More Buttons in The Text Editor

[Rikifive 24,189]

Hello there!

This time I'll try posting something without images and in-depth description. 

I'd like to ask if you could add extra buttons to the text editor. Namely, the one called "Remove Format".

I kept using it a lot in the previous version and I'd like to have back in the current one. It is really essential for me.

Why?

---

Let's assume, that I modified one word to highlight something like THIS. Now when I want to continue typing with the default format, I need to reset the font size manually, then reset color manually, remove bold and italics. Whew, a lot of clicking for such a simple thing, don't you think? Also when I have a  formatted text, then even -

going to next lines doesn't work, so in some cases it gets kinda tricky to 'escape' that, because you have to reset it manually, unless you've made an extra line before formatting, so that, going down will allow you to write further with the default settings...

There are tricky (yet kinda glitchy ) workarounds though-

1) Go to next line; type one character; go back; type again - if that doesn't work - backspace to previous line, go to next line again and type. Still doesn't work? Keep doing this until it will work...
2) Go to next line; type one character; highlight it; cut and paste it without formatting (ctrl+shift+V) - sometimes it doesn't work though, so you'll have to paste it normally and then paste it without formatting.. Still doesn't work? Keep pasting with both methods until it will eventually work.

 

A workaround to avoid all of this is to make the whole post, then format it at the end.

 

But all of that could be replaced with one working-anytime solution-

1) Highlight text; press the button; Done.

 

 

Increase Indent and Decrease Indent would come in handy too, but that's optional.

 

What do you think?  
Thank you!  

 

Still a wall of text... but I tried!

[Fhaolan 4,483]

I might be able to do that.... looking...

Ha! Yes, there's a UI in the admin tools for the editor buttons... I can only put on buttons that they've already coded, but there are quite a few there that aren't currently visible.

Okay, the remove format button looks like an underlined italic capital T with a little x next to it. Not sure that's intuitively obvious, but oh well, at least it's there.

[Mirage 24,767]

Good call - and thank you.

[Discordian 6,015]

As a further extension of this, is it possible to get the plain text editor back? I hate having my posts auto-embed things before I even hit the post button.

 

It's especially a problem when going back to edit a post and it keeps all the quotes and videos in. Trying to edit between all of that stuff doesn't work very well. It just keeps clicking on said videos and whatnot.

[Rikifive 24,189]

23 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

Ha! Yes, there's a UI in the admin tools for the editor buttons... I can only put on buttons that they've already coded, but there are quite a few there that aren't currently visible.

You may also consider adding few buttons for the smaller resolutions.
One of the members had some tiny problems before, due to lack of buttons on smaller view.  

 

23 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

Okay, the remove format button looks like an underlined italic capital T with a little x next to it. Not sure that's intuitively obvious, but oh well, at least it's there.

It's obvious enough. Thank you! 

One more thing I'd like to ask for, if you don't mind of course- Could you drag that button to the left like this?

It's just my personal preference (I believe it was placed there back in v3) and it blends better that way in my opinion.  

 

10 hours ago, Discordian said:

As a further extension of this, is it possible to get the plain text editor back? I hate having my posts auto-embed things before I even hit the post button.

 

It's especially a problem when going back to edit a post and it keeps all the quotes and videos in. Trying to edit between all of that stuff doesn't work very well. It just keeps clicking on said videos and whatnot.

That's a number one issue in v4 for me. Lack of that plain text editor is extremely problematic, I agree.

I'm afraid it's not possible to get that back and it's not MLPF's fault.
However, they could allow us to access source mode, which would be a good workaround, but that's too dangerous to allow random members toy with this.

[Fluttershy Friend 25,446]

You are right Riki. Good idea. It could be very useful!

[Hierok 11,831]

I just want a button for making quote's, mentions and spoilers go away on tablet. 

[Fhaolan 4,483]

Okay, here's a list of all the buttons I have access to via the UI editor and which 'size' screen they are valid for:

	Large Screen	Medium Screen	Small Screen
Bold	X	X	X
Italic	X	X	X
Underline	X	X	X
Strikeout	X
Subscript
Superscript
Text Color	X
Highlight Color
Text Size	X
Font
Align Left	X
Center	X
Align Right	X
Justify
Bulleted List	X	X
Numbered List	X	X
Decrease Indent	X
Increase Indent	X
Remove Formatting	X	X	X
Insert Link	X	X	X
Quote	X	X
Spoiler	X	X	X
Code	X
Emote	X	X	X
Cut
Copy
Paste
Undo
Redo
Preview	X	X	X
Page

The heck? There's a table format? That's not in the list of options... Apparently you can copy stuff from a spreadsheet and it will convert it, even though the editor doesn't have controls for those particular formats. Huh.

In any case; I don't know what 'Page' does in this context. And there is a 'Source' button that will show your post in HTML format, but access to that is granted through a different process and can get a lot twitchier security-wise as @Rikifive already mentioned.

I'm thinking putting 'Center' on all three screen sizes, and removing 'Code' from the large screen as I don't think it gets any real use here. Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo seem reasonable to add to the large screen unless someone has a good reason not to? Any other suggestions for this?

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

1 hour ago, Fhaolan said:

I'm thinking putting 'Center' on all three screen sizes, and removing 'Code' from the large screen as I don't think it gets any real use here. Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo seem reasonable to add to the large screen unless someone has a good reason not to? Any other suggestions for this?

3

Adding Cut, Copy, and Paste might clutter the toolbar and be otherwise cumbersome to use in comparison to other means (e.g., Ctrl+C for copying). An Undo button would be fantastic, though, along with a Redo button.

[Rikifive 24,189]

HERE IT COMES, ANOTHER WALL OF TEXT 

3 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

The heck? There's a table format?

If you meant tablet, then it just inherits the settings from the size, that the tablet allows do display, which is the 'small' one, in most cases.  

 

3 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

In any case; I don't know what 'Page' does in this context.

The 'Page' button adds a horizontal line into the post like this:

---

You can draw that line manually using this BBCode:

[hr]

That's what I'm doing quite often, though a button for that would be unnecessary I believe. The BBCode is simple, at least for me. Not like anyone uses these as much as I do.  

 

3 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

I'm thinking putting 'Center' on all three screen sizes

If you're going to add 'Center' button, it would be good to add 'Align Left' as well, basically to allow members reset settings regarding align. Otherwise they'll be stuck in center.  

 

3 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

and removing 'Code' from the large screen as I don't think it gets any real use here.

Extremely rarely, but it gets some use, from me, to not search far. EXAMPLE or even in this post as seen above.  While it's kinda not needed in smaller resolutions (mobile devices, for example), I like that button, because it quickly opens the code editor, which can't be brought up using BBCode.  It can be also used to bypass BBCode and stuff like this. It's not very useful in v4 though, as everything is automatic and there's no need to show codes for confused members (some didn't know how to open spoiler back then, for example). Either way it's convenient, leave this.

 

3 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo seem reasonable to add to the large screen unless someone has a good reason not to?

Hmmm... I think that would be actually better for small screens. 
Desktop (most likely large screen) users can easily use keyboard to perform these actions.
CUT CTRL + X
COPY  CTRL + C
PASTE CTRL + V
UNDO CTRL + Z
REDO CTRL + Y

~which is much faster. These are widely used shortcuts- even in Paint there are exactly the same shortcuts.  And as @Yellow Diamond mentioned, that would take some space.  Besides, we can still find these in the menu brought by right clicking.

 

---

As for other suggestions- Personally I got what I wanted, so it's okay for me as it is now.  
Rarely I also use subscript and superscript, but- extremely rarely, so I don't think it will be necessary to have them there. I can always manually use BBCode for that.

I'm not using other screens besides the biggest one, so I can't really say anything regarding the smaller ones.  

---

Summarizing- I got what I wanted, thank you!  

 

IF I'LL EVER BE A PRINCESS, IT WILL BE PRINCESS OF WALLS OF TEXT 

[Fhaolan 4,483]

31 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

HERE IT COMES, ANOTHER WALL OF TEXT 

4 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

The heck? There's a table format?

If you meant tablet, then it just inherits the settings from the size, that the tablet allows do display, which is the 'small' one, in most cases.  

 

Nah, I mean when I copied and pasted from a spreadsheet, it automatically converted it to HTML tables. Which is not something you can do through the editor directly. It's just a weirdness.

2 hours ago, Yellow Diamond said:

Adding Cut, Copy, and Paste might clutter the toolbar and be otherwise cumbersome to use in comparison to other means (e.g., Ctrl+C for copying). An Undo button would be fantastic, though, along with a Redo button.

Point.

 

34 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

These are widely used shortcuts- even in Paint there are exactly the same shortcuts.  And as @Yellow Diamond mentioned, that would take some space.  Besides, we can still find these in the menu brought by right clicking.

And also point. Okay, none of those.

 

35 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

If you're going to add 'Center' button, it would be good to add 'Align Left' as well, basically to allow members reset settings regarding align. Otherwise they'll be stuck in center.  

And point again.  We'll I'll fiddle. Hopefully someone with various screen sizes will be able to tell me if it's too much.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

Stop! Don't change anything else! Adding the extra buttons fixed the annoying character count over the text you're typing problem when they showed up in a second row!

THANK YOU!

[Fhaolan 4,483]

7 minutes ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

Stop! Don't change anything else! Adding the extra buttons fixed the annoying character count over the text you're typing problem when they showed up in a second row!

THANK YOU!

Okay, it doesn't seem to have fixed that issue for me... I'm getting the full 'large' size editor with all the buttons. And it's not gone to two lines. Are you in mobile, so you have a smaller screen?

I'm tempted to add *all* the buttons to the large size editor just to see if it will go to a second line there too. If you can't fix the problem *bypass it*.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

4 minutes ago, Fhaolan said:

Okay, it doesn't seem to have fixed that issue for me... I'm getting the full 'large' size editor with all the buttons. And it's not gone to two lines. Are you in mobile, so you have a smaller screen?

I'm tempted to add *all* the buttons to the large size editor just to see if it will go to a second line there too. If you can't fix the problem *bypass it*.

My eyesight is rather poor, so I have things zoomed in quite a bit. I may have altered how the site displays. Sorry this didn't fix things for you too.

This is how it looks for me...

[Fhaolan 4,483]

Fudge. Yeah, that's the full-size editor. It's you being zoomed in that has fixed it for you. In my resolution it's still broken. Darn it. So close.

[Mirage 24,767]

The Character counter is inside a div tag, so it will always position below the tools header. There could be a way to merge it with the top header, or make the header two rows.

 

That looks like TinyMCE plugin?

Edited February 17, 2020 by Mirage

[Fhaolan 4,483]

As I understand it, the counter is a custom plug-in. So it's not in the templates I have access to edit. I can't even turn the stupid thing off. We have to wait for Poniverse to get a developer assigned to MLPF so they can look into updating the plug-in. Personally, I'd move it down to the footer next to the 'Insert other media' button, if I was given a choice.

[Mirage 24,767]

I agree - the footer has plenty of room for it.

[Rikifive 24,189]

7 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

Stop! Don't change anything else! Adding the extra buttons fixed the annoying character count over the text you're typing problem when they showed up in a second row!

THANK YOU!

Heeey- good catch! 

 

6 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

Darn it. So close.

Closer than you may think.  

Instead of adding all the buttons, just add a second line by clicking "+Add Toolbar", then throw at least one button there to make it stay (leave it blank to remove). That way, the toolbar will have two lines by default. You can balance the buttons between two lines to make it look good in any size. You can do the same for smaller resolutions, to fix that for most of mobile device users as well.  

 

6 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

As I understand it, the counter is a custom plug-in. So it's not in the templates I have access to edit. I can't even turn the stupid thing off. We have to wait for Poniverse to get a developer assigned to MLPF so they can look into updating the plug-in. Personally, I'd move it down to the footer next to the 'Insert other media' button, if I was given a choice.

If that really is an issue and if you'd like to just disable it, then why not asking Poniverse/MLPF leaders for temporary permissions for plugin settings?  You're an admin, so you should rule this land!  You'd disable this and the Character Box Fanclub would be sad.  

Edited July 22, 2017 by Rikifive

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

6 hours ago, Rikifive said:

Heeey- good catch! 

From what people tell me, it's only working for me. I have things zoomed in due to my eyesight, and that made the new buttons drop to a new line. I think you'll have to officially make them on a new line for this to work for everypony.

Edited July 22, 2017 by cuteycindyhoney

[Rikifive 24,189]

7 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

From what people tell me, it's only working for me. I have things zoomed in due to my eyesight, and that made the new buttons drop to a new line. I think you'll have to officially make them on a new line for this to work for everypony.

Basically reducing the window size would give the same effect as zooming in things. When the toolbar runs out of space for the icons, it throws them into a second line.  
Aaaaaaand that's exactly what I suggested right below your quote.