

Re-thinking WYSIWYG editors for Web CMS - spxdcz
http://www.amaxus.com/cms-blog/rethinking-web-cms-wysiwyg-editors

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sunir
I'm experimenting with this as well as I'm layering TinyMCE over a wiki for my
side project, Bibdex (dev image <http://bibdex.org:8080>). I have tried
extending TinyMCE with a wiki syntax parser. However, I'm unconvinced there is
real value in confusing the text with magic syntax, with one exception.

Wiki markup is mostly cosmetic, so you can throw all of it out--except for
auto-linkification. Linking makes the wiki.

This was easy with CamelCase links, but much harder for free links or other
types of links.

I do wonder if it's possible to train people to use exactly one syntactic
form, the square brackets.

    
    
      [words] -> free link
      [http://url text] -> descriptive link
      [http://url] -> escaped link (useful to pick up trailing punctuation)
    

Presumably when you write a left square bracket, a floating div could appear
with contextual help and auto-suggest.

If others are interested, I'm happy to share my efforts.

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anthonyb
I think the article has it exactly backwards. Start with the link, and the
popup part should prompt you for the plain text part. ie. I paste in
"<http://example.com/> and the javascript/tinymce pops up a "Link Text >"
prompt.

Much more intuitive IMHO than highlighting things which aren't obviously
links, or adding extra syntax.

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jamesrcole
it should work both ways. sometimes you think of the link text first, url
second. other times it's the other way around.

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philipn
These rich text editors have control keys for linking. It's easy to link text
without leaving the keyboard at all. Select text with arrows, press control+L,
enter url, press return. You can also jump through words by pressing
control+arrow. So, control+shift+arrow, control+L, url, return. It's basically
what he's asking for with the last suggestion.

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spxdcz
But I guess that's still a shortcut for each formatting option? i.e. you need
to remember each shortcut key (L for link, etc)? (If I read what you're saying
correctly); whereas the blog is suggesting a single formatting shortcut that
then shows more 'novice' users what the available options are, relative to
what they already know (the buttons at the top).

Something like that! I'm still thinking it through (I wrote it...)

~~~
philipn
I think the issues raised in the post are interesting but not the biggest
slowdowns people face when using web-based rich text editors. The biggest
issue is simply moving around in the text. emacs / vi allow you to skip almost
anywhere without leaving the keyboard once you're familiar with the method.
That's the biggest save.

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beeker
So similar to what Word 2007 is currently offering? You select text and an
almost invisible ghost box appears, move your cursos in the box makes it
appear fully.

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thomasfl
Instant rendering of markdown sounds like a good idea, if users care to invest
time to learn it.

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Luyt
Not having to move your hand between keyboard and mouse is a huge time saver.
It seems to me that the time you have to invest to learn it is minimal
compared to what it will save in the long run.

