Rich text editors, or WYSIWYG HTML editors (“What You See Is What You Get”), are as important to businesses as they are to users.
These editors allow developers to view changes in the code without having to open a browser instance, and software that implements these editors allows their users to perform fundamental to advanced writing and editing tasks or even make a website.
From Content Management Systems (CMS) to blogs, website builders, automated testing platforms, and project management software, rich text editors are highly versatile tools that can increase productivity, reduce workload, improve product quality, and hasten development.
Because of the versatility and usefulness of rich text editors, more businesses have started using them for various types of software. They have, in turn, made writing and production considerably more accessible for them.
This article shows some of the most common use cases for rich text editors because whatever your website or app may be, you will probably be bound to have some features that require using rich text editors.
1. Content Management Systems (CMS)
Perhaps the most widespread use of rich text editors alongside website builder software, content management systems allow users to create, update, and manage content, which may or may not be moderated by other users.
These systems help their users serve their content. They can be a more accessible and generally affordable option for startups, freelancers, or bloggers due to their versatile pricing (most are free, some are not, and some have additional features that require payment), leaving site owners with low costs that stem primarily from hosting and domain name acquisition.
These websites work well for those who need tons of content on their pages.
Today, the leading content management systems have built-in text editors, allowing users and developers to create, update, publish, and monitor content without altering code or using another application.
With built-in rich text editors, users can focus on their content more, being able to format text, layouts, and paragraphs, attach and edit images and other media, insert and edit tables, and so much more.
With modern WYSIWYG HTML editors being a perfect fit for ways of managing content in CMS, It is no exaggeration that they have been developed with CMS in mind.
2. Website Builders
Another of the most common uses for rich text editors website builders are applications allowing users to create websites from scratch (or templates), as the name suggests. These are generally easy-to-use platforms that require little to no coding, allowing non-developers to make their websites.
Like CMS, website builders can also be used to make blogs; however, website builders primarily provide the tools to help users build websites instead of focusing on managing the site’s content.
Unlike CMS, though, website builders are not flexible and not as scalable because of several limitations such as lack of server-side programming, lack of a staging server, payment walls, and a general lack of uniqueness from other sites that were made from the same website builder.
However, website builders are suitable for those who want to quickly build a website to showcase their portfolio, products, or services without uploading too much content.
Like CMS, website builders and WYSIWYG HTML editors are a perfect match, with competent rich text editors able to let users create websites without having to do much coding. Users can simply click or drag and drop, and they’ll be able to create stunning designs for their website.
With HTML and CSS support, rich text editors allow for perfectly placed content such as cards, banners, headers, images and text, and other usual web content. With their arsenal of features, rich text editors significantly contribute to the ease of use and robustness of modern website builders.
3. Automated Testing Platforms
In recent years, automated testing has become necessary for most medium to large software businesses because of the myriad of tests that need to be done on complex and large systems.
The more complex a system is, the more it needs to be tested, and the more components and modules there are, the more items there are to try. And although manual testing is effective, testers might be overwhelmed by the significant number of test cases that need to be completed in so little time.
That’s why automated testing platforms have been developed.
These comprehensive systems let users describe their testing parameters, process, and expected output, run code segments on some test cases, record and analyze results, and generate reports for developers and project managers to read.
Automated testing platforms can accurately do what testers do in a matter of seconds, saving a lot of time for the testers, who can now focus on analysis, reporting, and setting up other test cases for the testing platform.
To generate accurate, informative, readable, and neat results, testers need a powerful tool that can be used for writing, editing, formatting, and designing, and that’s where the WYSIWYG HTML editors come in.
Rich text editors allow testers to document their test cases and results, as well as collaborate with other testers and developers, cutting down time by letting testers work on just one platform.
4. Project Management Software
Various software that increases overall productivity and reduces unnecessarily encumbering or menial tasks has become enormously prominent compared to a few years ago.
One such software is the project management software, which generally helps ensure that projects are completed on time, employees perform as expected, and processes are well-organized. A project management software, in most cases, contains the following features:
- A tool/module/page helps users add, track, prioritize, and manage tasks.
- Collaboration, messaging and reporting capabilities.
- A project dashboard/tracker helps project managers and members assess the status of their project and whether they’re ahead of the timeline, determine the subsequent actions to take, and fix areas of production/development that seem to be causes of delay.
A typical powerful project management software also tends to use rich text editors for their features to help the developers deploy faster without sacrificing product quality and help the end-users have a more accessible and better user experience.
For example, rich text editors may be used for advanced messaging/collaboration features, allowing users to attach images or videos (e.g., for showing others what they recently worked on) and create informative and clean reports.
They may also be used for adding tasks to a project since most modern rich text editors have a feature where users can add elements to the page without having to code. As a result, project management software will likely stay in the future, and rich text editors will always be integral in developing them.
5. Email Builder and Management Software
Another beneficial tool that has recently become popular is email building and management tools. These software, usually in the form of websites, allow businesses to perform email marketing better and help them grow faster.
By using email builders, businesses can create and customize professional-looking and responsive emails to send to their prospects.
Users can also use and customize email templates, helping businesses build more identity and brand representation by not having to create email designs from scratch.
Finally, these tools let users experience the freedom of creating their email templates without the hassle and difficulty that come with them.
Rich text editors play a considerable role in email builders. For example, they could be used as composition boxes for users to send and compose emails, or, using the HTML capabilities of WYSIWYG HTML editors, they could be used as tools with which users can create their email templates ground up. Whichever email builder you use, there’s a high chance that it uses a modern rich text editor.
6. Messaging and Reporting Platforms
In the modern world, where fast and reliable communication is essential to everything, there will always be an abundance of messaging and reporting platforms.
Messaging software helps people send text, images, videos, gifs, documents, and other files, whether for business, family, friends, or anyone on the internet. On the other hand, reporting tools do the same for companies or academics, with usually longer and more stylized content.
To help these platforms carry out their purpose better and easier, businesses have also started to opt for using WYSIWYG editors. These rich text editors can provide good-looking and fast affluent text areas for users to write/upload their content.
For instance, they can be used as the messaging box where users can send texts, images, videos, and gifs, or they can be used in businesses as report generators where users can have more formatting, file, and styling options, among many others.
WYSIWYG editors have become widespread in the software industry recently, and whenever you use a productivity tool, it probably has some form of rich text editor integrated within it.
Because of how they make development easy, how versatile they are, and how much time they save, more software companies have chosen to implement WYSIWYG HTML editors in their products, helping them do more good quality work in less time.