Formatting Text with the WYSIWYG Editor

The WYSIWYG editor allows you to format text just like you were working with a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word.

1. Highlight the text you want to change, or position the cursor on the line where you want to begin typing with the formatting.  
2. Click the appropriate buttons for the desired format change.  (Or use keyboard shortcuts in some cases)  

Formatting that can be done with the click of a button: (or with keyboard shortcuts)

• Bold (Ctrl+b)
• Underline (Ctrl + u)
• Italics (Ctrl + i)
• Strikethrough
• Numbers
• Bullets
• Indent
• Quotes
• Align text right, left, center, or justify (align right and left)
• Subscript
• Superscript

To remove formatting, simply highlight the text, and then click the eraser next to the BOLD symbol.  When you mouse over the eraser a text window reads 'remove format'.

The editor does not allow you to change text font, color or size or the background color so that content authors keep the site as consistent looking as possible.  However, there are several pre-loaded formats in your website that will allow you to make formatting changes that are consistent with the rest of the site.

These are found in the dropdown in the editor toolbar.  Your options are 'normal', 'Heading 1' through 'Heading 6', 'formatted', 'address', and 'Normal (DIV)'.  Depending on how your site is styled, these may do something and they may do nothing.  Note: When you view your text inside the WYSIWYG, you'll see it styled the way it is in the dropdown, but it will look different on the page if your page template has these headings configured differently.

Why does GeoDocs work this way?  One great thing about a content management system is that you can take the same piece of content and use it over and over again, and it can change styles to match the page where you're viewing it.  So we use a collection of styles called 'heading 2' or 'h2' instead of "green, bold, and 14 pt font" so that h2 can be a different set of styles on different pages.  This is also useful if you ever want to restyle your site you can just change the settings for all these headings and you don't have to edit every piece of content to match the new look.