A React rich text editor is used for making web content editing simpler. However, there is more to it than just editing, and this is why we have compiled useful information in this article. Read on, and we will guide you on whether you should use a React text editor or not. Another reason people use editors for React JS applications is that text editors provide an upgrade in usability and interface. In this article, you will learn about rich text editors, how they work, why you should use them in React apps, and how they can help your development process.

What is a React text editor?

A text editor, specifically the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) kind, is an interface for rich text and content editing. Think of it like your typical word processor, but better. It has the usual rich text features, such as italicized and bold text, bullet points, font size, pasting content from other sources, and more. Standard HTML text editors don’t have all of these features. Instead, they have features like syntax highlighting, project file structuring, and other technical ones. This makes standard HTML text editors great for pure coding and more experienced developers. However, they might not be the right tool for those who want to develop faster or for those who just want to make web content without coding.

WYSIWYG editors, on the other hand, are intuitive and very user-friendly. This makes them ideal for content editors like blog writers, low-code dev teams, and the like. For this reason, in this article, we’ll focus more on this type of HTML editor. So whenever you see the words “text editor,” you’ll know that we’re talking about the WYSIWYG kind. But what is a React text editor? It’s simply a text editor in a React application. To have one in your React application, you can make it from scratch, import a component, or use a ready-made, optimized editor with complete features. Making one from scratch takes the longest time, while integrating a ready-made React text editor takes seconds. Here are the basic components of a typical React text editor:

Rich text field

A rich text field is the editing space or area that accommodates the editor’s contents. The editing area supports plain and formatted text, images and other media files, horizontal lines, links, and more.

Toolbar

The toolbar contains the tools that users use to format text. This component allows users to format, style, and add elements to the editor and its components. Its tools are usually arranged according to function, and a great React editor must have an intuitive and organized toolbar. In more advanced editors, toolbars can also be made inline to make the editing space cleaner.

Footer

A React text editor’s footer usually contains helpful information such as word count and spelling/grammar error tracking.

More advanced text editors also support code view, an optional second editing window showing the HTML code of the content. Nowadays, each text editor has its own unique or improved components, but most of them contain the ones we’ve just discussed. Now that you’re more familiar with text editors, let’s look at some of their features.

Why should you have a React text editor?

You must be wondering whether you really need a text editor for your React application or just go with a simpler text component. Whatever your content needs are, even if it’s just plain text, you should always consider using a React text editor. This is because they have so much to offer you and your users. Let’s check out some of the best features of a modern text editor.

Super speed

A rich text editor does not eat up your computer’s RAM or the space on your device. A computer slows down or performs poorly when an application is too heavy. The best rich text editors, in fact, can be used on any device without performance issues. Some can even reach a few milliseconds of initialization despite having tons of features (click here for an example). The best part is that these editors improve user experience because of their performance, keeping users efficient and focused.

Good system performance during operation is one of the reasons you should consider a React text editor. Unlike other heavy software, a React text editor is light in the sense that it has a small file size and is plugin-based. Having a plugin-based architecture means that you only include and use the features you need, further reducing the size and load of your application. Even when you insert images or other files, an ideal React text editor shouldn’t get too resource-intensive. Users love an uninterrupted, smooth, and fast application experience. With a React text editor, you can give it to them.

Mobile support

Why should you sit behind a big screen every time you want to edit? The modern world is much more flexible and convenient than that. Hence, you should be able to edit on the go or in a coffee shop, whether you’re using a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. The best React text editors have great mobile support, meaning you can use them on any device without losing the complete and seamless editing experience.

However, you should ensure that the mobile editing user interface is the same as on big screens. Responsiveness is an important feature you should check for before you choose a React text editor solution or component. This not only applies to the editor itself but its contents as well (e.g., images should also resize well according to screen resolution).

RTL support

All languages do not share the same reading pattern. Some are from right-to-left (RTL), while others are from left-to-right (LTR). A modern React text editor should support the reading pattern regardless of the language. For example, you may need to change the language settings for clients who are foreigners. RTL support allows your React application to be easily used by people across the globe.

Advanced feature capability

Not all React text editors are advanced. But those that are can help your app cater to a larger user base. They do so by allowing users to add content that’s not normally supported by editors. For example, you may need to insert mathematical and chemical equations for researchers, engineers, writers, and so on. You definitely can’t write these equations using a normal editor and make them look good or readable. And if you don’t mind readability and choose to develop equations from scratch, it will surely take a lot of time. Advanced React text editors are the solution. With their help, you can maintain high productivity while lightening the load on users.

Full customization

A typical text editor gives you full customization access. This lets you add, delete, create, and organize the functionalities that you want in your editor. For example, you can customize your toolbar and add support for quotes. You can even make your own toolbar button with its own functionality. Customizable text editors also let you match your editor’s design to that of your application. Remember when I said that you should also consider using a React text editor even for plain text? Well, sometimes plain text boxes can be tricky to customize, leading to inconsistencies in UI design and theming. With a React text editor, you’ll make sure that your app will have a consistent theme. Customizability in editors is important because it gives you more control over how your editor looks, behaves, and is used.

These features are often enough of a reason to integrate a rich text editor into your React application. But I’m sure you also want to see the benefits of doing so. Let’s discuss them in the next section.

Benefits of a rich text editor

Intentional and purposeful

Rich text editors, like normal word processing software, are purpose-driven. They make applications easy to use, and they help you and your clients attain your goals. Using a text editor, you can perform multiple tasks at once, including text editing, formatting, image settings, and more.

Advanced styling options

Styling options allow you to engage with and alter the content within your editing area. For example, let’s assume that you copied and pasted an image into your editor. You can then edit the image using features like rotation, cropping, resizing, linking, and so on. A rich text editor lets your users create the content they want exactly the way they imagine it without coding knowledge. Anyone can use a text editor with advanced styling options.

Display nicely indented code

A WYSIWYG text editor does not show complex code like typical text editors do. Instead, it displays code using an HTML or code view mode. This makes the content within the editor space easy to read and interpret while also making the code behind it available. And when it does, rich text editors can display code in a manner that mimics the experience of coding in standard text editors like Visual Studio Code.

Unlimited undo and redo

Text editors allow their users to perform a lot of actions and likewise revert them. They can improve work output via a reliable text editor. It is easy to find and correct errors via a text editor; simply click on the “undo and redo” button.

Conclusion 

So, do you really need a React text editor? If you value efficiency, productivity, and product quality, then there’s a high chance you do. You can even integrate a ready-made WYSIWYG editor in a few seconds, customize it to fit your needs, and have more time to focus on your other features. After all, the modern world rewards those who care about quality and their clients. So, whenever you have a content-heavy app to develop, you should go back on what you’ve read here and ask yourself, “Can I take my app to the next level with a React text editor?”

To build and sustain web applications that thrive in today’s digital space, you must take great effort in prioritizing quality. This deeply involves making improvements throughout the development lifecycle. There are numerous ways to do this, each of which having its own benefits and learning curve. For example, you can improve the way your users interact and share content within your application. However, this might be difficult to do depending on which features you want for content creation and editing. Luckily, you can significantly increase your web application’s quality by implementing a feature-rich React text editor.

But how can you use a React text editor to make your web apps better? That’s what this article is going to answer. First, we’ll define the characteristics that make an application better. We’ll also discuss what a React text editor is, as well as your options should you decide to use one.

What makes a web application better?

This is the question that all developers face when planning, making, and improving their applications. It’s essential, but it also has rather vague answers. So, to answer this question, let’s try focusing on some of the most common qualities that great web apps have. Once we identify them, we’ll have an idea of what makes the best apps thrive in today’s digital world. 

1. Polished features

   The first trait that makes a web app better is the presence of rich, complete, and seamless features. They ensure that your users have everything they need to go about their activities in your app. For example, let’s say you’re building a social media app. You need to ensure that your users have the means to post content, message others, see other posts, and more. Not only that, but you also have to make sure that they can use these features in an easy, predictable, and smooth way. Hence, aside from its core features, your app should have: 

   • Fluid navigation/routing that makes sense
   • Less experience-breaking errors
   • Task automation features (e.g., templates for bank transfers, emails, and so on)
   • Tooltips/short description of buttons (especially useful for productivity/collaboration apps)

2. Sleek, modern, and trendy UI

   It’s important to always have a user interface that’s up-to-date. This is because people’s tastes in UI design change over time, and they’re more likely to use an app that keeps up with these changes. Some of the most popular UI traits nowadays include flat, sleek, graphics-rich, and responsive components. And speaking of responsiveness, you have to make sure that your app’s UI will look good across all screen sizes. While beautiful UI design isn’t a requirement for users’ productivity or enjoyment, it’s definitely a major contributor to user satisfaction. And with user satisfaction comes retention (and more trust) for your application.

3. Optimized Performance

   Speed and performance also make up a huge part of why some apps are better than others. Some apps might have complete features, but what if due to having so many features, it loses speed? If all or the important features of your application take more time than expected, your users might lose interest quickly. So, you’ll have to find ways to optimize your app. These consist of reducing the upload file sizes, using a CDN (Content Delivery Network), and trimming down lines of code.

4. Enhanced Security

   Users tend to like applications that have extra layers of security over those that don’t–and for good reason. Without proper security measures, users and the application are vulnerable to cyber attacks. From phishing to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and even viruses disguised as normal files, attackers can cause great harm to vulnerable apps. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to protect your app from these attacks. These include input sanitization, parameterized queries, thorough constraints checking (e.g., max file size), antivirus software, and more. 

5. Compliance with accessibility regulations

   Complying with various accessibility regulations like Section 508 implies that you care about your community, especially those with disabilities. This ensures that people with disabilities can still use your app as seamlessly. Complying with these regulations also tell people that your app is mature enough and also builds trust among your users. 

6. Localization

   Localization is when you adjust your app to fit the needs of your users in different countries or regions. This could refer to changing the contents of an online store/retailer or changing the app’s language depending on region. That way, you’ll make your app more accommodating to the global community.

7. Clear and easy-to-read documentation/tutorials

   Lastly, a better app has a documentation/tutorial page that’s comprehensive yet easy to understand. Tutorials (especially interactive ones) help users get started with using your app. On the other hand, documentation is mostly used as a reference for complicated or developer-focused apps. Here’s an example of how documentation can be beneficial to developers.

Now that we’ve defined some of the qualities that make web applications better, let’s move on to our next topic – React text editors.

What is a React text editor?

A React text editor is a WYSIWYG, or “What You See Is What You Get”, editor for React applications. As you may know, React from Meta is one of the most widespread JavaScript libraries for building amazing front-end applications. This is because of its support for both stateful and stateless components, declarative syntax, component-based approach, and reusability. By using React, you’ll make developing your application a lot easier while also improving its quality. 

A WYSIWYG editor is an HTML editor that enables end users to create and edit web content without coding. It usually takes the form of a large text area with a toolbar, buttons, and other components. Sounds familiar? You’ve probably already used one if you’ve used Content Management Systems, email platforms, or document collaboration tools before. WYSIWYG editors are essential to content-centric applications because they streamline the creation and editing of content. 

A React text editor combines the powerful rich text capabilities of a WYSIWYG editor with React’s UI and performance benefits. In the next section, you’ll learn how it makes web applications so much better.

How does a React text editor improve web applications?

Finally, now that we’ve discussed React text editors and what makes web applications better, we can put these topics together. Let’s look at the ways that a React text editor can enhance your application. 

1. It helps developers and businesses save time. 

   This is one of the best benefits that a React text editor can bring to your application. But wait, what does saving developers’ time have to do with a web app’s quality? A lot, apparently. This is because the more time the developers save, the more time they’ll have to improve their applications’ core features. Implementing a React text editor might take some time, especially if you won’t be using a third-party editor (you should). But in the end, it will be worth it.

   Imagine you have a blog. Without a React text editor, you would have to revisit your codes, convert your content in code format, save the file, and update the live site. And that process can be exhausting and prone to so many human errors. Having a React text editor in your app lets you bypass this process. Instead, you’ll only have to write directly on your editor, add images/format, and click a post button.

2. Users can create quality content easily. 

   With a React text editor in place, your app lets users create the exact content they want. Whether it’s an email template, a blogpost with images, formatted documents, or an emoji-bombarded message, having such an editor meets your users’ needs. These editors, especially ready-made ones, are equipped with responsive, well-designed toolbars that help users create content as efficiently as possible. 

   By having the editing features that your users need, React text editors help users avoid having to switch between applications. For instance, let’s say that you’re building a document collaboration software like Google Docs. Your users shouldn’t have to switch to another word processing tool so that they could add comments to a document. Instead, your app should have comments, mentions, highlighting, and suggestion features. This keeps your app at the forefront of your users’ operations. 

   If your React application has a text editor, you could help provide the ultimate user experience, letting it flourish further.

3. A React text editor lets users add media files to their content. 

   In relation to the previous item, React text editors also allow users to add images, videos, and audio to their content. This feature alone is a boon to your application, especially because media files compose a large part of the internet. Having a way to share such files increases user engagement and contributes to your app’s improvement. 

   For example, if you have a food delivery app, you’ll want your users to stay engaged. But you can’t do that with text alone, especially when it comes to food. So, the best course of action would be to allow the stores registered in your app to upload images of their food. This keeps your users craving for food instead of merely scrolling through descriptions. And the good news is that this applies to most web apps, especially those with user-generated content.

If by now you’re leaning towards using a text editor for your React app, you might have another question. Where do you start, and what sort of text editor should you use?

What’s a good React text editor?

There are two ways to implement a React text editor. The first way is to create everything from scratch. This takes plenty of time, and the amount of time and effort scales with the app’s complexity. You would have more control over its design and features, though. 

But is it really worth it to sacrifice an early deployment (plus time to focus on other features) for this? And what if you decide to scale your application’s editor in the future or make it available across multiple platforms? Furthermore, you won’t be paying for anything (except for the developers’ time), but is it worth the future maintenance you’ll have to do? Only you can answer these questions. 

The second way is to use a ready-made or third-party React text editor. The best ones in the market allow you to integrate their editor in seconds, solving your problems right away. Of course, you’ll have to configure and customize the editor of your choice to fit your app’s needs and design. Undoubtedly, though, you’ll have a massive amount of time saved because you’ll already have what you need. 

Premier editors also already support multiple languages and accessibility, which are features that are difficult to do on your own. Aside from that, developers can integrate them into almost any framework easily, including React. The best part is that premium third-party React text editors can also be affordable (click here for an example). 

Whatever React text editor you choose, the quality of your all will certainly benefit from it. You should always check your requirements first. Afterwards, you should determine whether you have the time and resources to make your own or integrate a ready-made editor. One thing is for sure–your users will appreciate having a capable text editor for them to share content with.

Conclusion

To keep up with today’s best web applications, you have to strive to improve your application’s quality. Integrating a React text editor is one way of doing this. In this post, I’ve shown you the traits that make an application better, what a React text editor is, and how you can use it to improve applications. Remember that the goal of improving your application is to exceed the expectations of your users. Use this article as a guide, put yourself in your users’ shoes, and ask yourself, “How can I have a better time using this app?”

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors have helped countless developers across the globe provide a modern, captivating, and rich editing experience for their users. From Content Management Systems (CMS) to email software and other apps and websites, editors like Froala satisfy various editing requirements. They allow users to create content such as rich text, blog posts, comments, emails, documents, webpages, and a lot more.

A practice management platform is another solid example of a software that greatly benefits from WYSIWYG editors. In this post, we’ll be looking at EasyEviction, a powerful and easy to use practice management platform. Additionally, you’ll get to know how EasyEviction depends on Froala to give their clients the ideal editor. Let’s start by defining what a practice management platform is.

What is a practice management platform? 

A practice management platform (or system) is a software that law firms and legal professionals use to manage business processes. It is involved in different operations of a law firm and has the following features:

• Managing cases and tasks
• Managing client information
• Digitizing and managing documents
• Managing billing and invoice
• Creating and customizing workflows
• Generating reports

These features drastically reduce the effort required for managing a law firm, promoting efficiency and productivity. The best practice management platforms even have additional features like notifications, calendars, online payments, time tracking, and auto-generated paperworks. EasyEviction is one such platform. Let’s discover more about it in the next section. 

About EasyEviction

EasyEviction is a practice management platform that specializes in the legal side of property eviction. Its direct users are law firms and practitioners who, in turn, have property managers and property management offices as clients. 

EasyEviction boasts incredible features for their clients such as the ones we’ve discussed above. It also ensures safer and more convenient payments using credit cards or eChecks. Finally, the platform cuts down plenty of eviction processing time with its workflows and automatic filling out of documents. Aside from helping law firms easily and effectively manage their operations, EasyEviction also provides a client portal for property managers. 

With dashboards, automation, robust core features, a powerful editor, and a deep understanding of their clients’ needs, EasyEviction continues to gain new users while retaining current ones. But as with all platforms and businesses, EasyEviction had to figure out a couple of things to make it work. And that includes finding a suitable WYSIWYG editor. 

EasyEviction’s journey towards finding the WYSIWYG editor that suits them

When EasyEviction was established, one of their major concerns was providing their attorney clients a powerful, extensible, and yet simple WYSIWYG editor. It would fulfill the function of setting up documents and automatically populating them with client-submitted data. They also wanted an editor for email template creation. So, they tried implementing those editing features using both HTML fields and some free JavaScript frameworks. However, those solutions weren’t enough, and there was always something lacking. Eventually, their search led them to Froala. 

“We searched high and low for a commercial editor that provided us with all required bells and whistles, was easy to set up, and was affordable. Luckily, after searching and comparing many editors, Froala Editor checked all the boxes. Best of all, this little widget supported Angular and was super easy to integrate into the site.” 

– Alexander Sukhodolsky, Co-Founder and CEO of EasyEviction

Froala and EasyEviction

After finding and choosing Froala, EasyEviction finally decided that they have the ideal editor for their clients. This helped them focus more on their core features involving eviction management. With the help of Froala, EasyEviction now stands out among the other practice management platforms. And that’s because they have a complete set of features, a clean user interface, and features that offer comfort and convenience, among other reasons. 

Froala streamlines every document-related task for EasyEviction’s clients. Documentation takes plenty of time and effort, after all, so businesses need to save as much time as they can. Using Froala as EasyEviction’s built-in editor, law firms can generate paperwork with form data, greatly increasing efficiency. They can also export documents as PDF and create good-looking email templates. 

Froala just fits perfectly into the EasyEviction platform, and it doesn’t even take much space or load time. Despite its numerous features and modern looks, it can be loaded in less than 40ms. 

Today, EasyEviction is steadily growing, winning new clients and keeping existing clients extremely happy. 

Ready for your own Froala journey? 

Like EasyEviction, you can have your own success story with the Froala Editor. You can start by checking out the kinds of editing features you want included in your project. Afterwards, look at Froala’s 100+ features to determine if your editing requirements will be met. Chances are, Froala has just the features you need. 

You can try Froala Editor for free by clicking here. Test it out, read the docs, see some examples, and explore its plethora of features. And once you feel that Froala is the right editor for you, like EasyEviction has, you can let Froala take care of your editing. 

Document collaboration tools have seen a massive increase in usage over the last few years, especially since the 2020 pandemic began. This is because of their ability to bring groups of people together regardless of distance. This applies to businesses, educational institutions, and other organizations that require people to remotely (but closely) work together.

There have been many document collaboration tools since they emerged; therefore, it can be difficult to assess and choose from them. In this article, I’ve gathered some of the best document collaboration tools you can use to make choosing one for your business a lot easier. Before we can get to that, though, let’s have a review of what these tools are.

What Are Document Collaboration Tools?

Document collaboration tools are software applications that empower teams with real-time and remote collaboration on documents. They allow team members to access and edit documents such as word files, spreadsheets, and more. 

Document collaboration tools provide great convenience, better transparency, and safer file access, especially when it comes to confidential documents. Therefore, we compiled a list of secure tools that greatly help your business. On a related note, before we move on to the best document collaboration tools and their features, you can also read about a text editor’s importance in 2022. 

Benefits of Document Collaboration Tools In Your Business

Document collaboration tools provide plenty of advantages for your business. For instance, they can let members of your team edit a document over and over without needing to make iterations of the same file. This is because users could always revert to a previous version of the file by checking its version history. In simpler terms, you can say goodbye to “filename_v1_v2_Final_FINAL.docx”.

These tools also make it easy for businesses to update their documentation (related: Froala documentation), easily letting them track a documentation’s version changes, saving lots of time in the process. But enough about examples. Let’s check out the benefits that document collaboration tools can bring on a more general scale:

Easier Progress Tracking

Tracking your team’s progress on various tasks is essential to businesses because it lets you know whether you’re ahead/behind and what your next actions will be. Thankfully, by using a document collaboration tool, you’ll be able to see the status of all files that are currently being worked on. This keeps you informed of your projects’ wellbeing as well as the individual contributions of your team members.

A Huge Boost to Efficiency

Document collaboration tools allow teams to be more efficient by providing seamless file sharing. Because of this, they won’t have to transfer files through unnecessarily tiring and unsafe methods. Effective teamwork is a factor of positive collaboration. A team that works blindly or without the necessary tools will not be productive. On the contrary, a team with document collaboration tools have access to import options, online private and shared folders with customizable access rights, and shareable links. All these contribute greatly to team efficiency. 

Cloud storage (as a case study) is accessible anywhere in the world; thus, a team member can work on a project irrespective of the others. Typical file sharing methods require pairing – people who have access to the file can only share it. This implies that other members cannot use the file or document if the authorized individual is absent. Unlike the typical file sharing method, document collaboration tools work regardless of a member’s presence. This is because they let users access files anywhere in the world as long as they’re authorized to access it. 

Faster Reviews and Revisions

Reviewing documents or waiting for documents to be reviewed can take longer than expected sometimes. Some documents can get lost in a pile of other things you need to review. And because of that, file authors/owners could wait a long time before they could revise the same document, breaking momentum and resulting in the “where were we?” situation upon receiving feedback.

Document collaboration tools help avoid this problem by making sure that document reviewers could easily see new files as well as search old ones for them to review. And once they give their feedback, file authors/owners would be immediately notified so that they could start revising. Most of these tools also let users tag or mention others, making sure that they won’t miss any changes. Oh, and some tools send emails, too.

Increased Participation from Team Members

Like I said earlier, most document collaboration tools have mentions and commenting features. These help teams be more connected and engaged in tasks such as content creation and reviews. Additionally, seeing concrete records or files of their contributions could fire up team members and motivate them to do better. In turn, this translates to more productivity and focus, better products and services, and happy clients. 

Speed and accuracy are two major factors that determine production. Your employees cannot make effective contributions if they cannot access the right information at the right time. Document collaboration tools enhance speed and accuracy within a group and increase confidence. Thus, you must keep all information in the right place, and the correct document collaboration technology can help you achieve this. 

Now that we’ve looked at some of the most important benefits a document collaboration tool can bring, I’ll get you acquainted with some of the best of these tools.

Best Document Collaboration Tools

Here are the top document collaboration tools available today:

1. Google Docs

   Google Docs is one of the best online text editors: it creates, formats, and promotes easy collaboration. The online word processor technology allows you to create and edit a document through a web browser (or via the application). Multiple people can use the tool simultaneously and share docs since no software installation is required. It allows users to see changes (and a version history) in real-time, and it even has support for autosaving and offline working. Google Docs’ primary features are: pageless view, menu shortcut, dropdowns, table templates, meeting notes, email draft, checklists, document summary, and more. 

   

2. Dropbox Paper

   Dropbox Paper is an online text organizer and media editor that allows you to display text and files simultaneously. You can collaborate with others and access your documents remotely. Dropbox Paper features include a plethora of keyboard shortcuts, easy timelines, templatize, present this doc, to-do lists, insert media & more, and link other dropbox documents. 

   

3. ClickUp

   ClickUp is a general productivity tool made for teams in different fields. The tool allows you to manage, track, and plan on any project (like marketing documentation) on a single page. It is easy to carry all teams along with ClickUp because it synchronizes automatically and autosaves all changes. ClickUp features include dashboards, time estimates and time tracking, relationships, goals, templates, task tray and me mode.

   

4. Monday.com

   Monday.com combines automatic customization and remote operation in a single place. Your team can make effective changes in a few clicks, and you can set a sequence that shuffles tasks from one phase to another. The tool can assign tasks to individual team members and remind them via email. Monday.com features include “monitoring, managing, tracking workloads, easy communication, collaboration, and data visualization.”

   

5. Confluence

   Confluence helps teams collaborate and share knowledge efficiently. A team can design project requirements, delegate projects to individual members, and manage multiple calendars in one go. This collaboration tool is best used for meeting notes, project plans, and onboarding guides. Confluence features are content management, space management, add-ons, site management, user management and security, Jira integration, work in one place,  and platform synchronization.

   

6. Notion

Notion gives users a dashboard that helps manage, organize, and track all projects at once. The tool helps you build a responsive team since all the team members have access to the same dashboard. It also helps manage deadlines, objectives, and assignments as a team because it is built on responsive documentation editor innovation. Notion features are unlimited pages & blocks, infinite hierarchy, tables & databases, markdown support, and drag & drop.

What Features Should You Look For In Document Collaboration Tools?

Besides real-time editing functionality, here are seven essential features your document collaboration software should have:

Autosave

Most document collaboration tools have an autosave option to guarantee that crucial information won’t get lost in case of unexpected interruptions. Ensure the document collaboration tool has this feature – autosave prevents data loss due to crash, freeze, or user error.

Version control and history

A team can make an error, and the former version of the document may be the last hope. Thus, you need a document collaboration tool that can save different document versions which you can revert to if necessary.

Track Changes 

This feature allows you to track the changes made to a document. Tracking changes is important for users across different fields because the “new changes” may not be relevant to the project or jeopardize the teamwork. Mistakes could come from any team member. Tracking changes enables the team to track the error and make necessary corrections. The best document collaboration tools even notify users about any recent changes. 

Mobile-Friendliness

Mobile accessibility is a must for every modern collaborative app. It guarantees that team members can work remotely and access online resources. 

Support for Cloud Storage

Since document collaboration occurs online, it’s important to consider where and how the files will be stored. Ideally, a document collaboration tool should support cloud storage that has a generous storage space, extra layers of security, and easy file access and organization.  

File Organization

Speaking of organization, the best document collaboration tools let users sort files, arrange them into folders, and easily find and browse through them using filters and search bars. Because the more organized your files are, the less time you’ll waste. 

Comments

Comments allow you to share your thoughts about the document (e.g., “rewrite this into something simpler” or “I like this version of the title better”) without tampering with the document itself. They make it easier for document owners or authors to revise or edit their files. Instead of reading through every sentence and trying to find highlighted words, they would only need to skim through the side of the page.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve reached the end of the article, you should have enough information to determine the right tool among the document collaboration tools that we discussed. Before downloading, you should make sure that your tool of choice meets your requirements. Then, you may ask your team or employees to suggest a good collaboration tool for your business. As an employer, you may not necessarily enforce a particular team collaboration software on your team. Instead, encourage them to choose the right one they would like to use. After all, they’ll compose the majority of its users. Nevertheless, you should shortlist your tool using the information listed here since each tool has different specific features.

HTML Comments: Why They’re More Useful Than You Think

If there’s another must-have skill for developers besides coding and critical thinking, it’s knowing how to properly write HTML comments. Should you skip writing comments or write messy, unclear, or lengthy ones, you could cause problems in development and maintenance. For instance, a lack of comments makes other developers confused and lost, especially when reading thousands of lines of code. Furthermore, those who read unclear or incorrect information in comments might make unwanted changes, possibly breaking the application. 

Related: Online HTML Editor

Thus, we should always think twice before saying “I won’t forget what this code does” or “I’ll write comments later”. As you’ll see in this article, these comments can contribute to coding efficiency and quality.

What are HTML comments? 

HTML comments are a way of explaining code sections in HTML. Without them, developers would have to read lines of code or documentation to find out what the code does. And the longer the code, the more difficult it would be to understand. So, developers often write comments for their sake and for others who would have to maintain the code.

Comments in HTML are elements wherein any code written between their opening and closing tags are not displayed in browsers. These comments are written inside the <!– and –> tags; for example:

<!– This is a comment in HTML. This will be highlighted green in most code editors and won’t be shown on browsers –>

Now, let’s see where and when you should use comments in the next section below. 

When are HTML comments used? 

Comments are a huge part of a developer’s life because they help us clearly keep track of our progress. Thus, we need to learn when, where, and for which purpose we can use them. 

When you need better communication with your development team

There is no one way of writing code. Everyone has their own preferences. Because of this, developers might find it difficult to review, edit, or integrate someone else’s code. For example, let’s say we have a newly hired developer with a different code writing style and standards. And let’s say that their first task is to fix some bugs of an application. The developer would have to go to the line(s) with error using a console. Afterwards, they must figure out what the adjacent lines of code mean (e.g., what the function with the line(s) of error does). What if those lines are complicated, in the thousands, and/or messy? That would be very troublesome and time-consuming for the new developer. 

Thankfully, developers can write comments. By writing well-placed and well-written comments, members of a development team can make their codes a lot more understandable. In our example earlier, let’s say that other developers had placed comments in their codes before the new developer arrived. When it’s time for the new developer to find bugs, they would find it easier to do. Instead of finding a mess of a code, they’d find brief and clear explanations of what each code section does. Therefore, adding comments to existing code can greatly improve communication and understanding between developers. 

When you need to revisit old codes

As developers, we also have the duty of maintaining previously deployed applications. This includes revisiting old codes to fix bugs, improve features, reusing functions/methods, or add new functionality. When you check on an old code with tens of thousands of lines after a year or two, would you still remember what each section does? Probably not. You’d have to spend hours to days of just reviewing code before you could start with the actual refactoring work. With comments, on the other hand, you would know what each section or block of code is right away. This lets you gain familiarity with old code a lot quicker, letting you focus on your tasks. 

When you’re making a code/library publicly available 

What if you want to make source code public, as in the case of open-source libraries and plugins? You need to make sure that your users won’t have a hard time learning it. So, aside from writing good documentation, you can also leave out comments in your source code. Comments in source code help users understand how your library/plugin works. Through them, you can explain concepts in a more engaging and practical way. This lets your users have an easier time to get started using your code for their projects. Additionally, they let you clearly define your license terms.

Now that we know when we should comment in HTML code, let’s discuss the ways we can add them. 

How do you add HTML comments?

Single-line comments

This comment type involves writing a comment in a single line that doesn’t contain any other HTML elements alongside it. The image below shows usage of single-line comments:

As you can see from the image, there are two single-line comments, one for each script. These comments effectively serve as labels or brief descriptions for a section of code (e.g., like how they appear above the script tags above).

Inline comments

These comments refer to those that are beside or enclosed in other HTML elements. The following image shows an example of inline comments:

The code snippet above shows two inline comments. As demonstrated, we can use inline comments to describe tags to denote areas of future development (e.g., maintenance/refactoring). They can also be used to disable some elements that are still being tested or yet to be added.

Multiline comments

Finally, we have multiline comments, which are comments that span multiple lines. Here’s how they look in action:

In the code snippet, we can see that multiline comments are used for both explaining and disabling lines of code.

So, what do you think? It seems that comments are more useful than they appear. That’s why experienced developers recommend adding comments to your code. Besides, no one wants to debug lengthy code without having comments to guide them. However, it’s not enough to simply add comments. You must also do so in a way that’s clear, concise, and sensible. We’ll go through that in the next section. 

What are some best practices to follow when writing HTML comments? 

Avoid rewriting the contents of your code

Comments summarize your code to make it a lot easier to read and understand. So, you should never just translate your code to English or a high-level language. Doing so will make it seem like you’re writing pseudocode, which leaves readers in the same place as they were. Instead, ask yourself what the key variables and events are and briefly write them down. 

For example, you can list down a function’s input, process, and output. You can write: “This function takes two integers as an input and returns their sum”. That’s a lot better compared to: “This is the function named add(num1, num2). We then write sumNum = num1 + num2. Then, we write the code return sumNum.” Now, imagine that but for a more complicated function. 

Keep HTML comments short and sweet

Comments that aim to explain code shouldn’t take too many lines. You’re not writing a documentation or dissertation, after all. By keeping them short, you can ensure that your readers will get the gist of your code right away. This prevents them from being distracted. 

Don’t include everything

It’s wise to remember that comments, while hidden on browsers, can be viewed by anyone by viewing the page source. So, you should avoid leaving comments with sensitive information or leaving any development-related comments on your live sites. 

Maintain HTML comments together with code

Code isn’t the only thing you should maintain. Whenever you refactor or add code, you should also update its comments to avoid future problems. 

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve explored HTML comments and their use cases, usage, and best practices. They are a great and important skill for developers to learn. Paying close attention to them could save your app from plenty of changes in code or personnel in the future. 

Froala is a powerful, elegant, and affordable WYSIWYG editor that supports Code Mirror. With this feature, users can toggle between editor and HTML views. This means that your users can edit content directly through HTML and even leave out comments for collaboration and updates. You can try it for free by clicking here.