Manual:VisualEditor

BlueSpice uses the MediaWiki extension VisualEditor as editing tool. This sophisticated editor supports all common edit tasks that you can expect in a wiki environment.

What is VisualEditor?

One of the most important tools for inserting and formatting content in BlueSpice is VisualEditor. This visual editor is based on the MediaWiki extension VisualEditor. With this sophisticated editor pages can be quickly and clearly filled with a variety of content.

When creating or editing a page, you're in visual edit mode right now. If you are familiar with the code language of MediaWiki ("WikiText"), you can easily switch over using the "Switch Editor" function:

text

VisualEditor

The visual editor is optimized for editing wiki pages. Important characteristics and functions are:

1. Page structuring with headings.
2. Consistent text formatting.
3. Linking of contents.
4. Inserting special content (files/media, tables, templates, magic words)
5. Adjusting page options.

Text editing

Typical text formatting options such as bold, italics, or textcolor</ span> are already possible during text inputtext color are available as a context menu. When you format highlight text with the mouse, you will see a mini menu with the most important common formatting elements . With one click the desired formatting can be selected. This is especially fast, if you want to change the text color, for example:

The mini menu appears only in the text flow, not when an entire paragraph is highlighted. For example, note for bullet points, that you select only the text itself and not the whole line. Otherwise, paragraph formatting will be selected "behind the scenes" and the mini menu will not appear.

appears. For example, you can apply a different text color.

Applying text color

Pasting content from your clipboard (ctrl+shift+v)

Undo

If you paste content from your clipboard (e.g., copied from MS Word or MS Excel), you usually also paste many unnecessary formatting tags from the original application. To avoid, this you should paste the content as plaintext.

If you already pasted text which resulted in undesirable formatting, you can use the undo function in VisualEditor to remove the content again if you have not yet saved the page or switched between visual and source editing mode.

To paste content as plain text instead, use the shortcut ctrl+shift+v.

Shortcuts

If you want to apply multiple formatting options at the same time, shortcuts are often the quickest way. For example, to show text in bold and italic text, highlight the text and press Ctrl+b (for English, "bold") and Ctrl+i (for "italics"). Even a link can be quickly pasted via inserted by pressing Ctrl+k. Pressing Ctrl+b again will cancel the bold. Multiple formatting formats can be removed after text selection using with Ctrl+M combinedm.

All editor functions for which there are available keyboard shortcuts are marked accordingly :

insert external

in VisualEditor next to each menu item.

Menu items with shortcuts

Note: For a list of all available shortcuts, click on "Keyboard shortcuts" in the Visual Editor help menu (the question mark menu item).

Inserting other content

Many typical page elements such as images, files and tables can be integrated into your page via from the "Insert" menu.

• File formats with a preview option: jpg/jpeg, png, gif, pdf
• File formats without preview option are always inserted as links (e.g., Microsoft Office formats)
• Files can be connected with namespaces and categories

If you want to learn more about inserting these elements, go to the appropriate following help pagepages:

• Images
• Files (PDF, xls, doc, ...)
• Tables
• Templates

Typical Wiki!-specific content

Some functions in the "Insert" menu are little known from traditional word processing, but are quite typical for working with a wiki. Therefore, you will be they are briefly introduced here. You can immerse yourself deeper Find more information on the individual pageshelp pages here in the helpdesk or at mediawiki.org:

• Comment: Add comments to the page. These are only visible in the source code.
• Gallery: A simple picture gallery can support many process flows.
• Magic word: Wiki features such as signature, word counter, category tree or even process diagrams with draw.io can be integrated as a "magic word".
• Your signature: Only works on pages that allow signatures. Pages in the Namespace "Pages" are not included.
• Gallery: A simple picture gallery can meaningfully support many process flows.
• Codeblock: Programming code is displayed here in clean code blocks, optionally with linesline numbers.
• Itemization References list:
• Chemical formula: The formula rendering uses an external service via Wikimedia's REST API.
• Math formula: An editor opens for entering a mathematical formula. More info on MediaWiki

MediaWiki Reference

Switching between edit modes

When creating or editing a page, the page loads in visual editing mode. If you are familiar with the code language of MediaWiki ("Wikitext"), you can easily switch to source editing mode using the "Switch editor" button:

MediaWiki reference

Since the visual editor VisualEditor is a standard MediaWiki extension, you can also read a complete documentation of functionality on MediaWiki. Here in the BlueSpice Helpdesk, we only give only short some hints and tips for using the editor.

Hints and Tipstips

The visual editor VisualEditor is optimized for editing web pages. That's why it has exactly those the features that are often needed to create a wiki page again and again. The uniform formatting by VisualEditor thus consistent formatting of content supports the readability of your wiki content.

The BlueSpice Editor offers the following options:

text Text formatting

Text formatting
Undo function	Left arrow: Undo last action (greyed out: there is no last action yet) Right arrow: Restore last action (greyed out: there's nothing to restore yet)
Format Paragraph formatting	Here text can be defined as heading or specific paragraph type. Note: If you work in a table, the options will change accordingly (content cell and header cell):
Character formatting Style text	If no text has been selected before clicking on the " A" button and on a button, the text will be formatted from the current position of the cursor. (More Info on MediaWikiat mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:VisualEditor/User_guide/en#Getting_Started:_The_VisualEditor-Toolbar])
Insert hyperlink	If no text was selected before the hyperlink dialog was opened, the link will be generated with a number: [1] To subsequently change the hyperlink description, just click on the link to open the edit menu. In a table, you may need to double-click the cell first and then click the hyperlink again.
quote cite	The citation menu is used to insert references (also called itemizations or footnotes) within the text.
Block formatting Structure

Insert special content

Paste Special Content
Insert menu	Use the "insert" menu to insert various media (images, videos) and text formats:
media	Inserting pictures and videos (Details on MediaWiki])
templates	Include Template a template in the page.
tables	Tables are an important tool for formatting pages in an appealing way. We have many Tips for Using Tables Properly. tabular page content.
comment	Comments are not visible to readers, but only in edit mode. A comment can be inserted anywhere on a page. The comment can be edited by clicking on it. And this is what a comment looks like:
Gallery
Magic word	With a "magic word" you can include certain variables or so-called behavioral switches in your page. For example, you can display the word count: Learn more about the magic wordfunctionMagic Word". Overview of all Magic Words in the visual editor.
Your signature	This option can only be used in discussions. Hereby It allows to add a signature at any point of a discussion the own signature can be added.
Code block	With code block various code examples can be entered, like e.g. in HTML syntax. The code is then displayed properly formatted: 1 <span <span style="color: red" >red >red text< text</ span> span>
Itemization Refernces list
Chemical formula	The formula rendering uses an external service via Wikimedia's REST API.
Math formula	It opens an editor for entering a mathematical formula. More [info on MediaWiki]
Special Characters

page
Page options

Page Options
Options menu	The options menu allows editing of all page settings. options
Options	This button allows the page settings and page information to be updated simultaneously within a dialog box.
Categories	Here you divide assign the page into the desired to one or more categories Categories. The page will appear accordingly on all linked category pages.
Page Settings	Page redirection: When the page is redirected, the content of the page is no longer displayed, but the target page is loaded directly. This setting can also be used to display or remove the table of contents at the top of the page. The table of contents is automatically generated by the headings on the page. Starting with When a page has more than three headings, the table of contents appears automatically by default.
Advanced Settings languages
Used templates	Languages
Templates used
View as right-to-left	Support for languages that are read from right to left. Clicking this button right-side formats the page text. Click again to set the text flush left.
Search Find and replace	Words or characters can be searched and replaced directly on the page. The "Undo" button can be used to cancel the change.

Troubleshooting: Visual editing is disabled

If you only see code editing, please contact an administrator of your wiki. The following settings must be checked in this case:

• Global setting settings via the configuration manager
• Namespace management settings
• Parsoid service on the server