Create an Inline Text Editor With the contentEditable Attribute

Building an inline text editor isn't trivial. The process starts by making the target element editable, handling potential SyntaxError exceptions along the way.

Creating Your Editor

To build this editor, you'll need to dynamically modify the content of HTML elements. Here's the basic HTML structure:

Edit Document<br><br><br>
<div id="editor">
  <h1 id="A-Nice-Heading">A Nice Heading.</h1>
  <p>Last Edited By - Monty Shokeen</p>
  <p id="content">Some content that needs correction.</p>
</div><br><br>

Each element you want to make editable needs a unique ID. We'll also add a simple toolbar:

<div id="toolbar">
  H1
  H2
</div><br><br>

Now, let's add functionality. We'll attach a click event to the H1 button to demonstrate text input. To test this, use a simple web server (like serve). Run serve in your project directory; the server will start, providing a link to your HTML file.

Using designMode for Whole-Page Editing

contentEditable is ideal for editing individual elements. For modifying nearly all content on a page, use the designMode property. This affects the entire document. Enable it with document.designMode = 'on'; and disable it with document.designMode = 'off';.

This is particularly useful when separating design and content creation. A designer provides the layout and placeholder text, while a content creator fills in the actual content. To experiment, open your browser's developer console, type document.designMode = 'on';, and press Enter. The entire page should become editable.

Conclusion

The contentEditable attribute simplifies quick edits, like modifying articles or user comments. Initially introduced in IE 5.5, it's now a WHATWG standard with broad browser support (excluding Opera Mini).

JavaScript remains a cornerstone of web development. While it has a learning curve, numerous frameworks and libraries are available. Explore Envato's marketplace for additional resources.

This tutorial covered the fundamentals of contentEditable, demonstrating a basic inline editor and adding rich formatting buttons.

This post includes updates from Jacob Jackson, a web developer, technical writer, freelancer, and open-source contributor.

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