What's in your dream text editor?

[Evan]

Hey everyone,

We're in the early stages of working on a revamped text editor. If that sounds familiar, it's because we recently rolled out a new text editor your Ning Network's blogs and forum discussions:

However, it became clear the text editor we implemented had a lot of limitations, namely that it doesn't handle text as well as it should (both text that's written in the editor and text pasted in) and it's very difficult to add buttons to "HTML" mode.

We're looking at starting fresh, with a new editor, instead of continuing to customize and debug the current one. We want to hear from you — what do you want in a text editor? What's important to you? What buttons or tools do you rely on, of those that are there today and those that aren't.

This project may take a while, but we want to get your input now while we're in the planning phase.

Thanks!
Evan

[Valerie]

I'm not as advanced as all of you, I have to go look up codes if I want to change something and wow it takes too much time. It would be nice to click on a button and change the font sizes in the forum like you can in the blogs. Color options on the font would be great too...

And right now I'm changing the code to add a link to an image but would be nice if that was available.

[Jane Lucienne]

I wish the areas to add text etc, including adding attachments, were consistent across blogs and discussions alike. I'm confused as to why the whistles and bells are different between the two and why some text entry areas limit the number of characters you can enter.

I especially like being able to do a last-minute tweak after I've posted a contribution (like the Reply window I'm writing in right now). Currently there is only one place where I can do that.

Consistency is key to me -- I'd like to learn ONE set of conventions for contributing comments etc. network-wide (except maybe on the Personal Pages -- I can see keeping this space as it is).

Thanks - and hi Evan :-)

[Jane Lucienne]

I know how to do all of that stuff, Silverchex, and I still "resent" having to do it the long-and-hard way rather than being able to click on a button. I view this (in my own case) as a character defect (laziness). But I can see where less-learned e-folks who want their networks to look great actually need these tools.

[Valerie]

Well its forcing me to learn LOL but I'm getting so busy that I don't always have the time to do it so I have to sacrifice doing it sometimes. There is alot more I would like to do to make my network look better but having the time to do it... well So anything to make it easier and more user friendly is my motto ;-)

I forgot to add earlier besides the font size and color, having a few different fonts to choose from would be cool too... Thanks Evan and nice to meet Jane...

[Jane Lucienne]

Nice to meet you too. Don't forget a color palate would be a very nice addition. We may as well shoot for the Moon.

[Valerie]

Absolutely! ;-)

[Kat]

I'm pretty happy with the functions available now. The only thing that I dislike is that when you press the hyperlink button, the "http://" text does not highlight - I then have to click, highlight, and delete that section and post my links that already have "http://" on them. This is time-consuming because I hyperlink a lot of member's profiles for voting cycle lists.

Other than that, however, I think the current functions are just fine!

[Morten Aabo]

A fontsize tool has been requested from alot of my members.

[Janettee McCrary]

Yah but not everyone knows how to do HTML... And not everyone wants to have to hand-type all of their HTML when a couple of clicks will do it.

[Jane Lucienne]

I agree, Janetee. It sounds like Chris's idea is on another track from the conventions Ning programmers have already committed to. It might be a total departure. I don't know. That's just my sense of it.

[F.Alexandre]

Our company tries as much as possible to improve its efficiency SEO wise.
There is then couple things I'd love to see in a new rich editor if it's possible :

- Possibility to edit the metadata field of each publication made with the rich editor
- Possibility may be to select from a predefined list of tags rather than allow chaotic tagging

Last but not least I'd love to see padding option in the rich editor so that I won't have to get into the html tab and tweak it manually.

The most important point to me is that you guys keep on making sure your rich editor doesn't generate clumsy html codes. Your current rich editor make flawless html and that's really important and deserved to be mentioned as it's not always a standard...