Some of you might have heard of Xinha before because it is an open source online HTML editor. It has a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) interface so that you don’t have to understand how to code HTML in order to insert inline hyperlinks, or apply advanced formatting options.
There is actually an extension for Firefox called Xinha Here that will let you use this WYSIWYG editor in any field that you wish. A good example of this is our comment box where users can, if they know HTML, hyperlink text or place emphasis (bold, italics, etc…) on certain words. With this extension you just right-click in a text field and choose Open Xinha Here option. By default it will open along the lower half of the screen:
(Click to Enlarge)
You can edit the text using the WYSIWYG editor, and when you’re done click the Apply button to have the HTML code inserted back into the original text field. Pretty cool, huh? Just remember that this will only work for fields that support HTML code, such as our comments.
Compatibility: The extension is officially compatible with Firefox 2, but I didn’t have any problems with it in Firefox 3 Beta 5. If you’re using Firefox 3 and want to install the extension it’s recommended that you grab it from here. Firefox 3 users will also need to force Firefox to ignore the version compatibility information.
I’m testing this Xinha extension here. Let’s see just what this puppy can do. Let’s try a [foxnews.com] and a smilie
.
[foxnews.com]
Well, I’m unimpressed
OK maybe I had the wrong version. Let’s try this again. Here’s a [foxnews.com] and here’s a custom smilie
. Going to see if the color works. OK seems to. Ah, and I can even open another tab. Without the words zigzaging around.
Well, let’s see how the finished product looks.
Nope still doesn’t look right.
Hey guys,
As you know one of the biggest (if not _the_ biggest) hurdles associated with upgrading Firefox is extension incompatibility. We all wanna upgrade but it’s no fun leaving our favorite extensions behind. How about a post detailing the necessary about:config tweaks followed by a list of extensions compatible with Firefox 3… your readers could contribute too. Seems like a useful thing to me, what say?
I am using the “Text Formating Toolbar” instead:
[addons.mozilla.org]
It appears as an extra toolbar (I only make it appear when I need it, rather than have it take extra space). It works very well, and doesn’t take any resources.
Been having a lot of trouble adding extensions to Firefox 3b4, and had trouble adding Xinha now. Even though I have set extensions.checkCompatability and extensions.checkUpdateSecurity BOTH to “false” Xinha still wouldn’t install.
Hello Ryan:
I’m now using the new Firefox Xinha extension and so far it looks good. There are so many features on the top bar it looks like MS Word. If it works as it should, I’ll be hooked. You can even insert tables. Cool!
BTW, I’m currentyly using Flock social browser and it works too.
Regards,
Omar.-
@ Cody
Thanks the Text Formating Toolbar works great!
I’m not seeing my name under the all-star list and I still can’t seem to log on which I’m starting to think was not cause my information was wrong. Is something up with my account?
No problem, we’ll definitely do a post on the about:config tweak. As far as keeping a running list of compatible extensions that would require a lot of updating, and it would take up too much of our time to keep updated.
I did try that one out, but I didn’t like it as much as the Xinha. It’s really just a personal preference.
Did you set the extensions.checkCompatibility to false?
You’re not seeing your name as an All-Star because you commented without being logged in. I’ve sent you an email with your username, which will hopefully help you out.