Rich-text editor
You write your narratives—bodies for articles and blog posts, captions, and other elements—inside the rich-text editor (RTE). If you are familiar with Google Docs, Disqus, Wordpress, or other web-based word processors, then you are already familiar with Brightspot's RTE.
Note
This section describes features available in Brightspot's standard RTE. Your version of Brightspot may have different features or a different workflow for a particular feature.
Working with text in the rich-text editor
The RTE provides the following popular features for working with text:
Applying boldface, italics, underline, and other typeface effects.
Aligning paragraphs to the right, center, or left.
Applying multi-level bullets and numbering.
You can paste content from Microsoft Word or Google Docs directly into the RTE, retaining much of the source document's formatting.
Working with enhancements in the rich-text editor
You can include enhancements, such as images, videos, and external content, in the RTE.
Embedding enhancements in the rich-text editor
You can embed enhancements into the RTE. For example, if you are writing a story about a traffic accident, you can embed images or videos pertaining to the incident.
Embedding media using the toolbar
Using this method, you can embed existing shared enhancements or upload new media as shared or one-off.
Position the cursor on an empty line.
Click |mi-image|, and then select the type of enhancement you want to embed. An Edit form appears.
In the Edit form, search for or create the enhancement you want to embed.
Click Save & Close.
Embedding pull quotes
You can embed pull quotes inside the body of the rich-text editor. These pull quotes are rendered within the body's text, as in the following illustration.

(For information about adding a pull quote to a page's layout, see Pull quotes.)
Do one of the following:
Position the cursor on an empty line.
Select existing text.
Click |mi-format_quote|. The Edit Quote widget appears.
Complete the fields in the widget as necessary.
Click Save & Close.
Embedding enhancements using drag-and-drop
Using this method, you upload new shared media into the RTE.
Drag a media file from your file manager into the RTE. The Upload Files widget appears.
Complete the fields for the media, and then click Upload.
Tip
The uploaded media appears in the Recent Activity widget. Open the media from that widget to add additional metadata.
Positioning enhancements in the rich-text editor
Use one of the following methods to move enhancements to a different position within the RTE:
Cut and paste the enhancement.
Click the enhancement to display the editing toolbar, and then click one of the buttons described in the following table.
Table 11. Toolbar buttons for positioning enhancementsButton
Description
|mi-arrow_upward|
Moves the enhancement up one paragraph.
|mi-arrow_downward|
Moves the enhancement down one paragraph.
|mi-open_with|
Turns on drag-and-drop. After clicking the button, move the mouse to the new position, and then click |mi-open_with| to place the enhancement. For a demonstration, watch the following video.
Collaborating using the rich-text editor
The RTE provides tools for managing tracked changes and comments. When track changes is enabled, an additional toolbar opens in the RTE for accepting, rejecting, and previewing changes.
Turning on or turning off track changes
On the toolbar, toggle Track Changes.
When you toggle on track changes, the track-changes toolbar appears.

Accepting or rejecting tracked changes
To accept or reject one change, do one of the following:
In normal mode, place the cursor inside the change, and click Accept Changes or Reject Changes on the track-changes toolbar (see the illustration Track-changes toolbar).
In full-screen mode, click |mi-cancel| or |mi-cancel| for the change you want to accept or reject. The following illustration is an example of a widget for accepting or rejecting a change in full-screen mode.
To accept or reject all changes, click Accept All or Reject All on the track-changes toolbar (see the illustration Track-changes toolbar). The number next to Accept All and Reject All indicates the number of changes.
Previewing tracked changes
You can preview the result of accepting all tracked changes.
On the track changes toolbar, toggle Preview to on.
Adding comments
Position the cursor where you want to place the comment. Ensure no text is selected.
On the toolbar, click |mi-comment|.
Deleting comments
Click inside or select the comment.
On the toolbar, click |mi-close|.
Responding to comments
You can respond to an editor's comments, a feature common in many word-processing applications.
Enter full-screen mode by clicking |mi-fullscreen|. All comments and tracked changes appear in the right rail.
Click |mi-reply| for the comment to which you want to reply, and add your response.
Delete a response by clicking |mi-cancel|.
Showing or hiding comments
On the toolbar, click |mi-more_horiz|.
Enhancement locks in the RTE
When you are editing an enhancement inside the RTE, such as an image or video, the enhancement is locked and other editors cannot modify it. For detailed information about locking, see Preventing overwrites with locking.
Toggling full-screen editing
You can expand the rich-text editor so that it occupies your entire browser window—a useful feature if you are writing a long article or if there are many tracked changes and comments. The following illustration is an example of the rich-text editor in full-screen mode.

On the toolbar, click |mi-fullscreen|.
Inserting special characters
Use one of the following methods to insert special characters, such as characters with accents or ligature:
Click |mi-keyboard|, and from the virtual keyboard select the required character.
Type the character using Unicode. The following table provides keyboard combinations for typing a Unicode character.
Operating System
Keyboard combination
Example to input α
For further reading…
Windows
Hex value + Alt + X
03B1 + Alt + X
Mac
Enable Unicode Hex Input.
Type ⌥ + hex value.
⌥ + 03B1
How do i compose utf-8 characters from the keyboard (osx 10.11.4)?
Ubuntu Linux
Press Ctrl + Shift + u.
Enter the Unicode hex code of the character you want to type.
Press Space or Enter.
Ctrl + Shift + u + 03B1 + Space
Entering HTML code
You can enter hard-coded HTML in the RTE.
Caution
Entering incorrect HTML in the RTE can cause your narrative to render incorrectly on the published site. Be sure you have a solid knowledge of HTML elements and attributes before using this feature.
Position the cursor where you want to add the HTML.
On the toolbar, click |mi-code| to toggle on HTML coding.
Type the HTML code.
Click |mi-code| again to toggle off HTML coding.
On the toolbar, click HTML to activate the plain-text editor. (If HTML is missing from the toolbar, ask your Brightspot administrator to give you access to it.)
Type the HTML code.
Click HTML again to return to the rich-text editor.
Finding and replacing text
You can find and replace text in the rich-text editor similarly to other word processors.
On the toolbar, click |mi-search|, or press Ctrl-F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘-F (OS X). The find widget appears.
Enter the text you want to find.
Click |mi-chevron_right| and |mi-chevron_left| to find the next or previous occurrence.
To replace text, do the following:
In the widget, click |mi-more_horiz|. The replace widget appears.
Enter the replacement text.
Mark Match Case and Match Whole Word as required.
Click Replace or Replace All.
Keyboard shortcuts
The following table lists some of the keyboard shortcuts available in the editing area. (Your version of Brightspot may have different keyboard shortcuts.) If you need a keyboard shortcut that's not available, contact your Brightspot representative to add it.
Shortcut | Description | ||
---|---|---|---|
Windows | Mac | Linux | |
Select | |||
Ctrl-A | ⌘-A | Ctrl-A | Select all |
Shift-Right | ⇧-Right | Shift-Right | Select one character to the right. |
Shift-Left | ⇧-Left | Shift-Left | Select one character to the left |
Shift-End | ⇧-Ctrl-Right | Shift-End | Select to end of line. |
Shift-Home | ⇧-Ctrl-Left | Shift-Home | Select to beginning of line. |
Shift-Down | ⇧-Down | Shift-Down | Select one line down. |
Shift-Up | ⇧-Up | Shift-Up | Select one line up. |
Shift-Ctrl-End | ⇧-⌘-Down | Shift-Ctrl-End | Select to end of editing area. |
Shift-Ctrl-Home | ⇧-⌘-Up | Shift-Ctrl-Home | Select to beginning of editing area. |
Shift-Ctrl-Right | ⇧-⌥-Right | Shift-Ctrl-Right | Select next word. |
Shift-Ctrl-Left | ⇧-⌥-Left | Shift-Ctrl-Left | Select previous word. |
Shift-PageDown | ⇧-PageDown, ⇧-Fn-Down | Select one page down. | |
Shift-PageUp | ⇧-PageUp, ⇧-Fn-Up |
| Select one page up. |
Move | |||
Up | Up, Ctrl-P | Up | Move cursor up. |
Down | Down, Ctrl-N | Down | Move cursor down. |
Left | Left, Ctrl-B | Left | Move cursor left. |
Right | Right, Ctrl-F | Right | Move cursor right. |
Ctrl-A | Move to beginning of paragraph. | ||
Ctrl-E | Move to end of paragraph. | ||
Ctrl-Left | ⌥-Left | Ctrl-Left | Move cursor one word to the left. |
Ctrl-Right | ⌥-Right | Ctrl-Right | Move cursor one word to the right. |
Ctrl-Home | ⌘-Up | Ctrl-Home | Move cursor to beginning of editing area. |
Ctrl-End | ⌘-Down | Ctrl-End | Move cursor to end of editing area. |
End | ⌘-Right | End | Move cursor to end of line. |
Home | ⌘-Left | Home | Move cursor to beginning of line. |
PageDown | PageDown, Fn-Down | Scroll down one page. | |
PageUp | PageUp, Fn-Up | Scroll up one page. | |
Delete | |||
⌘-Delete | Ctrl-Shift-Backspace | Delete to beginning of line. | |
Ctrl-Shift-Delete | Delete to end of line. | ||
Backspace | Delete | Backspace | Delete to the left. |
Delete | Ctrl-D | Delete | Delete to the right. |
Ctrl-Delete | Ctrl-Delete | Delete word to right. | |
Ctrl-Backspace | Ctrl-Backspace | Delete word to left. | |
Paragraph alignment | |||
Ctrl-Alt-L | ⌘-⇧-L | Ctrl-Alt-L | Left |
Ctrl-Alt-E | ⌘-⇧-E | Ctrl-Alt-E | Center |
Ctrl-Alt-R | ⌘-⇧-R | Ctrl-Alt-R | Right |
Text Formatting | |||
Ctrl-B | ⌘-B | Ctrl-B | Bold |
Ctrl-I | ⌘-I | Ctrl-I | Italic |
Ctrl-U | ⌘-U | Ctrl-U | Underline |
Ctrl-Alt-X | ⌘-⇧-X | Ctrl-Alt-X | Strikethrough |
Ctrl-Shift-- | ⌘-. | Ctrl-Shift-- | Superscript |
Ctrl-= | ⌘-, | Ctrl-= | Subscript |
Ctrl-Space | ⌘-\ | Ctrl-Space | Clear character formatting |
Ctrl-K | ⌘-K | Ctrl-K | Hyperlink |
Lists | |||
Ctrl-Shift-8 | ⌘-⇧-8 | Ctrl-Shift-8 | Bullets |
Ctrl-Shift-7 | ⌘-⇧-7 | Ctrl-Shift-7 | Numbers |
Ctrl-] | Ctrl-] | Demote list level | |
Ctrl-[ | Ctrl-[ | Promote list level | |
Find | |||
Ctrl-F | ⌘-F | Ctrl-F | Finds in editing area |
Special | |||
Ctrl-Shift-C | Ctrl-⇧-C | Ctrl-Shift-C | Type raw HTML |
Ctrl-Shift-K | ⌘-⇧-K | Ctrl-Shift-K | Show keyboard with special characters |
Ctrl-Z | ⌘-Z | Ctrl-Z | Undo |
Ctrl-Y | ⌘-⇧-Z | Ctrl-Y | Redo |
Enhancements | |||
Ctrl-Shift-Q | Ctrl-Shift-Q | Pull quote | |
Ctrl-Shift-I | Ctrl-⇧-I | Ctrl-Shift-I | Image |
Ctrl-Shift-G | Ctrl-⇧-G | Ctrl-Shift-G | Gallery |
Ctrl-Shift-P | Ctrl-⇧-P | Ctrl-Shift-P | Playlist |
Ctrl-Shift-V | Ctrl-⇧-V | Ctrl-Shift-V | Video |
Ctrl-Shift-M | Ctrl-⇧-M | Ctrl-Shift-M | Module |
Collaboration | |||
Ctrl-Shift-' | Ctrl-⇧-' | Ctrl-Shift-' | Toggle comment insertion |