Former summary: allow WYSIWIG page editing through something like Tiny MCE? or FCKEditor
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Textile can be a bit tricky for your average schmoe. A Java Script WYSIWYG editor such as TinyMCE or FCKEditor would be fantastic.
I’m not in favour of that at all. Textile is very easy to learn and use, and WYSIWYG means bloated code.
I currently use Instiki as a personal notepad, and find Textile easy and nice to use. But I’m guessing Instiki is mostly only used this way, as a personal Wiki by people with patience for learning a new markup syntax.(?)
I love Instiki and am keen to use it in a broader, non-technical group: i.e. actually use it as a collaborative Wiki, not just a personal one.
But I know what you mean: the cleanliness of Instiki is a great asset. I wouldn’t want WYSIWYG to be the default option, just an alternative to Red Cloth/Blue Cloth/RDoc. Would that make mess of the code? (Non-coder alert.) I guess I can imagine that the bit where wiki words have to be interpreted in the middle of the HTML could get ugly.
I’m sure I’ve seen other people suggesting this idea before…
I’ve set it up Tiny MCE? for my end users. Easy enough, just edit the default.rhtml file and add the javascript code to initialize the widget, then make sure you have the distribution in the public/javascripts directory. Works like a charm.
—Todd Fiedler?
Do you have some detailed instructions on how to set that up, Todd? I know WYSIWYG usually means more bloated code. The problem is getting someone non-technical to use the wiki without it. I’m setting up a wiki for office use, for both use by technical and non-technical people. Getting the non-technical people to use the markup language is a very hard sell.
I’ve integrated Tiny MCE? into Instiki and I’m going to prepare a patch for contribution. I think that such a powerful editor as Tiny MCE? pays off for a bit of bloat. BTW it can generate quite clean and pretty-formated XHTML 1.0.
—Zdenek Zavadil?
Using information from Todd Fiedler?’s tips along with the Intergration Document and the WYMEditor in Ruby on Rails screencast , I was able to get the lightweight WYMeditor with Instiki. The 3 files that needed to be modify are default.rhtml, edit.rhtml, and instiki.css (Be sure to create backup copies before playing with them).
—Why Me?
Tiny MCE? would be a great choice for corporate environments, where potential users aren’t interested or find it hard to learn a new (or yet another) markup language.
I think it at least should be a configurable choice .. Throwing around a mantra that you do not agree shouldn’t hinder the adoption of a great tool, right?