CMNTY Platform is provided with a text editor throughout the platform. With this text editor, you can modify the layout of your text, add images and create hyperlinks.
The icons from left to right:
- HTML code icon Click to switch from regular text to HTML code. Click again to switch back.
- Text format icon Click this icon to determine your text format.
- Bold icon Click this icon to make your text Bold Click again to continue typing in regular font.
- Italic icon Click this icon to make your text Italic. Click again to continue typing in regular font.
- Underline icon Click this icon to make your text Underlined. Click again to continue typing in regular font.
- Strikethrough icon Click this icon to strikethrough your text. Click again to continue typing in regular font.
- Bullet icon Click this icon to add bullets to your text. Press enter to add a new bullet on a new line. Click again to continue typing in Paragraph text format.
- Numeric icon Click this icon to add numbers to your text. Press enter to add a new number on a new line. Click again to continue typing in a regular layout.
- Image icon Place your cursor on the place in the text where you want to add a picture. Click the image icon to add an image. Tip: save your image in the right size, so the correct image size will be shown in all browsers and email programs.
- Video icon Use this icon if you want to embed a video in your content. Read more about how to embed a video here.
- Attachment icon Click this icon to attach files to your content.
- Link icon Select the part of your text to which you want to add a link. Click the link icon, and fill in the URL of the site to which you want the text to link (e.g. Click here to go to our website).
- Align icon Click this icon to align your text to the left, right, center or justify the text.
- Horizontal line icon Click this icon to add a horizontal line in between text.
- Text color icon Click this icon to change the color of the text.
- Highlight color icon Click the icon to choose a color to highlight the text.
- Full-screen icon Click this icon to fill your screen with the text editor.
General guidelines
In general, we advise that you use programs like Notepad (plain text editors) to create text for your CMNTY Platform. We don’t advise the use of programs like Word to format your text. Word is a program to create documents, not web pages. The output generated from programs like Word is overly complex and may lead to unexpected results within your CMNTY Platform.
Editor views
Our current text editor contains 2 views:
- A WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) view.
- An HTML view.
We advise that you use the WYSIWYG view as much as possible because it will give you a clear view of how your page will look and will ensure that your HTML is correct. The HTML view is for advanced users who are very comfortable with HTML. Whenever you make a change within the HTML view, it is recommended to switch between both views to allow our editor to check your changes and remove any parts that are not allowed.
Shortcodes
You can use shortcodes whenever you see the shortcode {S} icon in the editing bar of a page’s WYSIWYG editing area. While some shortcodes also work correctly when inserted in text areas that do not contain the shortcode {S} icon, there is no guarantee that they will work and we don’t advise making that a practice. Simply click on the shortcode of your choice to insert it into your message. You can also type it in yourself, but do note that you must provide an exact copy of the shortcode in order for it to work!
You can personalize your newsletters, notification emails, or platform pages by using shortcodes to dynamically pull profile information. For example, you can use the shortcode, “{first name}” which pulls a member’s “First Name” profile field and use it in a welcome message to say “Hello {firstname}!” You can use shortcodes with every profile field you create.
Tips & Tricks
- Always type your text in the text editor itself. Software like Word copies HTML codes with the text. The HTML code added by the software will interfere with the code added by the text editor.
- Accept links are unique links, which means they can only be used once. You can not send one link to all users that you want to invite, but you have to generate a unique link using the shortcode {acceptlink}. The shortcode will generate a unique link for every invite. Every unique link can be used once to register. Do not copy and paste the accept and decline link, but leave them as they are and only edit the text around these links.
- Always use a text editor to create bullet points and do not copy bullet points from another source.
- Before you send a newsletter, always send a test newsletter to your own email address before sending it to all your members. This way you can check the newsletter design in your email program before you send it to all your users.
The Platform Configuration page allows you to select which modules you’d like to use within your platform. It also lets you select basic options, such as activating Terms & Conditions or Gamification.
Or, need some more information about the admin template?
Or, need some more information about general settings?
Also, read our post about building an online community following the why, how and what.