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By geestring on
I've been using CKEditor since I started my Drupal project, and have been getting mixed results. My problem is, is that it has been extremely buggy when editing text. For instance, I set the font and font-size etc only to realize that the changes did not occur, whereupon i'd have to go back and re-edit the whole thing. Another problem is if I create a space or add more text it tends to reset the styling for the rest of the text. Align and spacing also seems to be an issue, where placing an image in a body of text causes strange wrapping.
I've used wordpress's stock wysiwyg and don't recall having these issues. I can't remember. But, there is no way I can hand over control of CKEditor to a webmaster and expect them not to get frustrated.
I hope it is just CKeditor and not all of Drupal's editors.
I would like to hear your experiences so I can determine whether I should switch to a different module or prepare to teach the webmaster how to endure the issues.
Thanks
Comments
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you don't say which module you use (ckeditor specific module or the wysiwyg module), but I tend to have better luck using ckeditor with the ckeditor module. But I always find wysiwyg with html to always be a bit of a challenge. You have to keep in mind that presentation on a website is a fairly complex interaction between html, css, and js and with drupal you have the added complication of the filters you've configured as well. More often than not I usually find my problems with ckeditor are the result of something I've done with the filters and not the editor itself.
I've recently changed over to using html helpers (bueditor or markitup) instead whenever possible. I like bueditor, because I can easily create exactly the custom buttons I need for any given use case.
There's also the option of markup syntax (ie textile and markdown).
im using the CKEditor
im using the CKEditor module.
What do you mean filters?
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The filters that make up a drupal input format (at admin/settings/filters). Ckeditor uses inline styles a lot so if your input formats don't allow it, you'll get formatting stripped out. You have to make sure that whatever css and markup you're using a wyswyg editor to create is also allowed by the input format.
FCKeditor is probably one of
FCKeditor is probably one of the more mature WYSIWIGS, YUI Editor is also very good and flexible but last time I used it, it was still in a beta version last year I think.
The biggest caveat i've encountered using WYSIWIGS is copying and pasting from Microsoft Word, most editors intelligently strip all the meta-data cruft that comes from a Word doc, if you're opening up the editor to other people to use, that's important to test.
TINY TNY MCE
TINY TNY MCE il the only easy module to use, and the most reliable, because simple.
right now my main issue is
right now my main issue is when my node has 3 textareas that use CKeditor, and if I change at least one they all get stripped. I have to set the style every time to everything.
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check the config-- with the ckeditor module, you should be able to specify whether or not the field uses the editor per field.
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Not sure with CK Editor, but with the FCK Editor module, you'd set this in admin -> FCK Editor -> the role -> visibility settings.
The only time I've had the problem you describe above, is when I'm using a combo of the WYSIWYG module and the FCK Editor library (so not module. There's a difference ;) )
That said, to answer your initial question, what the best WYSIWYG editor is, really depends on what you expect from it. If you only want to allow your users to be able to put text in bold, italic or underlined, there'll be other editors that're better for you than if you want one that can add tables, insert images and files and do syntax highlighting. Whether or not a WYSIWYG editor is the best is a matter of requirements.