Integrate a web based WYSIWYM editor : a good idea ?

MarkDown is nice, so is Textile but if you’re setting up a website in a corporate environment more likely than not people will not want to learn a formatting syntax, no matter how simple... you’ll have to go WYSIWYG and manage the resulting tag soup...

The other solution is to build a js formatting toolbar for Textile or Markdown, with a live preview feature (anyone want to give that a shot ?)

Well, personally I’d rather write HTML than markup, especially since I can easily manage the classes directly, than having to use a different syntax, but I can understand that it might be easy to use if you’re used to it but then again, so might HTML be, if you sacrifice a little readability.

Textile (or Markdown) produce valid code and are much more readable IMHO. That’s not to say I don’t use HTML directly myself, especially with the BBCodeXtra extension for FF this is really quick But that’s for us web savvy... as I said when you use MODx for client, HTML and even most of the time markup is out of the way...

As far as I can see, what we really need for clients is a simple "paste from Word" handler. I have yet to meet a client that didn’t do just that.

Jeff,

I know you said this might be difficult to integrate due to its use of DIVs, but looking at the roadmap, it might get easier:

March 2007: 0.3

* Easier integration: textareas replaced by the editor (like other web-based editors)
* Plugins, AJAX, better code, using the Javascript framework jQuery
* MSIE/Gecko (Firefox,...)/Opera compatibility
* Optional (we need help): Safari compatibility

I’ve written an article regarding WYSIWYM editors on my website, WYSIWYM editors need more buzz.

Summary:
When it comes to WYSIWYM editors, choices are very limited, especially if you want something cross platform/browser and open source. But there might just be a new kid on the block.

Please feel free to read it and why not to leave a comment.

Cheers,
Serban

Any progress so fart with Tiny serban?

Quote from: rthrash at Mar 28, 2007, 09:55 PM

Any progress so fart with Tiny serban?

Dudes/Dudettes-- how is it that I have never heard of WYSIWYM until just now? Very impressed, I was almost more startled to see this thread started well over 1yr ago! Wow.

So who really is the new kid on the block, me or the WYSIWYM?

Quote from: sottwell at Jan 09, 2007, 03:43 AM

As far as I can see, what we really need for clients is a simple "paste from Word" handler. I have yet to meet a client that didn’t do just that.

Susan, the best current solution I have seen for this is SPAW editor v.2...You can paste from Word, and then use the "Clean Up" button to clear styles, etc. The resulting markup is ’OK’ compared to many other RTE/Word combos I’ve used.

If I must deal with a Word document as my source, I generally use this technique to begin my HTML structure to save time, and then usually perform a quick scan through/clean up. Unfortunately, this is only during my own implementation. I think the underlying point here is long-term maintenance by the client themselves and how to preserve clean markup...

Quote from: pixelchutes at Mar 28, 2007, 11:04 PM

Dudes/Dudettes-- how is it that I have never heard of WYSIWYM until just now? Very impressed

Well, I came accross this looking for a clean rich text editor, tired of cleaning up behind my clients...
So far, nothing has come out of me trying to get WYM’s dev to write a MODx plugin, but I guess that my have to do with their writing up a CMS (WYM Site)...

Quote from: pixelchutes

I was almost more startled to see this thread started well over 1yr ago! Wow. So who really is the new kid on the block, me or the WYSIWYM?

lol... I don’t know
But we still have to figure out how to set up a decent RTE / filemanager / image manager combo...

Maybe FlashTA + iBrowser/iManager ?
I hope we come down something along the road...