User Guide

Last modified by Thomas Mortagne on 2023/10/10 16:20

The GWT WYSIWYG editor is no longer available starting with XWiki 9.7. It has been replaced by CKEditor.

Welcome to the WYSIWYG editor user guide. This page will help you discover all the features from XWiki's GWT rich text editor. 

Here's how the editor looks like at a glance:

wysiwygeditor.png

This page describes all the features supported by the WYSIWYG editor. Not all of them are enabled in the default XWiki Enterprise distribution. See the configuration page if you want to enable or disable any of the features presented here.

Pre-requisites

Quick Reference

Toolbar

toolbar.png

Not all the buttons appear in the default instalation. See the configuration page if you want to enable or disable any of the features presented here.

Toolbar ItemFunction
bold.gifitalic.gifunderline.gifstrikethrough.giftt.gifApplies bold, italic, underline, strikethrough or teletype formatting to the selected text. See Text Styles.
subscript.gifsuperscript.gifSubscript (x2) or superscript (x2) the selected text. See Subscript and Superscript.
justifyleft.gifjustifycenter.gifjustifyright.gifjustifyfull.gifSets the text alignment: left, centered, right or justified. See Text Alignment.
ul.gifol.gifCreates bulleted or numbered lists. See Creating Lists.
indent.gifoutdent.gifIncreases or decreases the indentation of a list item. See Creating Lists.
undo.gifredo.gifUndo or redo the most recent action taken. See Undo and Redo.
format.pngFormats the text as heading (level 1 to 6). See Headings.
fontname.pngChanges the font used by the selected text. See Fonts.
fontsize.pngChanges the font size used by the selected text. See Text Size.
forecolor.gifbackcolor.gifChanges the text color or the background color of the selected text. See Colors.
hr.gifInserts a horizontal rule.
removeformat.gifRemoves the formatting from the selected text. See Remove Formatting.
charmap.gifInserts symbols or special characters (accented characters, trademark, currency symbol etc.). See Inserting Symbols.

Menus

menu.png

Insert link menu is active when the caret or selection is outside of a link.

linkinsertmenu.png1. The user can link to one of the exiting wiki pages or to a new wiki page.
2. The user can link to one of the existing attachments or upload a new attachment to the edited page.
3. The user can link to any web page by pasting its address.
4. The user can link to an email address.

Edit link menu is active when the caret or selection is inside a link.

linkeditmenu.png1. The user can edit an existing link (i.e. change its target). A specific dialog is opened depending on the link type.
2. The user can remove an existing link.

See also Creating and Editing Links for a detailed description of how links can be created and edited.

Image

Insert image menu is active when there's no image selected.

imageinsertmenu.png1. The user can insert one of the attached images or upload a new image.
2. The user can insert an image by typing or pasting its address.

Edit image menu is active when there's an image selected.

imageeditmenu.png1. The user can edit the selected image (i.e. change its source, width, height etc.).
2. The user can remove the selected image.

See also Inserting and Editing Images for a detailed description of how images can be inserted and edited.

Table

Insert table menu is active when the caret is not inside a table cell.

tableinsertmenu.png1. The user can insert a table by specifying the number of rows and columns.

Edit table menu is active when the caret is inside a table cell.

tableeditmenu.png1. The user can insert an empty column before the column in which the caret or selection is.
2. The user can insert an empty column after the column in which the caret or selection is.
3. The user can delete the column in which the caret or selection is.
4. The user can insert an empty row before the row in which the caret or selection is.
5. The user can insert an empty row after the row in which the caret or selection is.
6. The user can delete the row in which the caret or selection is.
7. The user can delete the table in which the caret or selection is.

See also Creating and Editing Tables for a detailed description of how tables can be created and edited.

Macro

Insert macro menu is active when there's no macro selected.

macroinsertmenu.png1. The user can insert a predefined macro.
2. The user can force a refresh of all the macros' output. This is useful when macro output depends on the page content like in the case of the "Table of Contents" macro.
3. The user can collapse all the macros in the edited page.
4. The user can expand all the macros in the edited page.

Edit macro menu is active when there's a macro selected.

macroeditmenu.png1. The user can change the parameters or the content of the selected macro.
2. The user can collapse the selected macro.
3. The user can expand the selected macro.

See also Inserting and Editing Macros for a detailed description of how macros can be inserted and edited.

Import

Import office files. 

ImportOfficeDocument.png1. The user can import an entire Microsoft Office Word document.
2. The user can copy and paste content from an office document in the clipboard.
See Importing Office Content.

Tabs

tabs.png

The user can view or edit the document source code by clicking on the Source tab (for advanced users). The source code is not necessarily HTML. It depends on the editor configuration. Usually the source code is in wiki syntax but the editor supports any syntax that can be converted to and from HTML.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Some of the editing features have keyboard shortcuts, improving the editing speed. Below you will find an alphabetical list with all of the keyboard shortcuts:

 

Ctrl + A

 
Selects all the content inside the editing area
 

Ctrl + B

or 

Meta + B

 
Formats the selected text as bold
 

Ctrl + C

or 

Ctrl + Insert

 
Copies the current selection to the clipboard
 

Ctrl +

 
Creates an empty paragraph after the table containing the caret or the selection and places the caret in it. This is useful when you can't move the caret after a table because the page ends with it
 

Ctrl + I

or 

Meta + I

 
Formats the selected text as italic
 

Ctrl + U

or 

Meta + U

 
Formats the selected text as underline
 

Ctrl +

 
Creates an empty paragraph before the table containing the caret or the selection and places the caret in it. This is useful when you can't move the caret before a table because the page starts with it
 

Ctrl + V

or 

Shift + Insert

 
Pastes the data from the clipboard
 

Ctrl + X

or 

Shift + Delete

 
Cuts the current selection
 

Ctrl + Y

or 

Meta + Y

 
Triggers the redo function
 

Ctrl + Z

or 

Meta + Z

 
Triggers the undo function

WYSIWYG Macro Support (since XE 3.0)

 

 or 

 or 

 or 

 Navigate the macro output
 

Enter

 
Edit macro
 

Space

 
Toggle between collapsed and expanded macro state
 

Ctrl + Shift + R

 
Reloads the macros
 

Ctrl + Shift + E

 
Expands all/selected macros
 

Ctrl + Shift + C

 
Collapses all/selected macros
 

Ctrl + Shift + M

 
Opens the insert macro wizard

See also Writing to find out how standard keys like Enter, Backspace, Delete or Tab behave.

Interface

Editing Area

rta.png
The editing area is the place where you will type in your text and format your document. It is a rich text area because you can see, while editing, how the text will look like after it is saved. Before you start typing make sure the editing area is focused. One way to focus the text area is to click on it. This should make the blinking insertion caret appear. You can control the caret using the arrow keys.

Besides typing, the editing area allows you to select a piece of text. This is useful when you want to format your text. If your content becomes larger than the available space in the editing area the scrollbars, vertical or horizontal, will appear. The scrollbars allow you to go up and down, as well as left and right through your text.

Whenever you paste some content into the rich text area of the WYSIWYG Editor that content is (by default) automatically cleaned before being inserted into the rest of the content.

You can disable the automatic cleaning from the "WYSIWYG Editor" administration section if you wish:

WYSIWYGEditor-AdminSection-cleanPasteAutomatically.png

Toolbar

toolbar.png
The toolbar is the place where you can find most of the editor features. It is placed right on top of the editing area. Each feature can be activated through a widget like a button or a list box. Features can be grouped and groups of features are separated from one another using a small vertical bar. The toolbar gets updated whenever you take an action on the editing area (like typing a character or clicking). As a consequence, some features could be disabled depending on where you place the insertion caret inside the rich text area.

toolbarstate.png

A toolbar button can be in one of the four states depicted in the previous image. From left to right we have: not clicked, hovering, clicked and disabled. When a button is in the not clicked state it means the associated feature hasn't been activated on the current context. By current context we mean the place where the insertion caret or the selected text is inside the editing area. When you place the mouse pointer over a toolbar button the later enters the hovering state. In this state you can see a tooltip explaining what the associated feature does. If a toolbar button is in the clicked state then it means the associated features has been activated on the current context. By clicking the button again you can usually toggle off the effect of the feature (remove the bold style, remove the right alignment etc,). A toolbar button is disabled when you are not allowed to activate its feature in the current context.

Toolbar list boxes are also updated when you take an action on the editing area. The proper value is selected depending on the current context. If no value is selected then it means that none of the list box options match the value of the associated feature for the current context (i.e. none of the predefined fonts match the font of the current text selection; the text around the insertion caret has a non standard text size).

Menus

menu.png
The menu bar is the place where you can find the advanced editing features. It is placed right on top of the toolbar. By clicking on a top menu item you can see what entries it has. Most of the top menu items have two sets of sub entries: insert/creation related and edit related. For instance, there is an insert link menu and an edit link menu. When you place the caret inside a link the edit link menu is activated. When you move the caret outside the link the insert link menu becomes active.

macroinsertmenu.png
Some of the menu items have an icon to help us easily recognize them. When a menu item is disabled it means its feature cannot be activated on the current context (the currently selected text or the text around the insertion caret).

Tabs

tabs.png
The editor provides tabs to switch to source editing for advanced users. This tabs are situated right on top of the menu bar if the editor was configured to display them.

Full screen mode

FullScreenMode.png

The editor provides a full screen mode to increase the size of the Editing Area. The above green arrows icon is located at the top right corner of the editor. To restore default screen size: simply click again on similar green arrows icon also located at the top right corner when in full screen mode.

Dialogs

Some of the editing features require additional information from the user. This information is taken using dialogs. Most of the dialogs are modal: the user can't edit while the dialog is opened. The editing is prevented using a glass panel so that the user can still see the text from the editing area while the dialog is opened. If the dialog covers a fragment of text the user wants to see then he can move the dialog by dragging it over the screen. In order to speed up the dragging and to allow the user to see as much as possible from the editing area, only the title bar is visible when the dialog is dragged.

symbolpickerdragging.png
Simple dialogs have a title bar and a body. The title bar has an icon on the left side followed by the dialog title. At the right end of the title bar there is the close button which acts like a cancel button.

colorpicker.png
The color picker is a special dialog that allows us to change the color of the selected text. Unlike the other dialogs, it auto hides when you click on the editing area. The current color is displayed using a bigger square, as it is depicted in the previous image (see the red square). See Colors.

symbolpicker.png
The symbol picker is a special dialog that allows us to insert a special symbol (such as accented characters, trademark, currency symbol etc.) in place of the current text selection or at the caret position. Just click on the desired symbol to insert it. See Inserting Symbols.

link2wikistep2.png
Complex dialogs are used in wizards. Their body is made of three parts: the header, the content and the footer. The header usually contains the title of the wizard step. The content of the dialog includes the input controls used to collect data from the user. The footer usually contains the next/previous buttons and the button for canceling the wizard or finishing it at the current step.

Standard Features

Writing

The Enter key (also known as the Return key) produces a different effect depending on the context where it is pressed:

  • creates a new list item if the caret is inside a non empty list item
  • transforms an empty list item into plain text
  • inserts a line break if the caret is inside a table cell
  • inserts an empty line before the current heading or paragraph if the caret is at the beginning of a heading or paragraph
  • creates a new paragraph if the caret is inside a paragraph or a heading

You can use Shift+Enter to force a line break in a context where the Enter key would produce a different effect. For instance you can press Shift+Enter inside a list item to generate a line break instead of creating a new list item. Advanced users can also use the Ctrl and Meta modifiers when the caret is inside nested block-level containers (i.e. paragraph inside list item inside table cell) to force the Enter key to be handled by the nearest block-level container. For instance, if the caret is inside a level one heading ("Title 1" formatting) which is inside a list item then:

  • pressing Enter will create a new list item
  • pressing Shift+Enter will create a line break in the heading
  • pressing Ctrl+Enter or Meta+Enter will create a new paragraph after the heading, inside the list item

The Backspace and Delete keys can be used for deleting characters, whole words or the selected text. If you press Ctrl+Backspace or Ctrl+Delete you erase the whole word that is before or after, respectively, the insertion caret. The Backspace key ca also be used to remove the empty lines before a paragraph or heading if it is pressed at the beginning of a paragraph or heading.

The Tab key behaves also differently depending on the context where it is pressed:

  • indents a list item if the caret is at the beginning of that list item
  • moves the caret to the next table cell, creating a new table row if the caret is inside the last table cell
  • inserts 4 spaces if none of the previous cases apply

Shift+Tab has the opposite effect of the Tab key:

  • outdents a list item if the caret is a the beginning of that list item
  • moves the caret to the previous table cell

See Keyboard Shortcuts for a list of key combinations supported by the editor.

Text Formatting

Text formatting determines how your text will look in your document.

Text Styles

You can change the way your text looks like by choosing whether the font should be bold (bold.gif), italic (italic.gif), underlined (underline.gif), stroked through (strikethrough.gif) or teletype (tt.gif). To apply any of this styles you just have to click the associated toolbar button. The chosen style affects either the selected text or, if there is just the insertion caret, the next characters you'll be writing.

This is a text with bold style

This is a text with italic style

This is a text with underline style

This is a text with strike through style

This is a text with teletype style

You can mix any of these styles. To toggle off a text style click again the associated toolbar button. If you want to remove all the styles at once see Remove Formatting.

You can mix bold and italic styles: Hello user!

You can mix italic and underline styles: Hello user!

You can mix bold, teletype and strike through styles: Hello user!

See Keyboard Shortcuts to find out how you can change the text style using only the keyboard.

Subscript and Superscript

Subscript and superscript are usually used for writing simple mathematical formulas. Subscript is a way to put an index to a character. The subscript has a smaller font size than the normal text. To activate subscript you must click the subscript.gif button from the toolbar. The superscript works in the same way as the subscript, the only difference being that the index is placed at the top. You can use the superscript.gif button from the toolbar to write simple mathematical expressions like the "x to the power 2".

PABC = LAB + LBC + LCA

E = mc2

Pcancel = x1a + x2b

You can mix subscript with superscript, though the result doesn't very nice. You can also apply Text Styles to subscript and superscript text.

Text Alignment

A paragraph of text or a heading can have its lines aligned to either of the sides of the page, as well as centering on it. You may also force the lines to take the entire space available in the document (like aligning to both sides at the same time).

To align your text at the left side of the editing area, press the justifyleft.gif button on the toolbar.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer venenatis egestas dignissim. Duis arcu libero, dictum at consectetur sed, varius non leo. Curabitur vitae condimentum dui. Curabitur quis tincidunt velit.

If you want instead to have the text aligned in the center of the page, just press the justifycenter.gif button on the toolbar.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer venenatis egestas dignissim. Duis arcu libero, dictum at consectetur sed, varius non leo. Curabitur vitae condimentum dui. Curabitur quis tincidunt velit.

In order to align your text to the right side of the editing area, click the justifyright.gif button from your toolbar.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer venenatis egestas dignissim. Duis arcu libero, dictum at consectetur sed, varius non leo. Curabitur vitae condimentum dui. Curabitur quis tincidunt velit.

If you want all lines to have the same line width then click the justifyfull toolbar button.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer venenatis egestas dignissim. Duis arcu libero, dictum at consectetur sed, varius non leo. Curabitur vitae condimentum dui. Curabitur quis tincidunt velit.

Headings

Headings can be used to organize your text. You can split the content in sections and subsections and then specify a title for each of them. You can choose the heading level to apply from the format list box which is found on the toolbar. If you want to remove the heading style just choose "Plain text" from the format list box.

formatexample.png

Fonts

fontname.png
Fonts determine how the letters of your text look like. "Times New Roman" and "Arial" are among the most used fonts. To use a different font you have to select one from the font list box found on the toolbar.

This is a Comic Sans MS font.

This is a Courier New font.

This is a Times New Roman font.

The editor detects the font used around the insertion caret or by the selected text and updates the font list box accordingly.

Text Size

fontsize.png
To change your font size pick one from the font size list box found on the toolbar.

This text's size is 8pt.

This text's size is 18pt.

This text's size is 24pt.

The editor detects the font size and updates the toolbar list box accordingly.

Colors

The other option to make your text look different is changing the text color or its background color. If you want to change your text color press the forecolor.gif toolbar button and pick a color from the palette by clicking on it.

colorpicker.png
The current color is displayed using a bigger square, as you can see in the previous image.

This text is written in red.

This text is written in green.

This text is written in blue.

You may also change the text background color using the backcolor.gif button. As with other text styles, you can mix text color with background color.

This text has yellow background.

This text is written in red and has a light gray background.

Remove Formatting

If you wish to remove all the styles applied to a piece of text (i.e. font, color, bold, italic, etc.), select it and press the removeformat.gif button.

Creating Lists

You can create two kinds of lists: numbered (also called ordered because the order of the list items is important) and bulleted (also called unordered because the order of the list items is not important). The only difference between these two types of lists is the symbol (a number or a bullet) preceding the list items; they behave the same. To start a list you have to place the caret on the line that you would like to become the first list item in your new list and click the toolbar button for the type of list you wish to create: ul.gif for a bulleted list or ol.gif for a numbered list.

listcreatestep1.png

listcreatestep2.png

You can also quickly create a list from a couple of lines by selecting those lines and pressing the toolbar button for the type of list you wish to create.

listcreatestep3.png

listcreatestep4.png
Once you have a list you can add more list items by using the Enter key. Pressing Enter in the middle of a list item splits that list item in two. Pressing Enter at the end of a list item creates a new empty list item.

listcreatestep5.png

listcreatestep6.png
You can create sublists by indenting list items. To do this click the indent.gif button from the toolbar. Note that you can indent just one level because a sublist must always have a parent list. You can indent multiple list items at once though, by selecting them first. The outdent feature, outdent.gif, is the opposite of indent. Unlike indent, you can outdent a list item multiple levels. Outdenting a top level list item transforms it in plain text.

listcreatestep7.png

listcreatestep8.png
You can mix bulleted lists with numbered lists.

listcreatestep9.png

listcreatestep10.png
After you created the list, press the toolbar button for the associated list type to go back to plain text.

In order to create a link you usually select the text that you would like to become the label of the link and then choose the right option from the "Link" menu based on the type of link you wish to create. You can change the label of the link later: in the link creation process, by editing the link after it was created or directly in the editing area. Be careful though that when you change the label in the link creation process or by editing the link the label looses its formatting (see Text Formatting). If you don't want to loose the formatting then edit the link label directly inside the editing area. Selecting the label before choosing a type of link from the "Link" menu is not required: you'll be asked to provide a label during the link creation process and this label will be inserted at the caret position. Moreover, you can select an image as the link label.

To edit the link properties (not just the label) you have to use the "Edit link" menu which is active only when a link is selected. To select a link you can either place the caret inside the link label or select a piece of the link label. If the link label is an image then you have to select that image.

To remove a link (unlink) you have to select the link and choose "Remove link" from the "Link" menu. Note that the link label (text or image) is not deleted from the document. In case the caret is at the beginning or at the end of the link label, but inside of it (i.e. typing changes the link label), the "Remove link" menu places the caret before or after the link, respectively (i.e. typing adds characters before or after the link respectively).

Note: You cannot create links inside links and you cannot create a link if the selected label spans through multiple blocks of text (paragraphs, headings, lists etc.). This last constraint is due to the fact that a link has to be in-line.

Link to wiki page

To create a link to a wiki page choose "Wiki page" from the "Link" menu.

link2wikistep1.png
First you have to select the wiki page you wish to link to. You can use the tree to browse the exiting wiki pages. If you want to link to a page that doesn't exist yet then select "New page..." from the tree. This doesn't create a new page but just a link to a missing wiki page that can be created later.

The text box above the tree can be used to quickly search for wiki pages. It will offer you suggestions based on the wiki pages that match your input. Advanced users can type directly the reference of the target wiki page, e.g. document:xwiki:Sandbox.WebHome.

After you select the target wiki page (either by using the tree or the text box) click the "Select" button to proceed to the next step.

link2wikistep2.png
Now you can edit the link parameters:

  • the link label
  • the tool tip: the text to display when the mouse cursor hovers over the link
  • if the link should be opened in a new window or not

Click "Create link" when you're done. You will comeback to this dialog when editing a link.

link2wikistep3.png
Your link should be visible inside the editing area at this point. Hover the mouse cursor over the link to see the link label in place.

link2wikistep4.png

Link to attachment

To create a link to an attachment choose "Attached file" from the "Link" menu.

link2attachmentstep1.png
First you have to select the attachment you wish to link to. You can choose from the files attached to the edited page. In our example we have three images attached to the current page. If you want to attach a new file then select "Upload new file" and click "Select". In our example we wanted to create a link to an attachment from a different wiki page than the one edited. For this we clicked on the "All pages" tab. If your attachment is on the current page then just click "Select" and skip the next step.

link2attachmentstep2.png
Use the tree to browse the wiki pages in search for the right attachment to link to. As you can see, each page has an "Attachments" child node that holds the attached files. Notice the "Upload file..." entry which you can use to attach a new file to the corresponding page.

The text box above the tree can be used to quickly search for attached files. It will offer you suggestions based on the attachments that match your input. Advanced users can type directly the reference of the target attachment, e.g. attachment:xwiki:[email protected].

After you select the attachment (either by using the tree or the text box) click the "Select" button to proceed to the next step.

link2attachmentstep3.png
Now you can edit the link parameters:

  • the link label
  • the tool tip: the text to display when the mouse cursor hovers over the link
  • if the link should be opened in a new window or not

These are the same parameters as for a link to a wiki page. Click "Create link" when you're done. You will come back to this dialog when editing a link.

link2attachmentstep4.png
Your link should be visible inside the editing area at this point. You can view or download the attachment by following this link in view mode.

link2attachmentstep5.png

Link to web page

To create a link to a web page is very easy. You have to choose "Web page" from the "Link" menu and then fill in the link parameters:

  • the address of the web page you wish to link to (you can paste here an address copied from the web browser's address bar). If you don't specify a protocol (like we did in out example) then the default HTTP protocol is considered. So you can simply type www.xwiki.org and the final address will be http://www.xwiki.org. Of course you can use other protocols if you want to.
  • the link label
  • the tooltip: the text to display when the mouse cursor hovers over the link
  • if the link should be opened in a new window or not

Click "Create link" when you're done.

link2webpage.png

Link to email

Creating a link to an email address is much like creating a link to a web page. The only difference is that you have to specify an email address instead of a web page address.

link2email.png

You can use an image as the label of a link. To do this you have to select the image and then follow the steps for the type of link you wish to create. Note that you won't be able to edit the link label during the link creation process. If you want to change the label of an image link after it was created then edit the image.

Inserting Symbols

In order to insert symbols or special characters (accented characters, trademark, currency symbol etc.) you have to follow this steps:

  1. place the caret where you would like the symbol to be inserted or select the text that you would like to be replaced by the inserted symbol
  2. press the charmap.gif button on the toolbar
  3. click on the symbol you wish to insert

symbolpicker.png
The symbol picker automatically closes after you choose a symbol. The caret is placed after the inserted symbol so you can open the symbol picker again if you wish to insert more symbols. Inserted symbols are like any other characters you type so you can use the Delete or Backspace keys to remove them and of course you can apply Text Formatting.

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Inserting and Editing Images

To insert an image place the caret where you want the image to be inserted and choose "Attached Image" from the "Image" menu. Make sure you don't have an image selected before opening the "Image" menu because otherwise you'll see the edit image menu entries and no "Attached Image" entry.

imagestep1.png
You have three ways of choosing which image to insert:

  • Upload a new image to the page.
  • Choose from the images already attached to the edited page. In our example there are three images already attached to the page: the XWiki logo, the Ubuntu logo and the Firefox logo.
  • Choose from the images attached to the other pages. For this you have to click on the "All pages" tab and specify the page where the image you want is attached.

Whatever option you choose you have to click on the "Select" button to move to the next step.

imagestep2.png
In our example we choose to upload a new image. Browse through your local files and pick the image you want then click on the "Insert Image" button to attach the image to the edited page.

imagestep3.png
In the final step, before the image is inserted, you can edit the image properties. Here's what you can specify:

  • the image width and height on the page (i.e. how much space does the image take on the page)
  • an alternative text that is printed instead of displaying the image when the image can't be displayed
  • if the text should flow around the image (horizontal alignment) or not; if you want the image to be on the left and the text to flow on its right side then choose Left; if you want the image to be on the right and the text to flow on its left side then choose Right; if you want the image to be centered horizontally on the page then choose Center but note that in this case the text can't flow on the left nor on the right side of the image.
  • how is the image aligned relative to the height of the line where it is inserted (vertical alignment); if you want the image to be aligned to the top of the line then choose Top; if you want the image to be centered vertically on the line where it is inserted then choose Middle; if you want the image to be aligned to the bottom of the line then choose Bottom.

NOTE: You can't set both the horizontal and the vertical alignment for an image. If you align an image horizontally then it's not part of a line anymore (i.e. multiple lines of text can flow on its left or right side) and thus setting the position of that image inside a line has no sense.

Click on the "Insert image" button when you're done. Note that you don't have to set all the image properties now: you can edit the image later.

imagestep4.png
You should see the image in the editing area. To select it simply click on it. Notice the resize handlers that appear around the image when it is selected. You can resize the image inside the editing area by dragging them. If you open the "Image" menu when an image is selected you can see the "Edit image" menu entry.

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To delete an image you can select it and press the Delete key or choose "Remove image" from the "Image" menu.

To insert an external image place the caret where you want the image to be inserted and choose "External Image" from the "Image" menu. Then type or paste the address of the image.
The image will be linked to the source you mention instead of being attached to your document.

InsertExternalImage.png

Creating and Editing Tables

To create an empty table place the caret where you would like the new table to be inserted and choose "Insert table" from the "Table" menu. Currently you cannot insert a table inside another table so, before opening the "Table" menu, make sure you don't have the caret inside a table cell.

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In the opened dialog you can specify the number of rows and columns the new table should have and if you want a table header or not. You can leave the default number of rows and columns if you don't know how many you'll need because you can add rows and columns later. You can't add a table header later though so you must decide now if you need one or not. When you're done, click the "Insert" button.

tablestep2.png
You should now see the table in your editing area. Fill in the table cells. You can navigate from cell to cell using the arrow keys. See Writing to find out how you can use the Tab key to navigate through table cells. See also Keyboard Shortcuts if you can't move the caret before or after the table.

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If you need a new column you can insert one before or after an existing column. Just place the caret in one of the cells from the reference column and choose the appropriate option from the "Table" menu. In our example we choose to insert a new column after the "Index" column (i.e. the "Index" column was the reference column in our case). You can also delete columns in the same manner: place the caret in one of the cells from the column to be deleted and choose "Delete column" from the "Table" menu.

Notice how in the previous image the "Insert row before" option is disabled. This happened because we placed the caret in the table header and table rows are not allowed before the table header.

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Inserting a new row is much like inserting a new column. First you choose a reference row by placing the caret in one of its cells and then you choose the appropriate option from the "Table" menu. In our example we opted for inserting a new row before the the first one (i.e. the first row was the reference row in our case). For this we picked "Insert row before" from the "Table" menu. You can delete table rows in the same manner: place the caret in one of the cells from the row to be deleted and choose "Delete row" from the "Table" menu.

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As you can see the new table row is empty and ready to be filled.

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To delete a table place the caret in any of its cells and choose "Delete table" from the "Table" menu.

Inserting and Editing Macros

A macro is a piece of code that you can reuse in your pages. Macros are written by developers to do common things like displaying an information box, a table of contents or the avatar for a specific user. You don't need programming skills to use macros. Let's follow the steps to insert a table of contents to see how easy it is to work with macros.

Start by writing a few sections in the editing area then create an empty line where you want the table of contents to be inserted. In our example, we pressed Enter after "Space" in order to create the empty line. You can insert the table of contents in other places if you want. Leave the caret on the empty line and choose "Insert Macro..." from the "Macro" menu.

macroinsertstep1.png
You should see a dialog with all the available macros. Each macro has a short description that will give you a hint about what the macro does. Look for the "Table Of Contents" macro. You can browse the list of macros using the keyboard: Up/Down selects the previous/next item in the list, Home/End selects the first/last item in the list. Click "Select" once you have the "Table Of Contents" macro highlighted.

macroinsertstep2.png
Parameters control the behavior and the output of a macro. Some parameters are mandatory. They are different from the rest because they have the "(Required)" text written after the name of the parameter. The "Table Of Contents" macro has only optional parameters. One special macro parameter is the macro content. The "Table Of Contents" macro doesn't require any content but other macros like Info use the content as the main source for their output. You can say that the "Table Of Contents" macro uses the entire page as its content, so you don't have to specify the content.

Change the "Table Of Contents" parameters if you wish but note that you can come back to this step later by editing the inserted "Table Of Contents" macro. We kept the default values in our example. Click "Apply" when you're done.

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At this point you should see the "Table Of Contents" macro inserted in your document.

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Next, we add more sections to the document and choose "Refresh" from the "Macro" menu in order to update the table of contents.

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The table of contents should be updated now.

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If you think the table of contents takes a lot of space you can collapse it. In fact you can collapse any macro. First select the macro by clicking on it and then click again to toggle between collapsed and expanded states. You can also use the "Macro" menu to collapse or expand all the inserted macros. Collapsed macros display only their name and an icon.

macroinsertstep7.png

Importing Office Content

The editor allows you to import content from office applications like OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Word. If you want to insert just a fragment from an office document you can copy it from the office application you use and then click the "Paste" button from the Menu toolbar.

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Paste what you've copied from the office application in the text area that you can see on the opened dialog. Notice the "Filter styles" check box in bottom left corner of the dialog. If you want the pasted text to look as much as possible as in your office application then leave the check box unchecked. Otherwise, if you care only about the content and not the text styles then check "Filter styles". This will result in a much cleaner document but the result may look different than in your office application. Click the "Import" button in the end.

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You should see the office content in the editing area. It was inserted at the caret position or in place of the selected text. You can edit the imported content if you want.

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In case you need to import an office document and not just a fragment you can click on the "Import" link in the menu and then click on "Office Document". NOTE: this feature requires special setup in order to work. Ask your system administrator to enable it.

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See also the Office Importer Application.

Undo and Redo

The undo function is very useful in a situation where you've made a mistake and you want to correct it fast. By clicking the undo.gif button on the toolbar or by using the Ctrl+Z shortcut key combination you can restore the state of the editing area before your last action. The editor manages to do this by keeping a history of the actions you take on the rich text area. Examples of actions that generate history entries are: typing a word, creating a new paragraph, applying a style, deleting a piece of text. The undo function allows you go back in this history. You may of course go many steps back, not just one step, and continue editing from that point.

The redo function is the opposite of the undo function. If you used the undo function and then for any reason decided to go back to the state before the undo you must use the redo function. To activate it press redo.gif on the toolbar or use the Ctrl+Y shortcut key combination. As you can see, the undo and redo functions allow you to go back and forth in the history of the editing area.

Videos

Basic Editing with the GWT Wysiwyg Editor
  • by Silvia Macovei
Insert Links in a Page Using the GWT Wysiwyg Editor
  • by Silvia Macovei
Insert Images in a Page Using the GWT Wysiwyg Editor
  • by Silvia Macovei

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