Hello!

Today, we are releasing the first version of our new text editor.
For now, the new editor is only active for NEW stories.
Compared to the old editor, this one follows a WYSIWYG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG) model.

That means you can see what the finished story looks like inside the editor.

More importantly, it also comes with many formatting options (text size, text- and background color, alignment, and much more), all much simpler to use within the editor. You can even post formatted text into it to a certain degree.

We tried to test as much as possible, but with the number of different devices and browsers, please expect to find some bugs or rough edges. If you find them, post them below or open a ticket so we can fix them.

We also ensured that we did not remove any functionality of the old editor, but if we overlooked something, please let us know too.

Once we polish the new text editor, it will replace the current editor for all parts of our site (forum, comments, profile introduction, etc.)

As always, with these updates, you can expect us to closely monitor things and push fixes as fast as possible.

We hope you like the change and are looking forward to your feedback!

Best Regards,
ChatFighters

Last edited on 2023-10-06 16:44 by The Tech
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Comments

23

Madison Jones

2023-10-06 18:06

Hey there, I've been playing around with it. Here are my observations...

There seems to be no way to link external images and have them display like we were doing with the old editor. This means that large banners for matches, gif files, and so forth will not display as pictures, but merely as a link to the picture. You stated that you didn't remove any functionality of the old editor, and this is a functionality that is indeed missing now.

In addition, what image options you do provide are now constrained to the Hexagon preview function, which I don't necessarily think is bad, but when I want a large match banner for the federation at the start of my stories. believe I would now need to upload that to CF in order to display it in a small hexagon, which is less than ideal.

I'm still playing around with it, maybe I overlooked some functionality. If there is a way to post external image files, say ones that are hosted on Discord, please let us know how to do that.


The Tech

2023-10-06 18:47

(In reply to this)

You should be able to post external images as normal - did you try it and save it? We tested it and it worked.. but maybe we overlooked something. If it really does not work, can you open a ticket and send us a link to a test story where this is the case?
(try also to press space or enter after you copied an external link)


Madison Jones

2023-10-06 19:05

(In reply to this)

Sorry Tech, I missed your response here. I was working with Jasper in chat regarding it. Yes, pressing enter after the image URL makes it appear, but only once it is posted as plain text.


The Tech

2023-10-06 19:24

(In reply to this)

Yes, the problem is when the link is part of a larger text during copy&paste, then it does not get detected correctly as an image.
Thats an oversight of the paste handler - will be fixed soon, no worries.


Madison Jones

2023-10-06 19:04

(In reply to this)

Update.

After playing around with it, and talking with Jasper Wright, it is possible to post external images into a story. You must do the following steps:

1.) Past the URL as plain text. You can do this by copying it, then in the editor, right-clicking, and then selecting "Paste as plain text".
2.) Press enter after the image that text, and the editor will recognize it as an image. It will then display the image as such.
3.) The image will continue to display now even when posted as a story. In order to center it, you will have to use the standard "Align Center" formatting tool.

This means we can create the same type of visuals we were making before. I think this is a little clunky still, but the new tools are appreciated.


Rob Musclestud 2

2023-10-07 10:59

nvm figured it out but took a while to work


ErikAtlas

2023-10-07 18:42

OH my.... this is an achievement here, @Tech. Thank you - this is good.


Guille (deleted member)

2023-10-07 21:27

When editing on mobile, after saving I lose all color features I added previously on laptop.


Lloyd Morgan-Whitman

2023-10-08 00:42

The internal links don't seem to work anymore. The ones with double square brackets and a vertical line.


Madison Jones

2023-10-08 00:43

(In reply to this)

The old HTML isn't going to work with this Lloyd. You and Emmet will need to use the "Link" function in the editor now. I know, there is a learning curve. I can help you in chat if you want to talk.


The Tech

2023-10-08 09:10

(In reply to this)

Correct, the old system is based on wiki formatting my link text it was used on our sites for way over 10 years. Over time we changed the wiki formatting to make it fit all our sites better. So it was a mix between the official wiki formatting and something self-developed.

Using that required a lot of effort for the users as it was not intuitive at all.

The new editor is based on the more modern WYSIWYG concept.
Which will be much easier to learn and understand for newcomers.
Because you just select the text and click the button - just like in word, google docs or pages.

But that means the old stuff (wiki formatting) does no longer work.


Lloyd Morgan-Whitman

2023-10-08 13:36

(In reply to this)

Does this mean the links which were formatted that way in old stories will stop working?


The Tech

2023-10-08 13:39

(In reply to this)

No, of course not. An editor change will not affect previously posted stories.


Lloyd Morgan-Whitman

2023-10-08 13:39

(In reply to this)

OK, great, thank you 😊


Kirk the Kid

2023-10-09 11:33

I have question about posting stories on the site now....in the past in the section where you posted the story it was a big grey square and easy to post...now it is a big black square with icons across the top of it and when you post in there it all runs togerher and you have to go through it line by line to seperate the responses before posting....it is very time consuming.....is there way to return to the old way of doing it in this way new way to post on the site now...thank you for helping me out with this question.....


The Tech

2023-10-09 22:47

(In reply to this)

Did you use the transcript import function? Or copy & paste from the chat?

Please do not do that. On the chat, you can click the 'create story from chat' button.


Starfox

2023-10-10 01:28

(In reply to this)

Ok, so you can ignore the previous version of this comment! What you need to do is IGNORE the timestamp formatting. Just go in and do what we normally would've done and it will come out ok. Odd because it does NOT show up that way in the editor. Ok, so would there be a way for it to show up in the editor like it will when it's posted? I think this may be what's throwing folks off? Or maybe i'm just missing something.......


Madison Jones

2023-10-10 01:49

(In reply to this)

In the case of Kirk's comment, I believe he is talking about copy/pasting text from the editor into say, Google Docs. In doing so, it copies the background colors and all the "formatting" from the editor, as previously it would cleanly copy the text. From there, whatever editing tactics he used could be applied.

I suspect the biggest issue is that he can't copy/paste to Google cleanly anymore, and likewise, can't copy/paste back into the editor cleanly either without having to do an extra round of cleanup. This is in part what I was speaking of when I talked about it taking a lot more work to produce the same quality of product.


Kirk the Kid

2023-10-10 10:48

Yes I save my matches in a text document that I use to edit them and then just copy and paste them over into the box on here where you post the match when submitting one...it always worked perfectly in the past but like I said it was just a grey box to post it in and not the black one showing up on here now...somehow that has altered the postings into one big posting that I have to go through line by line to seperate out each of our responses in the postings...like I said it is time consuming and as a result my oppoent has a long time to wait before I can finish it for him to ok it as well...sometimes he leaves which I don't blame him and it doesn't get approved until later when he comes back online...in the past it could be done right away.


Lloyd Morgan-Whitman

2023-10-19 23:11

Possibly too late to the party, but I figured I'd try my luck. After all, you can't succeed if you don't try. ;)

Would it be possible to introduce the option to remove the "yt"s at the end of turns? Similar to how time-stamps are now optional?


The Tech

2023-10-21 16:30

(In reply to this)

yt are now automatically removed, but it can be disabled with the option.


Lloyd Morgan-Whitman

2023-10-21 16:59

(In reply to this)

Amazing! Thank you so much! ♥


BomberB (deleted member)

2023-10-30 00:00

Thanks a lot. Love this