encourage you to switch back to the old simple text editor. To do that, go the Manage tab and click "Feature Controls". Then, scroll down and, under "Text Editor", select the simple editor.

Down the road, we're going to rebuild the advanced WYSIWYG using a better version that produces cleaner code.

/Evan
Ning Product Manager

[MetroDee]

At least previous editor was stable, maybe others still like the new one - I wanna back old version

[Andy P]

See Emily's post on page 9 February 9, 1:50 PM to return to the old editor.

[P. Smith]

I have members on several ning sites that are NOT happy they way it will not allow the embedding of video as the Discussion subject. It's a mess for that.

[Ian Sullivan]

Emily,

The new editor is very nice. :)

I run a Network for Multiple Sclerosis Patients, and they have been asking me for the ability to Spell Check their posts/messages. When will Ning roll out a Spell Checker?

Respectfully,

Ian

[Evan]

Hey Ian!

We don't have plans for a spell checker. The main reason is that most browsers have a built-in spell checker, like Firefox. I'd suggest you download a browser with a spell checker, as that will likely be better than anything we can provide.

/Evan
Ning Product Manager

[Ian Sullivan]

Evan,

Thanks for the info, I will pass it on to our users.
Have a great weekend.

Ian