Rich-text editor

The rich-text editor (RTE) is Brightspot's primary authoring surface. It appears in the Body field of articles, pages, and other text-heavy assets, and supports text formatting, embedded media, collaborative annotation, and more.

The toolbar adapts to the available width: when the editor is narrow—for example, when a preview panel is open—less-common options collapse under .

note

Brightspot fully supports the UTF-8 encoding standard. Editors can author content in any UTF-8 character set natively, and visitors interact with published pages in their native language.

What you can do in the rich-text editor

The table below summarizes available capabilities. Each is covered in detail in the sections that follow.

Capability	Description
Formatting text	Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, superscript, subscript.
Aligning text	Left, center, or right alignment.
Adding lists	Bulleted or numbered lists, with optional numbering reset.
Indenting text	Increase or decrease indentation.
Adding headers	H2 through H5 headings and horizontal rules.
Adding hyperlinks	Internal links to Brightspot assets, external URLs, or site search.
Embedding enhancements	Images, videos, galleries, modules, HTML, iframes, quotes, and snippets.
Adding tables	Insert tables with row and column management.
Adding inline code	Inline code formatting.
Adding HTML or iframe embeds	Raw HTML or embedded iframes.
Adding quotes	Attributed pull quotes.
Adding snippets	Reusable modular content blocks.
Custom keyboard	Insert special Unicode characters.
Find and replace	Search for and replace terms throughout the body.
Track changes	Accept or reject edits with change tracking.
Commenting	Add inline comments for collaborators.
Full-screen editing	Expand the editor to fill the browser window.
AI features	Generate content using the AI plugin.

Formatting text

To format text:

1. Enter or select the text to be formatted.

2. Click the desired formatting option in the toolbar:

   • Bold
   • Italic
   • Underline
   • Strikethrough
   • Superscript
   • Subscript
   • Clear Formatting

Aligning text

To align text:

1. Enter or select the text to be aligned.

2. Click the desired alignment option in the toolbar:

   • Left
   • Center
   • Right

Adding lists

To add a list:

1. Enter or select the text to be set in a list.

2. Click the desired list type in the toolbar:

   • Bulleted list
   • Numbered list

For numbered lists, you can reset the starting number at any point in the list.

To reset numbering:

1. Double-click any list item's number.
2. In the Reset Numbering popup, enter the number at which the list should restart.
3. Click Save.

Indenting text

To indent text:

1. Enter or select the text to indent.

2. Click the desired option in the toolbar:

   • Add indent
   • Remove indent

Adding hyperlinks

To add a hyperlink:

1. Enter or select the text to hyperlink.

2. Click .

3. Under Link, choose one of the following:

   • Internal—Search for and select an existing asset. On the Advanced tab, select the link target and optionally add an anchor.
   • External—Enter an external URL. On the Advanced tab, select the link target.
   • Site Search—Search for and link to a site search results page.

4. Click Save & Close.

Adding headers

To add a header:

1. Enter or select the text to set as a header.
2. Click Format , then select a heading size (H2, H3, H4, or H5). Select HR to insert a horizontal rule instead.

Embedding enhancements

Enhancements are content objects you embed directly into the body of an asset—images, videos, galleries, modules, and more. You can embed a new enhancement built from scratch (inline) or pull in one that already exists in Brightspot (shared).

Type	Description
Inline	Built from scratch inside the asset. The enhancement exists only in this asset and is saved with it.
Shared	An existing asset or module pulled into the body. Changes to the shared enhancement affect every asset that uses it.

Moving enhancements

To reposition an enhancement, either cut and paste it, or click the enhancement to reveal its editing toolbar and use the controls described below.

Button	Description
	Moves the enhancement up one paragraph.
	Moves the enhancement down one paragraph.
	Enables drag-and-drop repositioning. Click the button, move the mouse to the target position, then click again to place the enhancement.

Alignment

Each enhancement includes alignment options at the bottom of its configuration panel.

Alignment	Example
Left Alignment
Center Alignment - Contained
Right Alignment

Dragging and dropping media

New shared media files can be uploaded directly into the rich-text editor by dragging and dropping them from your file system.

Adding inline code

To add inline code:

1. Enter or select the text to format as code.
2. Click in the toolbar.

Adding HTML or iframe embeds

To add an HTML or iframe embed:

1. Click in the rich-text editor where you want the embed to appear.

2. Click , then select HTML or Iframe.

3. In the Shared field, do one of the following:

   • Search for and select an existing HTML or iframe embed.
   • Click Create New to create one:
     • HTML—Enter an Internal Name and paste your code into the Raw HTML field.
     • Iframe—Enter an Internal Name and a URL, then set the iframe's height and width in pixels.

4. Click Save & Close.

Adding quotes

To add a pull quote:

1. Enter or select the text to display as a quote.
2. Click .
3. Enter attribution in the Attribution field.
4. Click Save & Close.

Adding snippets

Snippets are small pieces of reusable modular content. See Snippet for information about creating them.

To add a snippet:

1. Click in the rich-text editor where you want the snippet to appear.
2. Click .
3. Search for and select the desired snippet, or create a new one.
4. From the Variant list, select a variant if desired.
5. Click Save & Close.

Adding tables

Action	Instructions
Add table	1. Click where you want the table. 2. Click and draw a table on the grid.
Add row	1. Place the cursor inside the table. 2. Click , then select Add Row Above or Add Row Below.
Delete row	1. Place the cursor inside the row to delete. 2. Click , then select Delete Row.
Add column	1. Place the cursor inside the table. 2. Click , then select Add Column Left or Add Column Right.
Delete column	1. Place the cursor inside the column to delete. 2. Click , then select Delete Column.
Merge cells	1. Click and drag to select the cells to merge. 2. Click , then select Merge Cells.
Split cells	1. Click inside a previously merged cell. 2. Click , then select Split Cell.

Custom keyboard

The custom keyboard lets you insert Unicode characters that are not available on a standard keyboard.

To insert a Unicode character:

1. Click in the rich-text editor where you want the character to appear.
2. Click .
3. Select the character from the keyboard panel.

To add characters to the custom keyboard, see Adding characters to the rich-text editor's virtual keyboard.

Find and replace

To find and replace text:

1. In the toolbar, click .

2. Enter the term to find. Matching instances are highlighted throughout the body, and the total count appears next to the search field. Click and to move between instances.

3. Click to expand the replace controls.

4. Optionally refine the search:

   • Case Sensitive—Matches only the exact letter case you entered.
   • Whole Word—Matches only the complete word, not substrings. For example, graph does not match polygraph or graphs.

5. Enter a replacement term in the Replace with field. The Replace and Replace All buttons become available.

6. Click Replace to replace the currently highlighted instance, or click Replace All to replace every occurrence.

Track changes

Track changes lets editors and reviewers see what has been added or removed without immediately accepting the edits.

To enable track changes:

• In the toolbar, toggle on Track Changes.

The track-changes toolbar appears with the following controls:

Control	Description
Accept Changes	Accepts the change at the current cursor position.
Reject Changes	Rejects the change at the current cursor position.
Accept All	Accepts all pending changes.
Reject All	Rejects all pending changes.
Preview	Previews the text as it would appear with all changes accepted.

These controls are also available in full-screen editing mode.

Commenting

Inline comments allow editors and reviewers to leave notes without altering the published body text.

Adding comments

1. Position the cursor where you want to place the comment, with no text selected.
2. Click in the toolbar.
3. Type the comment.
4. Click again to exit commenting mode.

tip

Brightspot can be configured to let editors highlight text and convert it to a comment in one click. See Converting text to comments.

Deleting comments

1. Click inside the comment.
2. Click in the toolbar.

Showing or hiding comments

• Click in the toolbar to toggle comment visibility.

Responding to comments

1. Enter full-screen mode by clicking . Comments and tracked changes appear in the right rail.
2. Click next to the comment to respond.
3. To delete a response, click .

Converting text to comments

When this setting is enabled, editors can select text and click to convert the selection into a comment rather than typing the comment manually.

To enable conversion from text to in-line comments:

1. Click > Admin > Sites & Settings > Sites > Global.
2. Select the CMS tab, then expand the RTE cluster.
3. Toggle on Create Comment From Highlight.
4. Click Save.

Full-screen editing

Full-screen mode expands the rich-text editor to fill the entire browser window, which is useful for long-form authoring and when reviewing tracked changes or comments in the right rail.

To enter full-screen editing mode:

• Click in the toolbar.

AI features

If the AI plugin is installed, the Create with AI tool is available inside the rich-text editor. See Create with AI.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following shortcuts are available in the editing area. Your Brightspot configuration may include additional shortcuts.

Action	Windows / Linux	Mac
Selection
Select all	Ctrl-A	⌘-A
Select one character right	Shift-Right	⇧-Right
Select one character left	Shift-Left	⇧-Left
Select to end of line	Shift-End	⇧-Ctrl-Right
Select to beginning of line	Shift-Home	⇧-Ctrl-Left
Select one line down	Shift-Down	⇧-Down
Select one line up	Shift-Up	⇧-Up
Select to end of editing area	Shift-Ctrl-End	⇧-⌘-Down
Select to beginning of editing area	Shift-Ctrl-Home	⇧-⌘-Up
Select next word	Shift-Ctrl-Right	⇧-⌥-Right
Select previous word	Shift-Ctrl-Left	⇧-⌥-Left
Select one page down	Shift-PageDown	⇧-PageDown
Select one page up	Shift-PageUp	⇧-PageUp
Navigation
Move cursor up	Up	Up
Move cursor down	Down	Down
Move cursor left	Left	Left
Move cursor right	Right	Right
Move to beginning of paragraph	—	Ctrl-A
Move to end of paragraph	—	Ctrl-E
Move one word left	Ctrl-Left	⌥-Left
Move one word right	Ctrl-Right	⌥-Right
Move to beginning of editing area	Ctrl-Home	⌘-Up
Move to end of editing area	Ctrl-End	⌘-Down
Move to end of line	End	⌘-Right
Move to beginning of line	Home	⌘-Left
Scroll down one page	PageDown	PageDown
Scroll up one page	PageUp	PageUp
Deletion
Delete to beginning of line	Ctrl-Shift-Backspace (Linux)	⌘-Delete
Delete to end of line	Ctrl-Shift-Delete (Linux)	—
Delete to left	Backspace	Delete
Delete to right	Delete	Ctrl-D
Delete word to right	Ctrl-Delete	—
Delete word to left	Ctrl-Backspace	—
Paragraph alignment
Left	Ctrl-Alt-L	⌘-⇧-L
Center	Ctrl-Alt-E	⌘-⇧-E
Right	Ctrl-Alt-R	⌘-⇧-R
Text formatting
Bold	Ctrl-B	⌘-B
Italic	Ctrl-I	⌘-I
Underline	Ctrl-U	⌘-U
Strikethrough	Ctrl-Alt-X	⌘-⇧-X
Superscript	Ctrl-Shift--	⌘-.
Subscript	Ctrl-=	⌘-,
Clear character formatting	Ctrl-Space	⌘-\
Hyperlink	Ctrl-K	⌘-K
Lists
Bulleted list	Ctrl-Shift-8	⌘-⇧-8
Numbered list	Ctrl-Shift-7	⌘-⇧-7
Demote list level	Ctrl-]	Ctrl-]
Promote list level	Ctrl-[	Ctrl-[
Line break inside list	Shift-Enter	Shift-Return
Find
Find in editing area	Ctrl-F	⌘-F
Special
Type raw HTML	Ctrl-Shift-C	Ctrl-⇧-C
Show special character keyboard	Ctrl-Shift-K	⌘-⇧-K
Undo	Ctrl-Z	⌘-Z
Redo	Ctrl-Y	⌘-⇧-Z
Enhancements
Pull quote	Ctrl-Shift-Q	—
Image	Ctrl-Shift-I	Ctrl-⇧-I
Gallery	Ctrl-Shift-G	Ctrl-⇧-G
Playlist	Ctrl-Shift-P	Ctrl-⇧-P
Video	Ctrl-Shift-V	Ctrl-⇧-V
Module	Ctrl-Shift-M	Ctrl-⇧-M
Collaboration
Toggle comment insertion	Ctrl-Shift-′	Ctrl-⇧-′