Hi there folks.

My site, OfficeAutopilot.com, is an EE site. We chose EE without much research based on the recommendation of the guy who did our web programming + the thriving community here and overall ‘good vibe’ of the site.

Now that we’re up and launched (six months ago), I’m wondering if we made a mistake…

I guess I assumed that all content management systems are basically all about making it easy to create and edit the content of my site. But my experience so far is that I’ve basically had to learn HTML to do a blog post.

I know for all you codeheads out there that HTML is no big deal.  And there is a little rush that comes from successfully figuring out how to wrap text around a photo, I’ll admit…

But, dammit, I just wanna write my blog post.  And not worry about HTML tags.

Am I missing something, or is EE really missing a true WYSIWYG editor?  Can it be?

Please help.

Hiya,

Hmm not too sure how your site is set up as I don’t obviously have any access to your admin panel but you can definitely make writing a blog post as easy as just typing in the text. The only place that you may need to use some HTML code is if you want to have certain styles within the text that you are typing. If you don’t need that then you should be able to just literally type the text in without the need for a WYSIWYG editor and get just what you want.

I personally never ever use WYSIWYG editors as they are more trouble than they’re worth in my eyes (so far that is) but I have no problems with entering text as I format it in the templates so that anyone can enter text for a blog post and get it looking how I want without them ever having to worry about it.

Did you set up the site yourself or did someone else do this for you?

Best wishes,

Mark

Was done for me by an experienced EE dude.

Here’s my issues: in order to have my text look right, I have to put <p></p> tags around everything..

Plus, adding photos or anything else seems to require real coding.

Am I off?

Frankly, I don’t think these are the only two options… I don’t think you are a moron, and I don’t find EE disappointing; that said, it does have a certain learning curve, and certainly takes some time to get used to and be able to use its full potential.

But my experience so far is that I’ve basically had to learn HTML to do a blog post.

That would really depend upon your setup. It is true, though, that EE 1.6 does not ship with a WYSIWYG editor out of the box. It is certainly possible to add one, though. There are plugins and instructions for TinyMCE and FCKEdit, and a recent extesnsion for MarkItUp, which is not a true WYSIWYG editor, but could nonetheless be quite helpful.

landon_ray - 02 July 2008 12:42 PM

Here’s my issues: in order to have my text look right, I have to put <p></p> tags around everything..

Try using “Encoding: XHTML” for starters… Photos can be added easily with the file upload manager, too.

landon_ray - 02 July 2008 12:42 PM

Was done for me by an experienced EE dude.

Here’s my issues: in order to have my text look right, I have to put <p></p> tags around everything..

Plus, adding photos or anything else seems to require real coding.

Am I off?

Hiya,

You say that you have to add in <p> tags everywhere? The way I do it is I have my field that I type the text in to set to Auto <br />. I then simply place this in the template :

This then works fine for me for text and images and the like. All I have to do then is literally type in the text into the custom field and nothing else. Maybe give that a try on a new template that isn’t live and see if you like what it does

Best wishes,

Mark

Thanks for the quick responses and help.

“The way I do it is I have my field that I type the text in to set to Auto <br />. I then simply place this in the template :

<p>{my-custom-field}</p>”

I wish I understood this better.. do you mean to actually add that exactly?  What do you mean [my=custom-field]?

Sorry.. am not a tech dude.  Just want to make things easy…

Thx

L

Hi again,

It might be best if you got your developer guy to do this if you are not familiar with templates and the like in ExpressionEngine. If they aren’t around any more then I don’t mind creating a new template group and template in your site for you if you like and setting all this up so that you can see what I mean.

I promise that I am very trustworthy so if you do decide to send across a username and password for me via PM then they will be deleted immediately and I will create the test area for you very quickly indeed so that you can try it all out and see if it is something that you would like to get on your site.

Don’t know if that helps at all?

Best wishes,

Mark

We do not recommend *ever* sharing your details with any non-staff members of EllisLab, Inc.  If you wish to continue on that path, you do so at your own risk, so please take it into private communications.

I recommend talking to the developer that did your site, as they can certainly make it a whole lot easier on you.

Thank you.

EDIT-ADD I totally understand that my post above didn’t have anything in it that added to helping out per se so I understand why it was hidden. Please ignore the below text now striked out.

Yep that’s why I recommended in my (now hidden) post above that it would be good to get the developer to look at this.

In my defence though I promise I am not the sort of person that would ever do anything untoward and nothing would be at risk and so

Sorry if I have done something untoward that was not my intent, just instead trying to help.

Best wishes,

Mark

As Ingmar has mentioned it sounds like the guy who set it up with formatting turned off on the particular input fields.

Now he could have done this to have a very tight formatting control via the templates, or it may be a mistake.

You can alter the formatting and set XHTML formatting for example a “content body field” through the weblog administration > custom weblog fields.

As Lisa says - best speak to the developer and see the reasoning for the development methods. If you can establish them then I am sure someone in this community will / would be willing to assist you making alterations if required to the site.