Text Editors

Written by SoulLink and Lengna Olio

Note: This is a guide to the interface used when editing World Anvil articles. For people that can edit your world see Guide to Authors.

If you have joined World Anvil or created a new World after October 2024 this article is outdated. Only the Euclid editor is relevant. The other two editors are no longer available. The Visual editor has not yet been documented!
Check the Learn section on How to switch text editors.

There are three article editors available on World Anvil. Every text area in World Anvil which has a toolbar has your selected editor active. Other input and textarea fields do not have an editor. The editor is set per world, which gives a lot of flexibility when choosing an editor.

Which editor should I use?

The three editors are fairly similar, but have a few key difference. Based on these differences you can make your choices. The table below is intended as a short overview to help you decide which editor best suits your needs. The Euclid editor is currently the RECOMMENDED editor for most users.

IMPORTANT: In all three editors the buttons CANNOT be used to remove a formatting. Only to add it. To remove formatting you need to delete the BBCode tags. Check below on how to do that in the Plato editor.

	Plato	Euclid	Legacy
Strengths	WYSIWYG Source Mode	Autolinker FULL WA BBCode Support Colored WA BBCode Tags WA BBCode Highlighting Search and Replace Supports Spellcheckers	FULL WA BBCode Support Supports Spellcheckers & Browser Dictionaries
Limitations	LIMITED WA BBCode Support Has Known Issues Source Mode -> WYSIWYG switch can break code.	NO WYSIWYG	NO Highlighting & Colors NO WYSIWYG

Navigation

How do I switch to source mode in the Plato editor?

Either press the button on the editor tool bar or press Ctrl + Shift + S on your keyboard.

Related Guides

Guide to the Account & Profile Menu

Plato

This editor is one of the two defaults selectable on account creation. It is a WYSIWYG editor like Word. It supports most possibilities which are offered by BBcode editing but not all of them. The most advanced features are not included. The editor has some quirks as well. But it is the best choice if you just want to write and not learn BBCode.

IMPORTANT: If you find yourself switching to the Source Mode regularly, you should probably be using the Euclid BBCode editor.

HINT: When editing in Source Mode be careful to not make any mistakes. When switching back unknown BBCode options will be removed and broken tags might be fixed (or made worse).

Icon	Name	Key	Description
	Bold	Ctrl + B	Turn selected text or start writing in bold.
	Italic	Ctrl + I	Turn selected text or start writing in italic.
	Underline	Ctrl + U	Underline selected text or start writing it.
	Insert Link		Insert a link to the selected text. Options: Valid URL Open Link in New Tab? - Checkbox Remove: The link BBCode & text needs to be removed manually.
	Font Color		Colors the selected text.
	Align Left	Ctrl + L	[Default] Aligns the text to the left.
	Align Center	Ctrl + E	Aligns the text to the center.
	Align Right	Ctrl - R	Aligns the text to the right.
	Justify	Ctrl + J	Justifies the selected text to both sides.
	Heading H1	Ctrl + 1	Applies [h1] to the selected text.
	Heading H2	Ctrl + 2	Applies [h2] to the selected text.
	Heading H3	Ctrl + 3	Applies [h3] to the selected text.
	Insert Image		Inserts an image to the current cursor position. Options: Image ID: Insert just the number of [img:<number>]. Align: Left|Center|Right. Left & Right will float the image and text will wrap around it. Width: Fixed witdh of the image in pixels. Make sure the image is actually as wide or wider. No Link: Removes the link from the image, making it unclickable. Remove: Remove the image with backspace.
	Insert Table		Inserts a table with the specified dimensions. The dimensions can NOT be changed after creation! Options: Rows: Number of rows. Cols: Number of columns. Make First Row Header?: Applies special styling to first row. Remove: Put the curser after the table and press Backspace until it disappears. HINT: In Source Mode it is possible to edit the table dimensions. However, it is very easy to break something.
	Line Break	Shift + Enter	Inserts a line break with no space between the lines. The line break is represented by a [br]. Remove: Delete the [br] code.
	Insert Paragraph	Ctrl + P	Creates an empty line above and below the selected text. Is a bit quirky. Same effect can be achieved by just adding an empty line in the editor. Do not apply the effect multiple times. Will break. Remove: Remove the empty lines.
	Bullet List		Creates a bulleted list.
	Numbered List		Creates a numbered list.
	Insert Quote		Inserts a quote box either around the selected text or an empty box at the cursor position. In order to set the author of the quote box the source mode must be opened. See here for more details. Remove: The quote box must be emptied and then removed with backspace.
	Additional Options		Expands additional options. See below for the details.
	Source Mode	Ctrl + Shift + S	Enter Source Mode of the editor. Use with caution. Needed for more advanced BBCodes like containers. It can also be useful to fix broken BBCode.
	Maximize	Ctrl + Shift + M	Maximizes the editor to the full width. Can be used with Focus Mode to remove all distractions from the screen.
	Subscript		Turn selected text to subscript.Like this
	Superscript		Turn selected text to superscript.Like this
	Strikethrough	Ctrl + S	Strike through selected text like this.
	Heading H4	Ctrl + 4	Adds a [h4] heading.
	Horizontal Rule		Inserts a horizontal line at the cursor. Remove: Use backspace to delete the line.
	Small		Makes text small like this.
	Dropcap	Ctrl + Shift + S	Inserts a dropcap.
	Key - Value Pair	Ctrl + Shift + S	Inserts a key value pair: Key Value
	Insert Aloud		Inserts an aloud container.
	Youtube		Embeds a Youtube video via URL.
	Spotify		Embeds a song from spotify with player.
	Soundcloud		Embeds a song from SoundCloud with player.

There are additional Media Embeds available. Check out this list. However, these must be added via Source Mode.

Euclid

The Euclid editor is the recommended BBCode editor. Use this editor if you want to take advantage of all the formatting & structural features of World Anvil.
Creating tables and lists can be a little involved. And it is possible to make tables in an external BBCode table generator like this one. To learn about all the tags that you can use, check out the Guide to BBCode Formatting.

Multiline Select & Editing

In the Euclid editor, it is possible to select and edit multiple lines at once. This is useful to prepare large lists and tables.

1. Press and hold the Alt-key. This will turn the curser into a crosshair.
2. Drag the left mouse button over all the lines which you wish to select. This can be a bit finicky to select the right lines.
3. Once you have them all you can let go the left mouse button and the Alt-key.
4. Anything you type now will be typed on all rows you have selected at the same time.
5. Once you are done with typing press Esc to return to single-line edit.

Icon	Name	Key	Description
B	Bold	Ctrl + B	Adds [b][/b] BBCode around selected text.
I	Italic	Ctrl + I	Adds [i][/i] BBCode around selected text.
U	Underline	Ctrl + U	Adds [u][/u] BBCode around selected text.
H1	Header 1	Ctrl + 1	Adds [h1][/h1] BBCode around selected text. Note: Using the keyboard shortcut adds [h][/h] instead. This is functionally equivalent.
H2	Header 2	Ctrl + 2	Adds [h2][/h2] BBCode around selected text.
H3	Header 3	Ctrl+ 3	Adds [h3][/h3] BBCode around selected text.
H4	Header 4	Ctrl+ 4	Adds [h4][/h4] BBCode around selected text.
P	Paragraph	Ctrl + P	Adds [p][/p] BBCode around selected text. Note: The same effect can be achieved by simply adding an empty line between text.
	Container	Ctrl + Shift + C	Adds [container:][/container] BBCode around selected text.
	Section	Ctrl + Shift + S	Adds [section:][/section] BBCode around selected text.
Xy	Subscript	Shift + Ctrl + Arrow Down	Adds [sub][/sub] BBCode around selected text.
Xy	Superscript	Shift + Ctrl + Arrow Up	Adds [sup][/sup] BBCode around selected text.
sm	Small		Adds [small][/small] BBCode around selected text.
BR	Line Break		Adds [br] BBCode at the current cursor position.
HR	Horizontal Line		Adds [hr] BBCode at the current cursor position.
"	Quote		Adds [quote][/quote] BBCode around selected text.
	Left Align		Adds [left][/left] BBCode around selected text. Note: This is the default behaviour and generally not needed.
	Right Align		Adds [right][/right] BBCode around selected text.
	Center Align		Adds [center][/center] BBCode around selected text.
	Justify		Adds [justify][/justify] BBCode around selected text.
	Bullet List		Adds [ul][li][/li][/ul] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Numbered List		Adds [ol][li][/li][/ol] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Insert Link		Adds [url:][/url] BBCode around selected text.
	Insert Spotify		Adds [spotify:] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Insert Youtube		Adds [youtube:] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Spoiler		Adds [spoiler][/spoiler] BBCode around selected text.
	Comment Out		Adds / * * / BBCode around selected text.
	Search Bar (Repeatable)		Opens up the search bar to search the text of this editor window. Use /re/ for regular expressions. With this search it is possible to cycle through each occurence found.
	Search Bar	Ctrl + F	Opens up the search bar to search the text of this editor window. Use /re/ for regular expressions.
	Search and Replace Bar	Ctrl +Shift + F	Opens up the search and replace bar to search and replace the text of this editor window and replace it with the text of your choice. It can replace all or one by one. Use /re/ for regular expressions.
Spellcheck			Replaces the specialized textarea with a basic textarea. This allows most spellcheckers to detect the area and offer suggestions.

Legacy

The legacy editor is the original editor and the most battle tested. It can be used for BBCode editing without the Bells & Whistles of the Euclid editor. In the legacy editor Spellcheckers Browser Addons work unlike the Euclid editor. It also provides the most screen real estate on a mobile phone, and has the least amount of mobile challenges.
Check out the Guide to BBCode Formatting for more details what the tags do.
This editor is mostly used by veterans, mobil users, and those really wanting spellcheckers to work properly.

Icon	Name	Key	Description
B	Bold	Ctrl + B	Adds [b][/b] BBCode around selected text.
I	Italic	Ctrl + I	Adds [i][/i] BBCode around selected text.
U	Underline	Ctrl + U	Adds [u][/u] BBCode around selected text.
H1	Header 1	Ctrl + Shift + 1	Adds [h1][/h1] BBCode around selected text. Note: Using the keyboard shortcut adds [h][/h] instead. This is functionally equivalent.
H2	Header 2	Ctrl + Shift + 2	Adds [h2][/h2] BBCode around selected text.
H3	Header 3	Ctrl + Shift+ 3	Adds [h3][/h3] BBCode around selected text.
P	Paragraph	Ctrl + P	Adds [p][/p] BBCode around selected text. Note: The same effect can be achieved by simply adding an empty line between text.
xy	Subscript	Shift + Ctrl + Arrow Down	Adds [sub][/sub] BBCode around selected text.
xy	Superscript	Shift + Ctrl + Arrow Up	Adds [sup][/sup] BBCode around selected text.
sm	Small		Adds [small][/small] BBCode around selected text.
BR	Line Break		Adds [br] BBCode at the current cursor position.
HR	Horizontal Line		Adds [hr] BBCode at the current cursor position.
	Quote		Adds [quote][/quote] BBCode around selected text.
	Left Align		Adds [left][/left] BBCode around selected text. Note: This is the default behaviour and generally not needed.
	Right Align		Adds [right][/right] BBCode around selected text.
	Center Align		Adds [center][/center] BBCode around selected text.
	Justify		Adds [justify][/justify] BBCode around selected text.
	Bullet List		Adds [ul][li][/li][/ul] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Numbered List		Adds [ol][li][/li][/ol] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Insert Link		Adds [url:][/url] BBCode around selected text.
	Insert Image		Adds [img:] BBCode at the cusor position. Add an image id number.
	Insert Spotify		Adds [spotify:] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Insert Youtube		Adds [youtube:] BBCode at the cusor position.
	Spoiler		Adds [spoiler][/spoiler] BBCode around selected text.
	Comment Out		Adds / * * / BBCode around selected text.
	Hover for Info		Tooltip with key shortcut information.