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Rich Text Format Editor

Rich Text Format (RTF) Editor allows the user to style fonts and layout in a text area field.

Specifications

RTF Toolbar

  • The RTF Toolbar has a height of 40px adding 4 px horizontal padding to the 32px buttons.
  • Button subgroups are grouped by a divider and padding of 4px in logical entities such as font type, size, characteristics, paragraph alignment, lists, and additional function, such as link.
  • All buttons should feel clickable, interactive, and perform an action, see Buttons.
  • Buttons should be discoverable, easy to identify, and specific.

The modals consists of following elements:

  • Header, a brief title.
  • Content area, which provides instructions.
  • Page overlay, which partially blocks out the underlying page to focus attention on the modal content.
  • Controls, which are usually buttons placed on the bottom right side of the modal header. A dialog should always include a single primary button. Primary button is often paired with an outline or a text-only button. Primary button, representing the desired user action, should always appear to the right of other buttons.
  • Close icon button, which closes the dialog and cancels user action. Always include a close icon button on a modal. It should display in the top right corner.

Behaviors

Text Area Input

  • Form inputs follow the logic of Inputs for default, focused, filled, disabled, and invalid states.
  • When the user right-clicks on a link, a link modal opens.
  • A maximum height (number of rows shown) can be set on the text area. Use this to visually indicate to the user the recommended length of the response. Once the maximum height of a text area is met, a scrollbar appears to let the users know they have used the available space.

RTF Toolbar

The RTF toolbar consists of an input dropdown, a series of buttons, out of which the link button opens a modal to edit or add a link. The input dropdown (highlighted below) allows the user to select a font type or font family.

RTF Input Dropdown in Toolbar

Consider following behaviors:

  • Input dropdown in toolbar:
    • In cases where the available options are longer than the dropdown field, the dropdown menu will expand to the width of the longest option. Alternately, the long list item name will truncate at a specified max-width set.
    • When the user clicks in the field, the field state changes to focused state, opens the drop menu, places a text cursor in the field. It also allows the user to lookup or select a value from the dropdown.
    • When the user starts typing, the chevron icon is swapped for the clear option (for easy deletion of the entered search value).
    • If the user enters a value that does not exist in the dropdown, notify the user that the value entered returned no results. The message should read: “No results found.” Additionally, if possible display tooltip, “Check spelling or try a different keyword.”
    • For validation and states follow the Inputs guidelines.
  • Buttons:
    • All icon buttons should have the following states:
      • Default
      • Hover
      • Active
      • Disabled
    • For additional guidance, check the Buttons section.
  • Modal (insert/edit link):
    • Dialogs are usually activated by user actions (such as activating a button).
    • Dialogs can only be closed by either choosing an action represented by a button (e.g., Save or Cancel) or by clicking the Close icon. Dismissing a modal by clicking outside of the modal is optional.
    • Once a dialog reaches its maximum height, the header will remain fixed and content will scroll within the container. Scrolling within a modal should be discouraged: avoid extensive copy or many elements.
    • Dialogs are centered horizontally and vertically in the viewport.
    • For more guidance, see Modals.

Editorial

Text Area Input

  • When possible, add helper text below an input to further clarify selections or validation errors.
  • Always mark required fields with an *.
  • Provide input constraints, such as a character limit within a text entry box, to provide users with guidelines and improve form efficiency.

Input Dropdown in Toolbar

  • When possible, add helper text below an input to further clarify validation errors, for example, a misspelling of a font type name.
  • Provide input constraints, such as a character limit within a text entry box, to provide users with guidelines and improve form efficiency.