We have changed the text editing technology used on isurv WorkSmart. This page provides guidance for customers switching to the new editor.

The new editor

We have switched to TinyMCE, an open-source rich-text editor for modern browsers. The new editor is generally faster, uses fewer resources and takes up less memory, but offers the same functionality as the previous editor.

In general use, you will notice that the visual presentation of the editor has changed. A rich-text box looked like this:

The TinyMCE editor uses a 'floating' toolbar which only activates when you click on the text element to type in it. With the toolbar off, a TinyMCE editor looks like this:

And with the toolbar on, the editor looks like this:

Not all multi-line text areas on a WorkSmart form are able to contain formatted text. Where there is no rich-text support you will not see the editor toolbar, but you can still type into the text area as usual, insert phrases using all supported methods, and check spelling using your browser's spellchecker (see below).

The toolbar

The new editor toolbar contains the same buttons that were on the previous editor toolbar:

• You can undo / redo editing actions in each text area
• You can copy, cut and paste text (but see notes below)
• You can set text in bold, italic, underline, or any combination
• You can select text in any text area and use it to create a company phrase

Auto-grow / shrink

The new editor will automatically grow in size to accomodate the text you put in it, and shrink when you remove text - down to a minimum vertical size. You do not have to use a scroll bar to see your text.

Cut and paste from Microsoft Word

The editor supports cutting and pasting from Microsoft Word. All formatting will be removed except for: line and paragraph breaks, bold, italic and underline text, bullet and numbered lists. Formatting set by styles in Word (such as heading styles that use bold text) may not be preserved. Note that numbered lists may be re-numbered when you paste them into the editor.

To ensure that the final PDF is consistent with the intended design of the report, you cannot change the font size, face or colour of text. You cannot insert images directly into the text. You cannot create (or copy from Word) tables or other non-text constructs. 

Keyboard shortcuts

You can use the same keyboard shortcuts for formatting as you could previously, such as Ctrl+B for bold, Ctrl+I for italic, as well as Ctrl+Z for undo and Ctrl+Y for redo. You can also use the standard keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy and paste (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V).

Spellchecking

All modern browsers have built-in spellchecking capability. Where this is present and turned on, isurv WorkSmart makes use of this feature. Misspellings are underlined in red and can be corrected by right-clicking on the underlined text and selecting the appropriate option from the context menu.

Note that your personal dictionary, to which you can add words, is stored and managed by your browser on your computer, not by WorkSmart. Your custom dictionary will only be available when using that particular browser on that particular computer.

For users of Internet Explorer 9, which does not have built-in spellchecking but which is a supported browser for isurv WorkSmart, we have provided access to an inline spellchecker. IE9 users will note an additional toolbar button that can be used to check the spelling of the text in that box. However, this spellchecker is not as flexible as the built-in browser spellcheckers, and we recommend that you use a browser that supports spellchecking if you possibly can. IE9 users can also download and use IESpell.

Browser-specific issues

While we do our best to ensure that all isurv WorkSmart features work on all supported browsers, sometimes this is not feasible. The following browser-specific issues are known at the current time:

Internet Explorer

1. If your browser security settings are higher than 'medium', you will see a warning each time you cut or paste asking if the website can access your clipboard. To suppress this message, you must lower your security settings to 'medium'. If your organisation controls browser security settings centrally, you may not be able to suppress this message.
2. Internet Explorer 9 has no built-in spellchecking. The alternative spellchecker is functional but must be invoked manually to see what misspellings are present.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Due to security restrictions built in to Firefox, you cannot cut, copy and paste using the editor toolbar buttons. You must use the keyboard shortcuts or context menu.
2. Due to security restrictions built in to Firefox, you cannot paste HTML-formatted text into a text editor. If copying and pasting from Word, all formatting - including paragraph breaks - will be removed. If you need to be able to copy and paste from Word, we suggest using a different browser.

Google Chrome

1. Due to security restrictions built in to Chrome, you cannot cut, copy and paste using the editor toolbar buttons. You must use the keyboard shortcuts or context menu.
2. An issue has been occasionally seen where content in editors using Chrome becomes oddly sized or coloured. If you note this happening, you should save your report immediately. Saving the report will clean all the text in the report and remove the erroneous formatting.