Can anyone recommend a WYSIWYG TextArea Editor that is free and cross-browser compatible?
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Cross-browser compatible..? Where do you want to use this thing?
What do you mean by "TextArea Editor?"
If it's a WYSIWYG HTML editor you're looking for, try Nvu. It's not perfect -- no WYSIWYG HTML editor ever was, and as HTML gets more and more complicated, no one ever will be -- but for free, you get more than your money's worth. Mac, Linux, and that other thing. http://www.nvu.com/
Sorry I should have clarrified it more.
I meant a WYSIWYG Editor script to incorporate in the text area of a web form. Such that the web user can put stuff like make bold, etc etc.
There was HTMLArea which was free but only the beta works cross-browser and I am not prepared to use the beta version yet.
I think he means one of those fancy <textarea> editors like Hotspam and Yahoo use for composing messages.
>>1
If it's in the form of an ActiveX control, it won't work on anything but IE/Win and other Trident-based browsers.
If it's in the form of a Java applet or JavaScript, it'll work on anything supporting it, on any platform.
Right off hand, however, I can't think of any that are free. I'm even drawing a blank on one you could be scammed for. Good luck with your search, and be sure your site's visitors have the option to turn it off if they think it sucks.
Try searching for "MIDAS" or something, that might turn something up.
Personally, though, I think the WYSIWYG editing capabilities of web browsers largely sucks. That might just be because I've come to dislike the currently popular word processor WYSIWYG metaphor, though.
>>6
Yeh but somehow users like that and sometimes demand that capabiltiy. Like this news submission script I am writing for the company I work for. You'd think a simple plain textarea would do the job but nooo. The users want the eact abilities like Word with the ability to bold and insert images. Freakin users need to learn to live with what they have. sigh
Well, if you're doing this for a company, can't you have the option of using a commercial alternative if you make it clear to the company that there's no chance of something like that being implemented for free? I mean, images in a text area??? You'll need some Java shit to implement something like that.
What language is the server-side stuff gonna be in? Maybe you could have them save RTF documents and upload those as a file upload, then parse the RTF for bolds and such server-side… Just shooting in the dark.
Another thing to search for is "contenteditable".
Also, >>8, it's quite possible to do that with just plain Javascript and DHTML. Of course you wouldn't be using a textarea, just something that looks like it. The contentEditable stuff is actually pretty powerful. I just don't like it becaues it uses the word processor metaphor that largely sucks. Adding images would require some server-side scripting to accept uploads, along with some trickery to easily let people upload images, but it is possible.
I still wouldn't recommend it, though.
Goddamn, this means he's working on commercial software that's going to have a crapload of suck in it (word-processing metaphor). Well, at least he can say it's a duress thing.
How about htmlArea?
tinyMCE is one too. Works on IE and Firefox and others.
the "beta" version of htmlarea is fine, we've used it in production code without problems
(it's an ugly mess though, so be careful)