Support and Documentation

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.

Procedure. To embed media using the toolbar:

  1. Position the cursor on an empty line.

  2. Click |mi-image|, and then select the type of enhancement you want to embed. An Edit form appears.

  3. In the Edit form, search for or create the enhancement you want to embed.

  4. 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.

pull-quote-in-rte-body.png

(For information about adding a pull quote to a page's layout, see Pull quotes.)

Procedure. To embed a pull quote:

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Position the cursor on an empty line.

    • Select existing text.

  2. Click |mi-format_quote|. The Edit Quote widget appears.

  3. Complete the fields in the widget as necessary.

  4. Click Save & Close.

Embedding enhancements using drag-and-drop

Using this method, you upload new shared media into the RTE.

Procedure. To embed enhancements using drag-and-drop:

  1. Drag a media file from your file manager into the RTE. The Upload Files widget appears.

  2. 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 13. Toolbar buttons for positioning enhancements

    Button

    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.

. See also:
Turning on or turning off track changes
. To turn on or turn off track changes:

  • On the toolbar, toggle Track Changes.

When you toggle on track changes, the track-changes toolbar appears.

Track-changes toolbar
Figure 44. Track-changes toolbar


Accepting or rejecting tracked changes
Procedure. To accept or reject tracked changes:

  1. To accept or reject one change, do one of the following:

    • In normal mode, select 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.

      accept-reject-fullscreen.png

  2. 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.

. To preview tracked changes:

  • On the track changes toolbar, toggle Preview to on.

Adding comments
Procedure. To add a comment:

  1. Position the cursor where you want to place the comment. Ensure no text is selected.

  2. On the toolbar, click |mi-comment|.

Deleting comments
Procedure. To delete a comment:

  1. Click inside or select the comment.

  2. 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.

Procedure. To respond to a comment:

  1. Enter full-screen mode by clicking |mi-fullscreen|. All comments and tracked changes appear in the right rail.

  2. Click |mi-reply| for the comment to which you want to reply, and add your response.

    comment-reply.png

  3. Delete a response by clicking |mi-cancel|.

Showing or hiding comments
. To show or hide 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.

rte-fullscreen.png
. To toggle full-screen editing:

  • 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:

. See also:
Adding characters to the virtual keyboard

Brightspot's virtual keyboard includes special characters not included in most keyboard layouts. You can add additional characters to the virtual keyboard.

Procedure. To add characters to the virtual keyboard:

  1. From the Navigation Menu, expand Admin, and select Sites & Settings.

  2. In the Sites widget, select Global. The Edit Global widget appears.

  3. Under CMS, expand Advanced.

  4. In the Extra Java Script field, add an array RTE_UNICODE similar to the following example.

    rte_unicode_array.png

    The numbers 2013 and 2014 are hexadecimal Unicode values for the character. For a full listing of Unicode values, see Unicode 13.0 Character Code Charts.

  5. Click Save.

  6. To ensure Brightspot displays the new characters, advise editors to clear their browser's cache.

. See also:
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.

Procedure. To enter HTML inside the RTE:

  1. Position the cursor where you want to add the HTML.

  2. On the toolbar, click |mi-code| to toggle on HTML coding.

  3. Type the HTML code.

  4. Click |mi-code| again to toggle off HTML coding.

Procedure. To enter HTML in the plain-text editor:

  1. 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.)

  2. Type the HTML code.

  3. 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.

Procedure. To find and replace text:

  1. On the toolbar, click |mi-search|, or press Ctrl-F (Windows/Linux) or ⌘-F (OS X). The find widget appears.

    find-widget.png

  2. Enter the text you want to find.

  3. Click |mi-chevron_right| and |mi-chevron_left| to find the next or previous occurrence.

  4. To replace text, do the following:

    1. In the widget, click |mi-more_horiz|. The replace widget appears.

      replace-widget.png

    2. Enter the replacement text.

    3. Mark Match Case and Match Whole Word as required.

    4. Click Replace or Replace All.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following table lists some of the keyboard shortcuts available in the editing area.

Action

Shortcut

Windows

Mac

Linux

Select

Select all

Ctrl-A

⌘-A

Ctrl-A

Select one character to the right

Shift-Right

⇧-Right

Shift-Right

Select one character to the left

Shift-Left

⇧-Left

Shift-Left

Select to end of line

Shift-End

⇧-Ctrl-Right

Shift-End

Select to beginning of line

Shift-Home

⇧-Ctrl-Left

Shift-Home

Select one line down

Shift-Down

⇧-Down

Shift-Down

Select one line up

Shift-Up

⇧-Up

Shift-Up

Select to end of editing area

Shift-Ctrl-End

⇧-⌘-Down

Shift-Ctrl-End

Select to beginning of editing area

Shift-Ctrl-Home

⇧-⌘-Up

Shift-Ctrl-Home

Select next word

Shift-Ctrl-Right

⇧-⌥-Right

Shift-Ctrl-Right

Select previous word

Shift-Ctrl-Left

⇧-⌥-Left

Shift-Ctrl-Left

Select one page down

Shift-PageDown

⇧-PageDown, ⇧-Fn-Down

Select one page up

Shift-PageUp

⇧-PageUp, ⇧-Fn-Up

N/A

Move

Move cursor up

Up

Up, Ctrl-P

Up

Move cursor down

Down

Down, Ctrl-N

Down

Move cursor left

Left

Left, Ctrl-B

Left

Move cursor right

Right

Right, Ctrl-F

Right

Move to beginning of paragraph

Ctrl-A

Move to end of paragraph

Ctrl-E

Move cursor one word to the left

Ctrl-Left

⌥-Left

Ctrl-Left

Move cursor one word to the right

Ctrl-Right

⌥-Right

Ctrl-Right

Move cursor to beginning of editing area

Ctrl-Home

⌘-Up

Ctrl-Home

Move cursor to end of editing area

Ctrl-End

⌘-Down

Ctrl-End

Move cursor to end of line

End

⌘-Right

End

Move cursor to beginning of line

Home

⌘-Left

Home

Scroll down one page

PageDown

PageDown, Fn-Down

Scroll up one page

PageUp

PageUp, Fn-Up

Delete

Delete to beginning of line

⌘-Delete

Ctrl-Shift-Backspace

Delete to end of line

Ctrl-Shift-Delete

Delete to the left

Backspace

Delete

Backspace

Delete to the right

Delete

Ctrl-D

Delete

Delete word to right

Ctrl-Delete

Ctrl-Delete

Delete word to left

Ctrl-Backspace

Ctrl-Backspace

Paragraph alignment

Left

Ctrl-Alt-L

⌘-⇧-L

Ctrl-Alt-L

Center

Ctrl-Alt-E

⌘-⇧-E

Ctrl-Alt-E

Right

Ctrl-Alt-R

⌘-⇧-R

Ctrl-Alt-R

Text Formatting

Bold

Ctrl-B

⌘-B

Ctrl-B

Italic

Ctrl-I

⌘-I

Ctrl-I

Underline

Ctrl-U

⌘-U

Ctrl-U

Strikethrough

Ctrl-Alt-X

⌘-⇧-X

Ctrl-Alt-X

Superscript

Ctrl-Shift--

⌘-.

Ctrl-Shift--

Subscript

Ctrl-=

⌘-,

Ctrl-=

Clear character formatting

Ctrl-Space

⌘-\

Ctrl-Space

Hyperlink

Ctrl-K

⌘-K

Ctrl-K

Lists

Bullets

Ctrl-Shift-8

⌘-⇧-8

Ctrl-Shift-8

Numbers

Ctrl-Shift-7

⌘-⇧-7

Ctrl-Shift-7

Demote list level

Ctrl-]

Ctrl-]

Promote list level

Ctrl-[

Ctrl-[

Find

Finds in editing area

Ctrl-F

⌘-F

Ctrl-F

Special

Type raw HTML

Ctrl-Shift-C

Ctrl-⇧-C

Ctrl-Shift-C

Show keyboard with special characters

Ctrl-Shift-K

⌘-⇧-K

Ctrl-Shift-K

Undo

Ctrl-Z

⌘-Z

Ctrl-Z

Redo

Ctrl-Y

⌘-⇧-Z

Ctrl-Y

Enhancements

Pull quote

Ctrl-Shift-Q

Ctrl-Shift-Q

Image

Ctrl-Shift-I

Ctrl-⇧-I

Ctrl-Shift-I

Gallery

Ctrl-Shift-G

Ctrl-⇧-G

Ctrl-Shift-G

Playlist

Ctrl-Shift-P

Ctrl-⇧-P

Ctrl-Shift-P

Video

Ctrl-Shift-V

Ctrl-⇧-V

Ctrl-Shift-V

Module

Ctrl-Shift-M

Ctrl-⇧-M

Ctrl-Shift-M

Collaboration

Toggle comment insertion

Ctrl-Shift-'

Ctrl-⇧-'

Ctrl-Shift-'
. See also: