Rich Editing Basics

Rich editing, also called WYSIWYG for What You See Is What You Get, means your text is formatted as you type. The rich editor creates HTML code behind the scenes while you concentrate on writing. Font styles, links and images all appear approximately as they will when the post is published.

This editor is provided to remove the need to use HTML or bbCode tags - in fact any such tags that are entered will simply either be stripped when saved or will form a part of the displayed post. Instead of inserting tags, just use the toolbar as you would in a word processor. Most of the toolbar options are self-explanatory but for some of the more advanced options please see the Advanced panel.

While using the editor, most basic keyboard shortcuts work like in any other text editor. For example: Shift+Enter inserts line break, Ctrl+C = copy, Ctrl+X = cut, Ctrl+Z = undo, Ctrl+Y = redo, Ctrl+A = select all, etc. (on Mac use the Command key instead of Ctrl). See the Hotkeys tab for all available keyboard shortcuts.

If you do not like the way the rich editor works, you may turn it off from your forum Profile > Options > Posting Options. Here - alternative editor choices may be available.

Advanced Rich Editing

Images and Attachments

There is a button on the editor toolbar for inserting images that are already hosted somewhere on the internet. If you have a URL for an image, click this button and enter the URL in the popup box which appears.

If you want to upload your own images or other media and your forum administrator has granted you permission to do so, then use the Attachments button beneath the editor window instead.

Inserting YouTube and Other Videos

The forum suports what is known as the oEmbed protocol. This means that from a large nunber of popular video hosting sites - such as YouTube - all you need to insert to embed the video is the URL where it can be found. Please Note that for security reasons, iFrames can NOT be used in forum posts and will be stripped when the post is saved.

Inserting Formatted Links

Note that the Insert Link toolbar button will only become active when your text is selected. So create the link text first, then select it, click on the Link toolbar button and supply the link target URL in the popup dialog box.

HTML in the Rich Editor

Any HTML entered directly into the rich editor will show up as text when the post is viewed or be stripped. If you need to include HTML elements that cannot be generated from the toolbar options, click on the HTML toolbar button where you can enter it by hand. When done, click on Update and it should then appear in the editor window.

Pasting in the Rich Editor

When pasting content from another web page the results can be inconsistent and depend on your browser and on the web page you are pasting from. The editor tries to correct any invalid HTML code that was pasted, but for best results try using one of the paste toolbar buttons. Doing so can help clean up any invisible formatting or embedded HTML tags that were pasted along with the text.

Pasting content from another application, like Word or Excel, MUST be done with the Paste from Word button as such applications often contain a large volume of invisible formatting that can seriously disrupt the normal display of your post.

Writing at Full Speed

Rather than reaching for your mouse to click on the toolbar, use these access keys. Windows and Linux use Ctrl + letter. Macintosh uses Command + letter.

Letter	Action	Letter	Action
c	Copy	v	Paste
a	Select all	x	Cut
z	Undo	y	Redo
b	Bold	i	Italic
u	Underline	1	Heading 1
2	Heading 2	3	Heading 3
4	Heading 4	5	Heading 5
6	Heading 6	9	Address

The following shortcuts use different access keys: Alt + Shift + letter.

Letter	Action	Letter	Action
n	Check Spelling	l	Align Left
j	Justify Text	c	Align Center
d	Strikethrough	r	Align Right
u	• List	a	Insert link
o	1. List	s	Remove link
q	Quote	m	Insert Image
w	Distraction Free Writing mode	t	Insert More Tag
p	Insert Page Break tag	h	Help

Editor width in Distraction Free Writing mode:

Alt +Ctrl +	Wider	Alt -Ctrl -	Narrower
Alt 0Ctrl 0	Default width