Everything2 now has the latest version of the tinyMCE WYSIWYG editor implemented in its node editing textboxes. This option is on by default for new users as of early 2008. There will be a link above the editing textbox to turn tinyMCE on or off. Users can also turn it on or off in writeup settings.
TinyMCE will make it easy for new users to jump in and start noding without knowing any HTML (although they will still need to learn how to link, which is still accomplished with square brackets), and some experienced users may find it more convenient to edit their writeups with WYSIWYG than coding HTML by hand. TinyMCE gives our site the basic look and feel of a word processor for the purposes of adding formatting, while ensuring proper HTML practices, such as closing tags.
Today, a new version of tinyMCE was installed that fixed some of the problems the old tinyMCE editor had. Specifically, it would replace apostrophes with the HTML character entity ', and it would also allow infinite nesting of blockquote tags, while inaccurately calling it an "indent" option. The apostrophe issue was the larger problem, as it would make hard links containing an apostrophe mysteriously and almost invisibly broken. Neither of these is a problem in the new version.
Nice features of tinyMCE include:
- Special character insertion — by clicking the Omega symbol, tinyMCE will pull up a pop-up window which allows easy selection of special characters not found on a standard North American keyboard. It even gives you the mnemonic and numeric codes for putting them in yourself.
- HTML editor — this button pulls up a pop-up window that allows you to edit the HTML directly, manipulating the code in ways tinyMCE is not capable of doing.
- Help — a pop-up window with instructions for using tinyMCE.
- You can select a block of text to apply formatting to the entire selection at the click of a button.
One problem with tinyMCE remains, that of determining whether or not the user used tinyMCE to create the node in the first place. This is essential information for providing new users with help, especially ones who don't know that there are other options besides tinyMCE. A good hint is to view the source code. Code created by the tinyMCE editor will explicitly state <p align="left"> rather than just <p>, like most normal human beings would do. If someone is pedantic enough about their HTML to specify align="left", they likely don't need any help with their formatting in the first place.
Update: Content Editors now have the ability to check a user's settings to see if tinyMCE is turned on.
Please note: If the help feature, HTML editor, or special character insertion feature don't work, you may need to force refresh (shift+reload on most browsers) to get the current version of tinyMCE.