Overview
The Editor widget has ADA tools, is responsive (including tables), and includes additional tools and features such as font options and full-screen mode.
Important Note
- Line breaks in the Editor widget automatically double space; to get a single line break, press Shift + Enter on your keyboard.
Font Options
The Editor has the option to expand the font options that are available to you. This includes more font types, sizes, and colors to be available in the drop-down. To turn this feature on, please view our Enable Font Options article.
Editor Features

Fullscreen: Expand your editing window to your whole screen
Bold: Bold text
Italics: Italicize your text
Underline: Underline your text
Strikethrough: Show your text with a line through it
Subscript: Allows you to have text smaller than your normal text and on the bottom, similar to a sub-text
Superscript: Allows you to have text smaller than your normal text and aligned to the top, similar to saying "x squared"
Font Family: Choose the font for your text
Font Size: Change the size of the font
Font Color: Allows you to edit the color of the text
Background Color: Modify the background of the text
Paragraph Format: Select a style that is made for your site, such as Headline, Subhead1, Subhead2, etc
- Note: Further font options are available.
Clear Formatting: Quickly remove extra formatting on your page
- Note: This is helpful if you paste content onto the site and it does not appear correctly.
Block Quote: Align a region (block) of your text differently than the rest of your text
- Note: This will indent and italicize your chosen text.
- Note: This will indent and italicize your chosen text.
Quote: Wraps your text in a q tag, which inserts quotation marks and informs screen readers and other devices that the content is a quote
Abbreviation: Informs the screen reader that there is an abbreviation; enhances comprehension of the text for the end-user
Language: Tells screen readers if specific text is a different language; enhances comprehension and translation for the end-user
Align: Center, left, right, or justify your text alignment
Increase Indent: Increase the indentation of text
Decrease Indent: Decrease the indentation of text
Unordered List: Add bulleted lists to your content area
- Note: You can either select existing text to make a bulleted list or you can start a new line and begin a new bulleted list.
Ordered List: Add numbered lists to your content area
- Note: You can either select existing text to make a numbered list or you can start a new line and begin a new numbered list.
- Note: You can either select existing text to make a numbered list or you can start a new line and begin a new numbered list.
Insert Image: Insert and format images into your content area
Insert Document Link: Opens up the Document Center so you can select a document to link to
Slideshow Manager: Insert and format slideshows into your content area
Insert Link: Add any link to the page
Insert Table: Insert a table into your content area
Undo: Undo recent changes
- Note: The undo option will only go back to the most recently saved.
- Note: The undo option will only go back to the most recently saved.
Redo: Redo recent changes; only recognizes active edits, as soon as the page saves it will not be available
Special Characters: Insert special characters onto your page
Select All: Quickly and easily select all content that is in the editor
Code View: This option gives you the opportunity to work on the HTML side of the editor; can add custom styles, colors, or other coding
- Note: The code is color-coded to best keep track of action items.
ADA Checker: CivicPlus provides an ADA checker for the content located in the Editor Widget, FAQs, and News Flash.
- Note: Learn more about this tool in our ADA Checker article.
Note: The Editor automatically removes inappropriate code from the system so that it does not contradict. If you would like custom coding that the Editor does not allow, please consider the Custom HTML widget.
Short Cuts
- Ctrl + Shift + Enter: Allows you to type directly below a paragraph of text with no space between
- Ctrl + K: Shortcut to insert a link
- Ctrl + V: Paste
- Ctrl + C: Copy
- Ctrl + X: Cut
- Ctrl + Z: Undo
- Ctrl + Shift + V: Plain Paste
- Note: Not all browsers will allow this.
- Ctrl + B: Bold
- Ctrl + I: Italics
- Ctrl + U: Underline
- Ctrl + S: Strikethrough
- Ctrl + ]: Increase Indent
- Ctrl + [: Decrease Indent
Rich Formatting
The Editor Widget recognizes rich formatting that a user pastes and will alert the user with a pop-up message to ask if they would like to clear the original formatting before they paste it into the Editor.
Note: If pop-ups are disabled, the message will not be seen.
Tags
- P and Header tags are the proper semantic tags to use in the cases of the Editor and provide some value for SEO and Accessibility.
Feedback About the Article
Let us know what was helpful or not helpful about the article below.7 comments
Great article. Can we add a reference to the ADA Checker tool in here?
https://www.civicengage.civicplus.help/hc/en-us/articles/360002424334-ADA-Content-Checker
Absolutely! We have added the reference. Thank you for your feedback!
Great overview!
Would it be possible to have additions or a separate article on how to make posts most accessible within the Editor? (e.g. nesting headings properly using "CSS Class", adding images and making sure they have appropriate alt text, using bulleted/numbered lists, and best practices for adding links and tables?)
This would be incredibly beneficial, especially since so many other modules make use of the editor (eg News Flash, Info Advanced, Archive Center, ...).
This needs to be updated to reflect the new Editor look/explanations please.
This article is wrong – the image displayed looks nothing like the new Editor, because literally all of the Editor's controls have been hidden.
David, We are aware of the current behavior of the toolbar being consolidated. We are working to get that resolved. Once that is fixed, it will again look like the one in this article. Would it be helpful for us to have an article on the consolidated toolbar and where all the options are found within that?
There is an issue when copy and pasting within the editor widget. It adds a bunch of extra code if you do not remember to paste as plain text every time. Clean up has been a nightmare. Can this be fixed?
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