WYSIWYG editor

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

I think some of you are missing something here.

when you are using a wysiwyg editor, you still have to format your text etc. by clicking on the format buttons just like you do for bbcode.
It doesn't read your mind and create the formatting for you.
it will offer you many more possibilities in formatting etc. but it won't do it for you.

also, to me this is like the discussion about allowing html in posts.

this is a bulletin board, you post text messages. If you want to create a web page, create a web page and link to it from your text based post.

I know I will probably get slammed for that but hey.......


robert

[Erik Frèrejean]

this is a bulletin board, you post text messages. If you want to create a web page, create a web page and link to it from your text based post.

Quoted for agreement.

[leviatan21]

this is a bulletin board, you post text messages. If you want to create a web page, create a web page and link to it from your text based post.

Quoted for agreement.

+1

IMHO phpbb do not need a WYSIWYG editor,
As an example, take all post from all those user that want it, look at it, most of them event don't use any bbcode on his post, so why request something that is not used ?

[Ger]

Personally, I prefer typing BBcode than using a WYSIWYG editor. It goes faster for me.

On the other hand: I understand the wish for it from a newby point of view. For instance on a forum of mine where there are many users with almost no knowledge about code whatsoever, they simply don't use formatting since they don't know how. For that kind of people a WYSIWYG editor would be great.
Besides that, there's the point of usebillity. I think it's not very user-frindly to require knowledge of some code or extra mouseclicks to create a nice formatted message. The argument about "it's a forum, not a website" is wrong IMHO; there are boards out there wich have many large and complex messages. One forum of mine, about science ("wetenschapsforum" or translated "science forum") has many messages where complex theories are explained. Easy formatting is very welcome there. We would like to make that formatting as easy as possible since we'd rather see the users gain scientific knowledge than learning some BBcode. For now there is no good WYSIWYG editor for that board (IPB, not phpBB) since it would break on stuff like LaTeX, WebGraph of chemical formulas.

And that's the main issue for me this moment: With my current knowledge it's impossible to create a descent WYSIWYG editor wich copes like all kind of custom BBcode, especially server sided BBcodes. Perhaps some kind of AJAX thingy can handle that, but my expierence with AJAX is very little.

[Rotsblok]

I think a wysiwygg editor is just a real-time presentation of what you type and format. I think it wouldn't be that hard (sorry I'm no coder) if you do the same thing with the bbcode buttons..
with the BBcode buttons it isn't a fancy button with a nice image. It's just a text button, it does the same thing as a wysiwyg editor but the main difference is that it doesn't show your formatting immediately.. If phpBB can do the real-time formatting when using bbcode i think loads of ppl are already satisfied, but that's my opinion after reading some of these posts.. It's just that ppl want to see in real-time the formatting.. it's not the fancy bar of buttons...

[Ger]

The thing is: fancy buttons are easy. Real time formatting with server sided scripts isn't.

[leviatan21]

The thing is: fancy buttons are easy. Real time formatting with server sided scripts isn't.

Is not perfect, but does the work : WYSIWYM

[Ger]

Not intending on an offtopic discussion, but does that handle server sided BBcodes? As I mentioned before, we have some stuff like LaTeX which is parsed server sided.

[leviatan21]

Not intending on an offtopic discussion, but does that handle server sided BBcodes? As I mentioned before, we have some stuff like LaTeX which is parsed server sided.

No it doesn't, it's purely JavaScript ( no Ajax )

[ameisez]

The thing with WYSIWYG is not for us (admins and moderators and advance users) it's for our members. Members who are more oriented with WYSIWYG editors. Personally i don't need WYSIWYG for myself. But when i am receiving complaints about the editor from members, that is when the needs arise.