Content Management Systems such as Joomla make use of WYSIWYG editors to help its users create content for their websites. TinyMCE is the name of the WYSIWYG editor that ships with Joomla. However, the default functionalities of TinyMCE in Joomla is very simple and basic. Therefore, a lot of Joomla users, especially beginners, look for ways to extend the default Joomla editor.
WYSIWYG stands for ‘ what you see is what you get’. In Joomla, it means the article that you create on the back-end is a simulation of what you’re going to see on the front-end after publishing.
With the default setting of the Joomla WYSIWYG editor, beginners struggle to set the font sizes, colors or the text background, just to name a few. This is because the default setting does not have a Graphical User Interface to set these properties.
However, to get around this, we only need to change the ‘Functionality’ setting of the editor module.
Steps to extend the default Joomla editor
- Navigate to Extensions > Plugins >TinyMCE.
- Set its functionality to ‘Extended’.
- Save and close the module.
Now you see from the image below that the Joomla TinyMCE editor has more functionalities.
Using third-party extensions
The Joomla editor can also be extended by using third-party extensions such as JCE, which is probably the most popular among the lot. The JCE extension sports advanced file, image and link handling. It also enables the author to preview the article before publishing.
How to install and use JCE in Joomla
- Navigate to Extensions > Manage > Install > Install from Web.
- Search for JCE and install the component.
- Navigate to System > Global Configuration > Site Settings.
- Set JCE as the default editor.
- Clear the cache if you already have it enabled.
Alternatively, you can also download the JCE component and install it via the Extension Install Manager.
Here we have an image of the JCE component from the back-end.
