Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with texteditors

Why Oh Why, YUI?

fourcheesemac — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:22:26 -0800

DrupalFilter: I need help configuring YUI Rich Text Editor so that it appears in specific non-body fields in a specific content type [CCK-created bio page] while also appearing site-wide in all body fields. I love YUI text editor. With default settings enabled (both "paths" and "IDs" left blank), it appears in all the usual body fields (across quite a few specific content types), such as in stories, events, etc.

However, we have one particular content type on our site -- an expanded user bio linked to the user account with a bunch of CCK fields -- where I need YUI text editor to appear in just one of these fields (where the user writes a biographical text) in addition to appearing in all the usual body fields in other content types.

Presumably I need to put the field ID into the "IDs" field in YUI Editor Settings. But I don't understand the syntax of the field ID. Looking at the source of the CCK output, I see something called:

id="edit-field-bio-0-value"

Presumably this is the "ID" of the field that YUI needs to know, right? What syntax do I use to specify this field in the YUI IDs settings field?

By the way, in my "Paths" field, I have the following:
node/add/*
node/*/edit

(and this seems to work to make YUI available in body fields sitewide)

Thanks very much in advance. This is non-profit stuff and I'm not a developer, so maybe it's more obvious that it seems, but I cannot find documentation of the YUI Rich Text Editor Settings interface, or its integration with Drupal, anywhere. YUI RTE works beautifully elsewhere throughout the site -- by far the best solution I've tried. But this is frustrating me. I'll monitor the thread and answer any questions.

Best cross-browser web-based text editor.

KirkJobSluder — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:28:50 -0800

I'm looking for a good cross-browser web-based text editor simliar to google docs but with a focus on text rather than RTF or ODF. Something like a server-based TextWrangler or Emacs. Some of the things I want include: * What you type is what you get text, with no mangling of HTML entites.
* Ability to organize documents by keywords.
* Download option.
* Standards-based cross-browser compatibility. Needs to work with Safari and Opera.

What's the word on ditching Word?

grumblebee — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:47:29 -0800

Help me ditch Word, yet still deliver a document that uses Word templates. When I switched from PC to Mac, I decided not to buy MS Office. I don't miss it, I don't want it, and I've fallen in love with simple text editors like Writeroom and Textmate. But my publisher wants me to use a specific Word template (which he provides).

I'm hoping there's a way I can write in a plain text editor and mark text that ultimately needs to be set to a specific style in the template. E.g. [1]Chapter One[/1] might mean that this text should be changed to Heading 1 style.

Then, later on -- in some other app -- I'd search for [1] ... [/1] and apply the style.

What's that other app? I know I could do it IN Word, but then I have to buy and install Word, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Is there an alternative? Some freeware, shareware or open-source app (Open Office?) that can use a Word templates (and can spit out a Word doc using that template)?

Extra points if it also can interpret Word's track-changes feature, so that my publisher and I can still use it.

Is there a good text-editor-to-doc workflow or do I need to breakdown and buy Word?

Why does Outlook convert an ellipsis to a question mark?

bowline — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 17:19:39 -0800

Why does Outlook convert an ellipsis (...) to a question mark (?) ? This is happening on outgoing emails -- I only can tell it's happening when people reply to me and I see the email I sent in the body of their reply. It does not appear in the saved copy on my machine. I use Word as my email text editor.