Formatting Text with the eZ Publish Online Editor

The eZ Publish Online Editor (OE for short) is an extension that enables you to create formatted pages using an intuitive interface. With the OE, you can easily format text for your articles, product descriptions, weblogs and so on. The OE interface is very similar to the one found in word processors. There is no need to know XML or manipulate tags manually. As you click the buttons, the OE will automatically convert your instructions into valid eZ Publish XML code.

This article is the third in a series focusing on concepts and features discussed in the newly released book eZ Publish Content Management Basics and is a short user guide to the eZ Publish Online Editor. It describes how to work with rich text content. We focus on the editing process, the OE text area and the OE toolbar.

Recall from the second article in this series that you are working in edit mode when you are viewing some content in the Content Editing Interface (in the Website Interface) or in the Object Edit Interface (in the Administration Interface). This usually means that either the Edit or Create here button has been clicked. The WYSIWYG Online Editor facilitates the manipulation of content attributes in edit mode, and is an integrated part of your eZ Publish content editing environment.

Requirements for editing environment

The access requirements for the Website Interface that were described in the second article in this series also apply to the Administration Interface. This is important for using the Online Editor within the two interfaces.

By default, to access either the Website Interface or Administration Interface, you need a valid user account (username and password) belonging to the Editor or Administrator group.

The Online Editor and interactive features make use of JavaScript. This means that JavaScript must be enabled in your web browser.

(JavaScript is a lightweight programming language that extends the functionality of XHTML. It is used in eZ Publish to create a more user-friendly environment. The interfaces will function correctly in non-JavaScript browsers, but will not be as feature-rich as intended. If JavaScript is disabled, the Online Editor will not be available and you will thus have to edit XML-based content directly.)