There is a demand for more editing options when entering posts in WordPress. As I mentioned here before, Dean’s FCKeditor for WordPress plugin allows you to replace the standard WordPress editor options with the well-known FCKeditor.
But this has two drawbacks: 1. The plugin is huge; 2. FCKeditor puts too much formatting power in the hands of the user. You may find that if you install FCKeditor on a site, you will eventually find the site littered with huge red text and tiny green underlined text (believe me, I’ve seen it happen!).
Shortcut
So here’s a little-known secret about the WordPress editor in version 2.1 and up: it has many more options – they are just hidden! If you press alt+shift+v in Firefox, or alt+v in IE, a second row of buttons will appear on the editor with the following options:
- a formatting drop-down box with options like Paragraph, Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.
- underline
- justify
- font color
- paste as plain text
- paste from Word – essential for getting rid of all the junk code Word adds
- remove formatting
- clean up messy code
- insert custom character
- undo and redo
Plugin
If you don’t want to have to remember shortcuts, or you are creating a site for clients and want to make their lives easier, Chris Kasten from Solo Technology has created a plugin that places a toggle button on the end of the default toolbar that, when pressed, opens the second row of buttons. Now you have more control over the formatting at the click of a button!
