[Sigia-l] Web Application Functionality: Rich Text Editors

[Hilary Marsh]

Hi Gail,

Rich text editors are Word-like, but they are not Word -- and, as 
you've noted, Microsoft builds so much hidden code into its software 
that it always messes with other rich text editors.

The only solution, no matter which text editor you use, is to educate 
anyone using the software that it is necessary to paste the text into 
Notepad first and then into the WYSIWYG field. It's not pleasant, but 
there's really no way around this. (Some rich text editors allow 
people to view the HTML for their entries, so people could go into 
that and remove any code they see in that view -- but that 
alternative only works for people who understand HTML.)

That's my .02 as a content manager.

BTW, as someone who's done lots of work for foundations and 
nonprofits, I love your idea to manage the grant application content 
-- that, itself, is pretty groundbreaking work, as far as I know.

Best,

Hilary



>Does anyone here have experience with rich text editors for web applications?
>
>As I described in a previous post, I am the information architect 
>and interaction designer at a non-profit foundation.  I have 
>designed a web application that my organization uses to intake, 
>review and award applications for research grants.  This year over 
>1000 applications were submitted online and we are awarding about 
>$50 million dollars to scientific researchers at institutions across 
>the US and abroad.
>
>In previous years, applications for research grants were uploaded as 
>.pdf files.  Reviewing them was time consuming and reporting on key 
>elements within them was difficult.  This year we chose to break up 
>the application into sections that our organization, as well as our 
>grant reviewers, could manage and evaluate more easily.  The grant 
>application is entered into rich text boxes across several screens 
>and the rich text editor constrains the text formatting to our 
>organization's guidelines (limiting font, font size and character 
>count, as uniformity aids in our grant review process), provides 
>scientific and mathematical symbols, and image upload.  It also 
>allows applicants to create a duplicate version in which they blind 
>all proper names.  Even though the grant application is broken up 
>into sections, it prints as a single document.
>
>The rich text editor in our web app (a free one which we adapted) 
>worked well this year if applicants composed their grant application 
>directly into it online.  However, many applicants compose their 
>grant applications in Word (they may be applying to more than one 
>organization) and when they pasted their text from Word into our 
>rich text boxes we had many issues with the hidden tags and other 
>things that didn't play well with our application.  Our developers 
>work in asp.net and we are looking at Cute Editor 
>(http://cutesoft.net/) as a possible solution.


-- 
Hilary Marsh
Strategic online content consultant
http://www.contentcompany.biz
708.217.3922
blog: http://online-content.blogspot.com/