Key Features
In-line spellchecker
Pushing the level of usability even higher RadEditor now offers convenient in-line spellchecker, just like Microsoft Word.
Find and Replace dialog in Mozilla
RadEditor now offers unified user experience thanks to the new Find and Replace dialog for Mozilla browsers.
AJAX-Based File Browser Dialogs
RadEditor v6.0 offers great performance enhancements and is faster and lighter than ever before. The component now uses AJAX in all file browser dialogs in order to load files and folders on demand. This greatly improves the usability of the component and re-affirms the product’s robustness for enterprise applications with large file repositories.
Dockable and Floating Toolbars
The toolbars in RadEditor v5.0 can be dragged and rearranged just like in Microsoft Office. Furthermore, toolbars can be undocked and appear floating over the content inside or outside the editor. Developers can specify whether a toolbar is draggable or not using the ToolsFile. RadEditor has 5 docking zones (expand for a screenshot). Each zone can contain one or more toolbars, or can be empty.
Multilevel Undo/Redo with Action Trails
RadEditor v5.0 takes the user experience even closer to desktop word processors, thanks to the multilevel Undo/Redo feature and especially the action trails. They allow you to see the past actions and undo/redo one or more of them at once, just like in Microsoft Word.
7 Ways for Pasting from Word
RadEditor v5.0 introduces a number of new features, which help the user paste formatted content from Microsoft Word and other applications, and apply different types of format stripping:
1. Strip Word-formatting on paste
2. Strip Word-formatting on paste (cleaning fonts and sizes)
3. Forced format stripping on Paste
4. Word Content in Clipboard Interception
5. Strip Word-formatting after paste
6. Paste plain text
7. Paste as HTML
Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
To take the authoring experience even closer to the usability of desktop applications, RadEditor introduces the ability to assign custom keyboard shortcuts to every tool. This can be done using the new shortcut attribute of the item in the ToolsFile. The shortcut mechanism will override the default shortcuts of the browser, like Ctrl+N, Ctrl+F, Ctrl+P, so you can use those combinations for custom purposes. Keyboard support is also a requirement for "Section 508" accessibility compliance.
Multiple Editors with a Single Toolbar
Multiple editors on a single page can now use a single toolbar, displayed at the top of the page. Each editor can still have different set of tools in this top so whenever the cursor I placed in a given editor, its respective toolbar will be displayed on the top of the page.
XHTML 1.1 Compliant Output and Interface
RadEditor can now provide complete XHTML 1.1 compliance, which has the following two aspects:
- The markup comprising the interface of the editor (toolbar, dialogs, etc.) is XHTML 1.1 compliant.
- The the editor can produce XHTML 1.1 compliant content (the content being edited).
Integrated XHTML Validation Module
To assist end-users in the XHTML content validation process, RadEditor provides a new module for real-time validation. Using a callback request (Ajax-type request) the editor sends the HTML content for validation to the W3C service, and returns a compliancy report right within the editor interface. This feature eliminates the need for manual copy/pasting of the HTML and validation in a separate browser window.
Accessibility Compliance
RadEditor satisfies the requirements for accessibility, which is a result of the following:
- the interface of the RadEditor is "Level A" accessible (in accordance with the W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines 1.0).
- the content generated by the RadEditor can become "Section 508" accessible if the author fills in all required fields (marked with a special accessibility icon
).
In order to build accessible tables ("Section 508"-compliant) you need to add additional fields using the Accessibility tab of the "Table Wizard"/"Table Properties" dialogs. The Windows Narrator tool uses these fields (heading rows, columns, caption alignment and summary) to produce Tooltip message for each table cell. Users with impaired vision can hear those Tooltips as they hover over the cells with the mouse. Similar fields are included in the Hyperlinks Manager, Document Manager, and the Image Properties dialogs.
Support for Safari 1.3 & 2.0 (Mac)
RadEditor v5.5 can now be used for content authoring on Safari v1.3 and v2.0 for Mac. However, due to the security restrictions of this browser, certain functions of the editor do not work. Please, review the documentation for details.
Getting/Setting Content
Option to save content directly in the ASCX/ASPX file
RadEditor is the only content editor that offers built-in functionality for saving content directly in the page/control. This feature is very convenient for the numerous static areas on a web-site (e.g. welcome text, FAQ, company information, contacts, etc.), which don't really need to be in a database...
Moreover, this feature allows you to turn any static site into an editable one and let your clients take care of the content management. They will love it and you can charge more for this greater value.
HTML Templates
RadEditor allows you to insert chunks of HTML code obtained from external files (e.g. pre-formatted tables signatures etc.) Those files are called Templates and can be in any format that your server will allow you to read (HTML, ASCX/ASPX, etc.) Templates are similar to code Snippets with the only difference being that they are obtained from individual files, which the user can browse, upload, delete, etc.
Handling Content
Content Filters
Content Filters are small code snippets, which are called in a sequence to process the editor content, when the mode (html / design / preview) is changed. Basically, the editor content is supplied to the filter chain and each filter gets a chance to modify it. Developers can easily create their own filters and process the HTML content when needed.
Adaptive Buttons
Some of the buttons on RadEditor toolbars will change their state in real time to reflect the actual state of the cursor selection (i.e. bold, justification, etc.) Some buttons will be enabled (or disabled) if certain action can be performed (or not) with the current cursor selection (e.g. Unlink is enabled only if you have selected a hyperlink, Redo is not available if you haven't undone any action first).
Toolbars and Menus
ShowOnFocus Toolbar Mode
Traditionally setting the benchmark for WYSIWYG content management, RadEditor delivers yet another innovation – ShowOnFocus toolbar mode. If this mode is turned on, the editor toolbar will only be visible when the focus is on the content area of the editor.
Furthermore, when visible the toolbar would not occupy precious space, but would rather overlap the neighboring page elements. This allows you to utilize the page space in the most efficient way, without having to limit the toolset of your editors.
Custom Context Menus
The ToolsFile In RadEditor v5.0 has been extended to reflect the changes in the server-side API. Among these changes is the new contextMenus tag, which allows you to change the default context menus and specify custom ones for the various HTML elements. You can also disable the context menu for certain elements (e.g. for tables).
Tools
Multi-Cell Selection in Table Dialog
Customizing tables is now much more intuitive thanks to the ability to select multiple cells at once and apply formatting to all of them. The multi-cell selection is available in the all table dialogs.
Visual ImageMap Creator
The ImageMap tool is particularly useful for non-technical end users, who can visually create rectangular and circular image maps and set various link properties.
Support for External CSS Files
By default RadEditor uses the CSS classes available in the current page. However, it can now be configured to load external CSS files instead. This scenario is very common for editors integrated in back-end administration areas, which have one set of CSS classes, while the content is being saved in a database and displayed on the public area, which has a different set of CSS classes. Thanks to the CssFiles property, you can specify as a string array the list of CSS files, which you need the editor to use. e.g. CssFiles="~/Examples/ExternalCssFiles/styles1.css, ~/Examples/ExternalCssFiles/styles2.css"
Dialogs can be Easily Created/Modified
RadEditor v5.0 uses conceptually new dialogs, which allows developers to easily create their own dialogs or modify the existing ones.
Thumbnail Generator in Image Manager Dialog
The image manager of RadEditor v5.0 has been enhanced to allow image resampling (thumbnail generation) of files, which are already located on the web-server. the past versions allowed image resampling only during upload. Thumbnails can also be generated from the Image Properties dialog (Image context menu).
Spellchecking with the MS Word dictionaries
RadEditor is shipped with an spellchecking component, RadSpell, which can use either its integrated dictionaries or the ones of Microsoft Word XP or 2003. (Note: Microsoft Word XP or 2003 must be installed on the server).
Highly Intuitive Tools and Dialogs
RadEditor features rich and highly intuitive dialogs, which make the work with the content editor a much more natural and convenient experience. The dialogs for managing Image, Flash, Windows Media, and Documents now include features like file sorting, preview, zoom, ability to create and delete folders, etc.
Superior table management
Advanced table management is a key feature of RadEditor. The proprietary Table Wizard includes tools for setting alignment, borders, colors, etc. Users can also set image backgrounds for tables and cells. Cell merging and splitting is also possible through the right-click or drop-down menus.
Mechanisms for enforcing user roles (insert, upload, delete rights)
RadEditor is built with security in mind to facilitate integration even in large enterprise-wide systems. This requires strict definition and enforcing of user roles. With RadEditor administrators have the ability to control insert, upload, and delete rights for images, Flash, Windows Media™, and documents...
John from Marketing can insert images and Flash from the common .\Img and .\News folders, upload to .\News and .\John, and delete only from .\John. You can further specify that John can edit only the "Special offers" section on the homepage, but not the "Welcome" text, which is controlled by the PR department.
Code Indentation in HTML Mode
RadEditor features an enhanced HTML mode, which displays nicely indented code - easier to read and modify. You can turn off the indentation by unchecking the "Indent HTML" checkbox.
Modules and Add-ons
4 System Modules for Advanced Users
RadEditor v5.0 comes with 4 System Modules, implemented like dockable toolbars. You can even create your own modules and plug them in RadEditor:
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Tag Inspector - displays the tag hierarchy of the current selection and allows you to remove a given tag.
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Properties Inspector - gives you quick access to most of the properties of the current tag, eliminating the need to open dialogs.
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Real-time HTML View - it is similar to the Split mode of MS FrontPage - if you make a modification in the WYSIWYG pane or the HTML pane the other pane will be automatically updated. Great fine-tuning tool for advanced users.
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Statistics module - provides word/character count or other analysis of the content.
Internationalization
Easy localization through XML
All labels, buttons, tooltips and error messages are located in external XML files, so that the language of the editor can be switched with a single property. You can also create a new language in a matter of minutes. The default installation is shipped with 3 languages: English, German, and French.
Cross-browser Support
Unified content in Mozilla and Internet Explorer
The HTML rendering mechanism of RadEditor has been substantially improved so that the content produced in Internet Explorer and Mozilla are now identical.
Standards compliance
Functionality
Enhanced Windows XP SP2 support
RadEditor can use either the classic Windows modal dialogs or its own custom dialogs. The advantage of the custom dialogs is that they will not be blocked by the integrated pop-up blocker in Windows XP Service Pack 2. Moreover, the status bar, which is mandatory for all browser windows in SP2, will not be displayed, preserving the proper graphic design of the dialogs.
Enhanced Support for Large Multi-User Applications
Previously, RadEditor has been using a cookie-based security mechanism as a means of communication between the editor and the file-browser dialogs, which are independent aspx files. To eliminate even the slightest possibility for problems in very large applications with numerous editors, or ones deployed on webfarms, RadEditor v6.0 extends the cookie-based mechanism with two other modes – JavaScript and Session.
Full-Screen Mode
A convenient new feature of the RadEditor is the ability to temporary maximize its workspace to the full size of the browser window. When you are done creating/modifying the content you need to click the Full-screen Mode button (or F11) to restore the editor to its original size.