Format text with the rich-text editor

The toolbar arrives collapsed, carrying only what is used constantly. The ⋮ (Expand toolbar) icon at its end reveals the second half, and the toolbar stays expanded for the rest of the session.

Some formatting never needs the toolbar at all. Typing 1., 1), A. or A) at the start of a line begins a numbered list; * or - begins a bulleted one. Both stop when you press Enter twice.

The colour picker

Both colour buttons open the same picker, with three tabs and a reset.

Put the cursor on an empty line and a small row of icons appears beside it. They are the shortcuts to what people insert most, so the powerbox is not needed for the common cases.

Left to right: Media (image or icon, and video where the field allows it), Upload a file, Link or Button, Bulleted list, Numbered list, Checklist, and ⋮ (More options), which opens the full powerbox.

Hovering any existing block — a paragraph, a heading, a table, an image — also reveals a drag handle in the margin. Hold it and drag to move the whole block somewhere else; its tooltip reads Drag to move, and a single click on it selects the block instead.

Typing / opens a searchable list of everything the editor can insert, grouped into categories. Keep typing to filter it — /tab finds the table, /ban the banners — then press Enter. The categories always come in this order.

Switch direction is the one worth remembering by name on a bilingual database: it flips a single paragraph between left-to-right and right-to-left, which is how an English sentence sits correctly inside an Arabic note, or the reverse.

Type /media or click the picture icon in the quick buttons. The dialog is titled Select a media and its tabs depend on what the field allows.

Working on an image once it is in

Click an inserted image and the toolbar changes into the image toolbar.

Working on an icon once it is in

An inserted icon gets a shorter toolbar of its own: Select Font Color, Select Background Color, a size from 1x to 5x, Toggle icon spin for an animated one, and Replace icon.

Insert one with /table and pick the size from the grid. Afterwards, hover a row or a column: a small handle appears at its edge, and clicking it opens that row's or column's own menu.

The last button on the expanded toolbar translates the selected text into any of the database's installed languages, in place, keeping the formatting. It appears only when text is actually selected, and it is greyed out on a selection that cannot be replaced — inside a table cell that is part of a larger structure, for instance.

This is not a local feature: the text is sent to an online service and the translation comes back from it. Three refusals are worth recognising, because none of them means you did something wrong: "Oops, it looks like our AI is unreachable!" when the server cannot reach the service at all, "You have reached the maximum number of requests for this service. Try again later." when the database has used its allowance, and "Sorry, we could not generate a response. Please try again later." for everything else.

Treat the result as a first draft. A translated field is stored exactly as the model returned it, and nobody reviews it afterwards.

Two families of commands exist in the platform but are not switched on in an ordinary description or notes field, and looking for them is a waste of an afternoon.

Typing / does nothing. Either the field is plain text rather than rich text, or the cursor is in the middle of a word — the powerbox opens on a slash typed at the start of an empty block, not inside a sentence.

The Images tab cannot search. The photo search is Unsplash's, and it needs an access key that is not configured on WindoorERP databases; an administrator sees the prompt "Setup Unsplash to access royalty free photos." instead of results. Uploading your own file and Add URL both work regardless — only the stock-photo search is affected.

Pasted text brings the other document's fonts and colours. Paste, keep it selected, then Remove Format (Ctrl/Cmd + Space) and apply the styles you want here.

The Videos tab is missing. The field cleans its HTML and would strip the video on save, so the tab is hidden rather than misleading. Link to the video instead.

It looks right on screen and wrong in the sent email. A rich-text field is not a page layout. Email clients discard most of what a browser renders; keep to headings, lists and short paragraphs and it survives everywhere.

An image will not upload, or the field becomes slow. Resize the picture before uploading. Everything you put in the field is stored with the record and travels with every copy of it.

Arabic and English are fighting in the same paragraph. Put them in separate paragraphs and use / › Switch direction on the one that needs the other direction.