Visual Editors?

Published on Wednesday, 09 August 2006.

Do you want an embedded WYSIWYG editor for your web applications?

NO!!! Just let me input —pure— HTML. Thank you very much.

Unfortunately, yourself is not the only client you are going to have...erm, hopefully. So what are your guidelines for dealing with this matter? Assuming your development process is almost bulletproof, the reason to include a Visual Editor like this one: should be backed up by a need to solve a crucial problem. And what you want is probably a modified "light" version of an existing solution.

<li>Browser compatibility.  It was going beautifully, until I used Opera. If it doesn't work in all major browsers look for another solution, or implement it yourself. </li>
<li>If you have a basic editor, turn the rich editor off by default.</li>
<li>Clean markup output.</li>
<li>Provides the usual feeling of standard rich editors (i.e. MS Word).</li>
<li>If you go with it, please do make extensive testing.</li>

Without having much experience, it is hard for me to imagine a reason why somebody would need (in all the extent of the word definition) a rich editor. Avoid at all costs should be the immediate response. If you succeed in doing this, a feeling of happiness, and tranquility will be your reward.

Good luck!

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