XHTMLSuite are no strangers to the WYSIWYG editor business and with the release of version 1.8 they have made article creation in Joomla a breeze.

XHTMLSuite 508 WYSIWYG Editor

There are many different WYSIWYG editors for the Joomla platform, and they all vary in quality and abilities.

XHTMLSuites offer two version of their v1.8 WYSIWYG editor, their standard version and their 508 enhanced version which ensures your articles complies with Section 508, so people with disabilities can have full access to your content. This review is for both version, unless other wised specified.

XHTMLSuite is totally configurable, allowing you to set up user and group specific profiles which can change the look, feel and ability completely based on your needs and security considerations.

You can allow all registered users to be able to use the editor, but not allow them to upload images, while an author would be able to both create directories and upload images but would not be able to delete any images where as an Editor could have the ability to do all of the above and then some such as access to the css plugin (add/edit css styles).

You can have different themes (looks) and even change the size of the editor width and height between the different profiles.

The admin backend also allow you to import spellchecker data and add words into the dictionary, as well as edit the language file to translate all prompts and text in XHTMLSuite to your own language (currently only English and German is offered standard). Most people will not bother, but it is nice that the ability is there and rather easy to update.

WYSIWYG Editor

XHMLSuite 1.8 is a cross browser-based WYSIWYG HTML editor for Joomla 1.0x and 1.5x, it enables users and writers a like to replace the barely adequate WYSIWYG editor that comes standard with Joomla with a powerful, yet easy to use editor that handles both WYSIWYG text editing as well as the option to view/edit the HTML source of your article.

The code formating is particularly nice, it will automatically format and correct any cut/pasted html code every time you open or save a new article.

The WYSIWYG editor makes it easy to change the font type, size and color of your text, no more messing with css to change the way you want your articles to look.

The editor is clean, lightweight and very fast loading; compliant with web standards (XHTML 1.0 valid output) and even allow you to import word documents and clean them from unnecessary word-html tags with just a simple click of the mouse.

The editor makes it very easy to link to internal articles, sections, categories and static content or directly link to external URLs. You can easily create hyperlinks that open in JavaScript popup windows with all the popup window features you can imagine.

One nice feature is the ability to have pre-made HTML snippets, a select box that hold often used HTML snippets. No more need to open up other articles in edit mode to copy/paste or re-create the wheel every single time.

508 only: In addition to the standard link options enables you to add extra accessibility attributes to your links.This way you for instance can enter a title text to your link (this will appear when the reader hovers over the link with the mouse), as well as adding an access key making it possible to open links by pressing a certain keyboard key. Furthermore, you can mark the relationship of your link to other documents.

Image/File Manager

One of the nicest features is the Image Manager which allows you (providing your user id/group has access) not only to upload images, but also allow you to double click on an image to get a popup window which allows you to change image size (only size tags, no real image resizing until v2.0 per their forum) to and adding alt. text and title/tooltip, right on one page.

The ease with which XHTMLSuite allows you to upload images and have it visible and selectable in the image manager automatically puts the standard editor to shame. XHTMLSuite even allow you to give each user or user category to have their own document and image directory for less clutter on your server.

When you have added an image, you can drag it around your article; placing it wherever you want, no more using (mosimage) text tags. The ability to go through your image directories, previewing images and see the size in width/height and kb makes it really easy to pick the right image for your article.

The File Manager is very similar to the Image Manager but allows for upload and insertion of other files than images. For added convenience the editor support the upload and insertion of rich media like Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media and PDFs.

Verdict

This is an excellent WYSIWYG editor, it is powerful with many useful features and options yet still very easy to use. Try as I might, but it is very hard to find any flaws with this product.

UPDATE: I had an issue regarding link relations not including rel="nofollow"; I brought it up on the XHTMLSuite's forum and they had a fix for it right away. How is that for service?

It is affordable, it starts at EUR 29.90 for the standard version and EUR 34.90 for the 508 version. Server license starts at EUR 149.00 for an unlimited installation on a single shared IP and an unlimited license start at EUR 429.00.

A server license would be a great addition if you have many Joomla sites that you wish to have this editor installed on, the unlimited license would be great for a web hosting company to offer it as a paid or free addon to their clients.

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