The Rich Text Editor

Format your text with bullets, links, bold/italics/underlining or do simple spelling checks. (Found on text components.)

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Published February 16, 2023

Overview

Components are modified by selecting them and then clicking the subsequently displayed tool bar. The pencil icon (when present) provides access to change text, while the wrench icon ('Configure') opens the settings. Click the checkmark to save any changes.

Most text components except Title have a Rich Text Editor (RTE) toolbar that provides some basic ways to modify your text, such as bold, italics, bulleting and hyperlinks. Click the pencil icon to reveal this toolbar, make any changes, then click the checkmark to save them.

Some text components such as Title or Body Text also support an 'in place editor' where you click the pencil icon, then edit the text directly. Once your changes are done, simply click elsewhere on the page to save them, or use the Escape key on your keyboard to cancel. This method allows simple text changes, but no toolbar or formatting is provided.  

You may also use styling from more advanced software like MS Word or even another webpage. Allowable styles (e.g. bold, italics, bulleting, hyperlinks special characters, accents and emojis) will paste right into the UBCMS while others (e.g. colored text, different fonts, true headings or images) will be filtered out.  It is also possible to create special characters within the UBCMS using keyboard shortcuts.

Text Formating Options

A few basic formatting options are provided. Think of these like a light version of MS Word.

  • Under the T ("format") button: Bold, Italics, Underline, Superscript and Subscript
  • Under the Lists button: Bullet List, Numbered List, Outdent and Indent
  • Hyperlink
  • Unlink
  • Anchor
  • Check Spelling
  • Fullscreen (expands the view and explodes the RTE toolbar making all options visible)
  • Close (without saving)
  • Save

'Go to Source' Link

When a component is a reference to shared content (e.g. for a Shared Content Reference), the Rich Text Editor Toolbar also includes a 'Go to source' link. This is represented by an icon with several chain links. When clicked, this will open the shared content page that is referenced from your original page, allowing you to make modifications if you have sufficient permissions). This link is also revealed by a mouseover while in Preview Mode.

Emojis

Text components can include emojis. Copy-paste the symbol into the component dialog box from another source, but please be very thoughtful. Emoji meanings vary markedly from culture to culture and a poor but well-intentioned choice may confuse or even upset your audience.

Special Characters

Text components allow special characters such as accented letters, non-English fonts, and symbols. These can be created in another program like MS Word, copied from a website reference, or even created using keyboard shortcuts.

Master references of HTML Entity and Alt Codes

Undo or Redo a Change

screenshot of Undo/Redo buttons.

Undo/Redo buttons

Should you realize you deleted or changed a component by mistake, the built-in Undo/Redo feature may be helpful.

Look at the top left of the window for curved arrows. Immediately after you modify a component (edit, copy, cut, paste or delete), the Undo button will appear.

After an Undo, the Redo button will also appear. Click the appropriate button and your modification will be changed.

This only applies to the last 20 changes made within the past 10 hours, and is subject to other factors, including your browser.

Undo/Redo can cause confusion if several people work on the same page at a time. Since the changes pertain to the page, not the user, one author may accidentally undo the work of another author.  

Do not link to DAM assets using a relative path (/content/dam/...) -- for these you must use a separate File Download component. > read more about this Known Issue

Make a word, phrase or sentence into a hyperlink so that clicking on it will bring you to another page.

  1.  Highlight the text you want to make into a hyperlink.
  2. Click the Hyperlink button in the RTE toolbar.
  3. Set the Path, Alt Text (optional) and Target frame.

To build an internal UBCMS link, click the checkmark button. A new dialog box will open which allows you to browse for the UBCMS target page. (You will only see pages you have permissions to view, which includes your own sites, all Shared Content, and all Assets.) If you are linking to a site outsid ethe UBCMS, or to a UBCMS page you cannot see, type in the complete URL (including "http://" ot "https://").

For Target, you can select Same Tab (the current browser window), New Tab (i.e. 'load in new window'), Parent Frame or Top Frame.

  1. Highlight the hyperlink.
  2. Click the Unlink button. The selected text is no longer a hyperlink.

Anchor Text

Make a word, phrase or sentence into an anchor so that clicking on it will bring you to a specific heading on a page.

  1. Select the text you want to make into an anchor.
  2. Click the Anchor button.
  3. In the Name field, enter a name for your anchor.
  4. Click OK.

To remove the Anchor, select the linked text, click the Anchor button, then click the Delete button and save your changes.

To make a link to the anchor, add #anchorname at the end of the URL, where anchorname is the name of your anchor;
e.g. http://mgt.buffalo.edu/help/somepage.html#anchorname
e.g. /content/mgt/somepage#anchorname

Note: for components without a Rich Text Editor, an anchor is usually set as the ID in the settings.

Check Spelling

  1. Click the Check spelling button.
    • Unrecognized words are underlined by red dots.
    • Make any changes directly to your text. Careful, the cursor can jump aroudn a little!  Then check again. (No automated suggestions are offered.)
    • The checker is not as powereful as MS Office software; e.g. it does not flag "formating" or "prefered".
  2. Remember to save your changes.

The spell checker is not very advanced. It may erroneously highlight legitimate words if they are uncommon or foreign. It will get confused by capitalized words, and does not check for grammar or correct usage.

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