Simple WYSIWYG Editor

Creating a WYSIWYG textbox for your website is actually quite simple.

Thanks to the html iframe component that contains the execCommand function, which enables us to access html tags in real time.

The following snippets shows how to implement this function:

editor.js

 
var Editor;
 
function Format(action)
{
	Editor.execCommand(action, false, null);
}
 
function Colour(colour)
{		
	Editor.execCommand("forecolor",false, colour);
}
 
window.onload = function()
{
	Editor = document.getElementById('textbox').contentWindow.document;
	Editor.designMode = "on";
	document.forms[0].onsubmit = function()
	{
		var text = document.getElementById('text');
		text.value = Editor.body.innerHTML;
	}
}
 

In the top script we attach anonymous methods to the page load event and one on the form submit event (assigns the contents of the iframe to a form control - since we need to submit it via the page)

editor.html
 
<html>
	<head>
	<title>Simple Javascript WYSIWYG Editor</title>
		<script language="Javascript" src="editor.js"></script>
	</head>
	<body>
		<form method="POST">
			<div>
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Green')" style="background-color:Green;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Red')" style="background-color:Red;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Blue')" style="background-color:Blue;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Colour('Black')" style="background-color:Black;" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('bold')" value="B" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('italic')" value="I" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('Underline')" value="U" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('justifycenter')" value="C" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('justifyleft')" value="L" />
				<input type="button" onclick="Format('justifyright')" value="R" /><br/>
				<iframe id="textbox" style="width:300px; height:150px"></iframe><br/>
				<input type="submit" value="Go" />
				<input type="hidden" id="text" name="text" />
			</div>
		</form>
	</body>
</html>
 
This is just a basic implementation of the execCommand function, here is a small list of properties one can use as well, things like cut/paste inserting tables/links/images etc:

BackColor: Get or set the background color of the selected region.
(this property shows some weird behavior in Firefox 2.0)
Copy: Copies the selected region to the clipboard.
Cut: Removes the selected region from the document.
Paste: Adds data from clipboard to region (if applicable).
InsertHorizontalRule: Adds a horizontal rule to the region.
InsertImage: Displays an IE defined modal dialog that contains full image selection features, alt tag modification, border setting, etc.
InsertMarquee: Converts the selected text into a marque.
InsertSelectDropDown: Adds a drop down list to the region.
Print: Displays the windows print dialog so that the region can be printed.
Refresh: Refreshes the region.
CreateLink: Displays an IE defined modal dialog that lets you add a hyperlink using either selected text or new text.
InsertUnorderedList: Toggles between the selected text being an unordered list and normal text.




2009-08-17: I went through all the comments I received regarding this post and wrote some additional code that can be downloaded from here, which will be featured in a future article.



Comments

Default Value

Editor.body.innerHTML = 'default text';


Hi Christoff. But in Word 2007 it's very easy to change it in Paragraph properties. By the way Opera have the same issue, but it's fine in Firefox and Chrome. Christoff, I'll be very glad for any help or advices about this. I had noticed "Shift+Enter", but I can't tell to everybody to press "Shift+Enter" for normal "Enter". If I'll find the solution I will post it here.


Line spaces

Hi Max, you'll notice the same issue with word processors like Word 2007 for example. If you hold in shift and press enter, you'll notice you'll only get one line space - I suspect its Microsoft behaviour since I didnt notice the issue in Openoffice & Firefox. I will investigate to get you a more natural solution.


marginwidth="1" marginheight="1" Will make border spaces like in textarea scrolling="yes" Will give scrollbar like in textarea How to fix big spaces after "Enter" pressing?


It's awesome, but why so big space between lines? How can I make it the same as in textarea. Why so big space from text to border? How can I customize this properties?


Add more one button

How can i add one more button, like paragraph, for exemple?? Wich lines must i change?


holy shit... fairly simpe, i though im never gona find perfect editor, and its too complicated to make it myself... but noo, than you jesus


DEFAULT TEXT

If you want to set default text, just add src="text.htm" to the iframe code and create a page called "text.htm" and enter your default text into that page. Not tested this much, but it seems to work


That's great! thanks!


multiply forms

How to make it able to deal with multiple forms on one screen? If somebody have the answer, send me an mail holsteinkaa /-\ gmail.com


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