Using CSS Classes for Image Alignment in TinyMCE

I had a problem with aligning images in the TinyMCE editor in Umbraco 4.7.1.1. There are two ways a user can align images: a) Using the paragraph alignment button, and b) Using styles defined for the editor. We wouldn’t need option b) at all except that, when you have margins automatically applied to the images, things can get messy. Even then, annoyingly enough, option b) doesn’t always work, depending on what tag the image is nested in. So I searched for a better solution. I wanted the user to be able to still use the alignment tool, but I wanted the tool to apply class instead of using the style attribute to the float the image.

Eventually, I found a blog post, Patching TinyMCE For Better Left/Right Aligned Images, by Gareth Senior, that included a simple solution to my problem. Gareth included code for a simple patch that made all my TinyMCE dreams come true. I’ll include the same code here, only I’ll also document how I implemented the changes in Umbraco.

The simple change is made to the tiny_mce_src.js. Normally, you make the changes to tiny_mce_src.js, then minify the file and use the minified version. The Umbraco installation includes a minified version of the file, but apparently it’s not used. I made the following changes to umbraco_client/tinymce3/tiny_mce_src.js, and it fixed things for me really nicely:

3469    case 'float':
3470+      tinymce.DOM.removeClass(n, 'align-left');
3471+      tinymce.DOM.removeClass(n, 'align-right');
3472+      if (v != "") tinymce.DOM.addClass(n, "align-" + v);
3473       isIE ? s.styleFloat = v : s.cssFloat = v;
3474       break;

This will add the class “align-left” or “align-right” to the image when the alignment options are used from the tool bar. You can then use those to create styles that will compensate for the margins.

NOTE: Be sure to clear the browser cache, or the browser will hold on to the old version and it will seem like it did nothing. Oh and remember that you’ll have to make this change again when you upgrade Umbraco as the upgrade will replace the edits.

Edit: 5/16/2012 – This also works in Umbraco 4.7.2.

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Using The TinyMCE Color Picker in Umbraco

The Umbraco folks, for whatever reason, decided to strip out the text color picker in TinyMCE. I found that many of my users still need it, and I would rather not create custom styles for each of them. After a lot of blundering around, I found this Our Umbraco forum post which outlines how to add the color picker back in. I took it a little further and found it was real easy to limit the palette of colors available to the user. This can all be done in the tinyMceConfig.config. I’ve only used this on Umbraco 4.7.1.1.

Steps are as follows:

1.) Open config/tinyMceConfig.config in a text editor.

2.) To add the color picker button back to toolbar, add the following command to the <commands> node:

<command>
    <umbracoAlias>mceForeColor</umbracoAlias>
    <icon>images/editor/forecolor.gif</icon>
    <tinyMceCommand value="" userInterface="true" frontendCommand="forecolor">forecolor</tinyMceCommand>
    <priority>21</priority>
</command>

NOTE: Customize the priority based on where you’d like the button to be placed. I gave mine a “21” and I adjusted the others accordingly.

3.) To remove the “More Colors” link from the color picker, add the following to the <customConfig> section:

<config key="theme_umbraco_more_colors">false</config>

4.) Then to limit the palette available to the user, also add this key to the <customConfig> node:

<config key="theme_umbraco_text_colors">000000,0079E3,FF0033</config>

NOTE: Include your own RGB colors here. In my case, I’ve only decided to make these three (000000,0079E3,FF0033) available.

5.) “Touch” the web.config to recycle the application so the changes will take effect.

6.) Log in to the Umbraco backend and in the TinyMCE/Rich Text Editor/wysiwyg data type, enable the color picker button.

Presto! That’s it, the editor should now show the color picker.