10 Superbly Functional Online Rich Text Editors

Online rich-text editors present a ‘what you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) interface for editing rich text within web browsers.

Internet Explorer was the first browser to add a ‘designMode’, which allows formatted parts of a document to be edited using a cursor. Mozilla followed, and most browsers have now implemented this facility in some capacity.

The technical capabilities needed to implement an online rich text editor are still not covered by the W3C specifications for HTML4. However, services such as Gmail and WordPress rely on rich text editing as their main user interface.

With the advent of HTML5, some standardization is being adopted on a DOM property called ‘contentEditable’ – which is similar to Internet Explorer’s extension. Many online office suites provide online text editing and formatting.

Online rich-text editors are well-known for not producing clean and valid HTML, even so, they can be time-saving even if a little further work is required!

10 Great Free Online Rich Text Editors

Here we bring you a selection of free online rich-text editors. All have had mixed reviews from users, and there is not one that particularly stands out from the others in functionality, usability, etc., although some are more popular and more well-known than others.

Free Rich Text Editor

Web Wiz Rich Text Editor

Free Text Box

TinyMCE

CKEditor

NicEdit

Whizzywig

Cross Browser Rich Text Editor

WYMeditor

Markitup!

Conclusion

Of course, this is just a small selection of the rich text editors available. In our opinion these are the best of the best of the available online rich text editors. Do you use a rich text editor, and if so, which one? Do you think they are not worth bothering with?

Have we overlooked any outstanding rich text editors? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.