ZombiePie

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New Image and Text Editor for All Sites! Help Me, Help You!

Hello everyone on Comic Vine! It's me a friendly moderator from Giant Bomb just wanting to give you all a little yelp. Right now me and the other moderators on Giant Bomb are testing the various new tools for image uploading and text editing for the wiki and on the forums. The proper term is new parchment wysiwyg editor. As it stand this is what the new editor looks like:

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Now it may not look like much but there are some big things to talk about. For convenience sake I'll just bullet point everything notable:
 
  • iOS doesn't support the contenteditable attribute which is what we now use for our editor.
  • Spoilers are going to go from tabs to blacked out text that you need to highlight in order to see the spoiler. This is how it is going to work in practice
  • You will no longer be able to insert pictures or videos in spoilers. All spoiler tabs that are functional will continue to be functional even when the update rolls out. You simply will not be able to create the old spoiler tabs anymore.
  • The new spoilers are unreadable on the mobile versions of any site.
  • We are going to start using paragraphs instead of linebreaks.
  • Block level elements can only be inserted at the top level (with the exception of inserting into tables or lists). This means you can't insert an image into the middle of a paragraph, it will automatically be inserted before that paragraph.
  • Pictures when uploaded will now be encircled with a large red dotted line to better visualize the space the image takes up. You now have the option of moving uploaded images up or down a line. Doing so will create a new paragraph automatically.
  • All extraneous whitespace will be removed (extra linebreaks between paragraphs, extra spaces before/after content.
  • You will be able to move all inserted block level elements up and down a page. For example, after inserting an image you can move it below the next paragraph, or above the previous paragraph.
  • You will still be able to horizontally position (left, center, right) inserted images but the process is more seamless. 
  • You can now insert any of your user created lists seamlessly into your topics or form posts. Hence the new "List" button
  • When creating a table you are prompted how many columns and how many rows you want and then a table is immediately created for you. This is what the prompt looks like:
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  • You can still add and edit this table as you see fit. You also still have the option of turning the borders or headers on or off.
  • You will still be able to use the old system until all the bugs are stamped out. The release day is either this Friday or the beginning of next week. 

So because I'm not sure what you guys are most concerned about with the new image and text tools I was wondering if there is anything you want  me to test out to confirm and hopes or fears. Don't I worry I don't bite nor do the new tools. Is there anything you want me to check out right now Comic Vine Community? 
11 Comments

11 Comments

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pikahyper

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Edited By pikahyper  Moderator

Ok I would like to make a suggestion to Whiskey Media for something to use that might make all the IE users happy, all the Whiskey sites should support Google Chrome Frame and add the Chrome Frame meta tag to the <head> section of each site. Chrome Frame is a plugin for IE users that makes IE use Chromes capabilities to render pages, one simple line of code and then IE users just have to install the plugin and they won't have any of the horrible IE Comicvine problems.

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xerox_kitty

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Edited By xerox_kitty

@ZombiePie: My main concern is that I'm stuck using IE7 in the daytime, while I'm at work.  Despite the dozens of times that people suggest putting Chrome on a flashdrive, it's seriously not an option (I'm not prepared to face disciplinary actions in order to help moderate CV).  Therefore a large chunk of my time in the working week depends on crappy old IE7... and if the "Switch Parchment Version" option is ever taken away then I'll be unable to moderate at all :(

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pikahyper

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Edited By pikahyper  Moderator
@ZombiePie: well if you won't be supporting the mobile browsers will the old parchment be used automatically when viewing the site on a mobile device or more specifically on the mobile site? I know a lot of people use their phones here and I know of at least one mod that does.
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ZombiePie

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Edited By ZombiePie
@xerox-kitty: IE is generally messed up with the new tools. IE9 is straight up fugly with the new tools. However yes Mike has stated that the option of using the old parchment will continue until people stop using it completely.

@pikahyper: Mike is trying to find a way to reveal the new style of spoilers via clicking them. Other than that it's full speed ahead without supporting these OS.

I finally got the new table to work properly over here on Giant Bomb. Also I have been tinkering around with the new image location thing and when it works...it works perfectly. If some of the kinks are ironed out then yes the technique of using tables to prevent images from overlapping with headers and messing up text will be retired immediately.
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pikahyper

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Edited By pikahyper  Moderator
@ZombiePie: I think the layout looks pretty sexy, takes up more space but does it very well.

Not a big fan of the table prompts, luckily I never use them. Not sure if you guys have seen it but Aloha Editor utilizes contenteditable really well and their table system is top notch, similar at the start to the current parchement table system but once a table is created you get much nicer control over it, I'm not saying use it or anything but checking it out might give you guys some ideas.

You might want to revise what the new parchment won't work with, contenteditable isn't supported in iOS Safari, Opera Mini/Mobile or any version of Android, link. Or did you guys figure out a workaround for the missing caret or find a way to invoke the software keyboard when selecting editable content?
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xerox_kitty

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Edited By xerox_kitty

Slight problem with the new Parchment on IE7... 

 

 
 

Please please PLEASE PLEASE don't take away the 'Switch Parchment Version' from me...!!!

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ragdollpurps

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Edited By ragdollpurps
@Caligula said:
" I kinda like the Spoiler System that is place. being able to insert Images and Videos behind it is a good thing. "
I agree with this. :/
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Mercy_

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Edited By Mercy_
@ZombiePie: OMG REVISION HISTORIES ARE COMING BACK?!?!?!?!?! This is the ONE feature that I've wanted FOREVER. Guides are coming back as well? F*ck yeah! I can deal with other stuff if we're getting guides and revision histories. 
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ZombiePie

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Edited By ZombiePie
@The Dark Huntress: Oh and I just realized that I forgot to mention this. After this update and maybe one for the guides feature full wiki histories are coming back.
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Caligula

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Edited By Caligula

I kinda like the Spoiler System that is place. being able to insert Images and Videos behind it is a good thing.

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Edited By Mercy_

You will still be able to horizontally position (left, center, right) inserted images but the process is more seamless.     

That answered my big question, other than the ones I've already asked at AV. I'm interested to actually see this in action myself and get a feel for it. Until then I'll remain somewhat apprehensive.