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Written by Tech Notes

Published: 08 January 2015

How To Activate (Enable) Additional Joomla TinyMCE Editor Functions Like Text Color, Background, Formatting, and List Formats, Anchor, and Paragraph Functions!

This article applies to Joomla versions of before 3.2 and after 3.2 in most cases.   I tested it on 3.2 and deciphered postings regarding it as early as 1.5 and for 3.3 and others.

Note that I do not get paid to do these articles.

If you your Joomla installation is something like this:

However, you would like to have this:



Then do the steps shown below.
Once you are done with the below steps the additional image functions are available. Additional functions like border and style entry; text coloring; background coloring; full screen editing; content search and replace; language direction control; emotions icons (smilies); advanced listing formats; anchoring; paragraph functions, media insertion; easier font formatting selections; template creation and insertion; Preview; marking text in quotation format; non-breaking space insertion.

Caution

First, a word of caution.  Previous article pasted images will not show while changed to the Extending TinyMCE setting.  If you have existing articles with pasted images in them, then after changing to the Extended setting for TinyMCE you try to edit the previous articles that contain pasted images, you will not see them.  While in the Extended version of the TinyMCE editor, you will not see the image pasted previously.  This does not impact the images being displayed within the article on your website.  Fortunately, you are able to set it back and see the previously pasted images.

Update: Another article shows how to do it without this negative effect, but it involves more work.  The article is How To Activate (Enable) Additional Joomla TinyMCE Editor Functions And Not Lose Ctrl-v Pasting Ability And Still Be Able To See Past Article Images In Editor.

STEPS to get the Extended TinyMCE editor menu for expanded functionality

1. Make a full backup.
2. Go to Plugins Manager within the Extensions menu and search for "edit", and click on "Editor - TinyMCE"
   
   
   
   
3. Change the Functionality selection to Extended and push the "Save & Close" button..
   
   
   
   
4. Select "Clear Cache" from the System pull down menu.
   
   
   
   
5. Set the Filter to Administrator, and Check All the checkboxes, and click the Delete button.
   
   
   
   
6. Finally, to test, select Add New Article by going to Content menu and selecting Article Manager.
   
   
   
   

The new article should be displaying the updated TinyMCE editor menu and its expanded selection of operations, as shows above prior to the listed steps.

UPDATE WARNING

Upon further tests on Joomla 3.2.3, I discovered that on occasion, the Extended TinyMCE does is not able to paste images into it via ctrl-v.  Initially, I thought the images were not getting pasted, but I believe the TinyMCE code is responsible and is filtering against harmful code pasting, and some how filtering out the image from getting pasted into the content editor area.  Fortunately, you are able to go back and forth between the settings and paste with the Advanced or Simple setting, and then change back to the Extended to add coloring, but remember, the images pasted while in the Advanced setting, and probably the Simple too (only tested Advanced and not Simple) do not show in the editor once set to Extended.

Update: Another article shows how to do it without this negative effect, but it involves more work.  The article is How To Activate (Enable) Additional Joomla TinyMCE Editor Functions And Not Lose Ctrl-v Pasting Ability And Still Be Able To See Past Article Images In Editor.

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