The Rich Editor is Higher Logic Vanilla’s (Vanilla) default editor for formatting your posts and discussions.
Upgrade to Rich Editor
If you’re still using our Advanced Editor, you can enable the Rich Editor at any time. To do so:
1. Navigate to Dashboard > Settings > Discussions > Posting.
2. In the Post Format menu, select Rich.
✔️ TIP: The Rich Editor provides the best mobile experience, so we recommend selecting it in the Mobile Format menu as well.
If you don't see the Rich option
This means you have to first enable the Rich Editor addon. If you're an administrator and want to enable Rich Editor for your Vanilla community:
1. Access the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
3. Enable the Rich Editor addon.
📝 NOTE: This automatically sets Rich as the default format for Post Format.
- To change the default format, navigate to Settings > Discussions > Posting (or navigate directly to
/vanilla/settings/posting
) and set the Post Format as desired.
Formatting overview
Let’s take a look at the various ways you can format your text using the Rich Editor.
Text formatting
Upon selecting text, several options appear allowing you to apply the following formatting: bold, italic, strikethrough, code block, and hyperlink.
✔️ TIP: With text selected, you can also use the following keyboard shortcuts:
ctrl+b
or ⌘+b
for bold.ctrl+i
or ⌘+i
for italic.ctrl+k
or ⌘+k
for link.
Paragraph formatting
Click into a paragraph to display a paragraph-level formatting menu to the left, as shown below.
The options in each category are as follows:
Special formatting example
While spoiler text is always visible when editing the post, it will automatically be collapsed when the post is published, until a user clicks to view it. This ensures that each user can decide whether or not to view the content.
Lists
Here are a few tips when working with lists:
- Type "-" and press space to begin a bulleted list.
- Press Enter/return to drop down to the next bullet.
- Press Enter/return twice to end the list and resume standard paragraph text.
- Type "1." and press space to begin a numbered list.
- Press Enter/return to drop down to the next number.
- Press Enter/return twice to end the list and resume standard paragraph text.
Indent & outdent lists
You can indent bulleted and numbered lists up to four levels deep:
Click the outdent option to move a line item to the left and "up" one level.
Code blocks
The code block format option formats your text as code
and includes syntax highlighting for some of the more common coding languages. When you input code, the coding language is automatically detected and the syntax is highlighted accordingly. We currently support this for:
- ADA
- Apache
- AppleScript
- C++
- Bash
- BASIC
- Clojure
- CMake
- CSS
- Dart
- Dockerfile
- Excel
- Go
- Haskell
- HTTP
- Java
- JavaScript
- JSON
- Kotlin
- Less
- Lua
- Makefile
- Markdown
- NGINX
- Objective-C
- Perl
- PHP
- PowerShell
- Python
- Ruby
- Rust
- SCSS
- SQL
- Swift
- Twig
- TypeScript
- XML
- YAML
Markdown macros
Rich Editor supports the following markdown-based macros:
Emoji
At the bottom left of the Rich Editor is the Emoji Picker, which you can use to add thousands of emojis to a post. The emojis are grouped into the following eight categories:
- Smileys & People
- Animals & Nature
- Food & Drink
- Travel & Places
- Activities
- Objects
- Symbols
- Flags
Insert images
There are two ways to insert images into a post:
- Users with permission to upload images can do so via the Upload Image icon highlighted below.
- You can also drag and drop images into the editor.
Image-management options
Select an image to enable the following management options (discussed from left to right):
- Float - You can float the image left, center, or right.
- Size - Three generic sizing options are available: small, medium, and large.
- Alt text - Click this icon to display the Alt Text dialog where you can update an image's alt text to help with accessibility and improve SEO.
- Delete - Click the trashcan icon to remove the image. Note that no confirmation is provided, and the action is immediate.
Upload files
There are two ways to upload files to a post:
- Users with permission to upload files can do so via the Upload File icon highlighted below.
- You can also drag and drop files into the editor.
Once the post is published, users will be able to download any attached files.
Mentions
Mentions are a quick and easy way to notify other users about certain comments and discussions that may interest them.
Depending on the mentioned user’s notification settings, they’ll either:
- see a pop-up directly in the community
- or receive an email telling them that they’ve been mentioned with a link to the content.
To mention someone, simply type “@” and then start typing the user’s name. As you type, a list of suggested users will display; continue typing to narrow down this list.
- Mentions are sorted with case sensitivity, and accents are included to allow for more precise matching. All characters except for "@" are supported.
FAQ
What do I do with my existing Advanced Editor posts?
Rich Editor can function side by side with Advanced Editor. Leave Advanced Editor enabled in addition to Rich Editor, and older posts will still be editable using Advanced Editor.
Why am I getting an error message when I try to upload a file?
There are two common errors that can occur when uploading a file to the Rich Editor.
This error indicates that the file being uploaded is not currently supported. If there is a specific file type that your community needs supported, please reach out to Vanilla Support or your CSM to make the necessary change in your site’s configuration.
This error indicates that the uploaded file’s size is too large and cannot be accepted. The default maximum file size is set at 50MB, but this can be changed to suit a site’s needs. If you need to increase or decrease the maximum allowed file size limit, reach out to Vanilla Support or your CSM to make the necessary change in your site’s configuration.
Why is my published post replaced with “There was an error rendering this rich post”?
This message appears when a published post was inserted improperly. This can happen through incorrect insertion of a post through the API.
The Rich
format must be stored in a specific way. Content from sources other than Rich Editor should not be stored with this format.
Rich Embeds
Rich Editor supports Rich Embeds, a feature that allows you to embed content from your community and other sites in Rich posts. You can use this functionality to embed images, files, summaries of other pages, discussions, comments, videos, and more.
Additional resources
Click the link below to access a video expanding on what you learned in this article.