To migrate the site from my local testing server to a live server was an absolute nightmare. Instead of just changing file paths in one config file I had to dig through the database and CMS admin updating them in multiple locations.

It also seemed to me that to me that EE’s blogging background holds it back. It handles repetitive content superbly, but organising stand-alone pages seemed to require cumbersome workarounds.

As for text editing, as I recall that EE didn’t have a rich text editor, and opted for bbcode or similar instead? That’s fine for developers, but IMO a little clumsy for clients to use. I ended up installing TinyMCE as a plugin.

Sorry if I sound like I’m knocking EE. In fairness I must admit that I absolutely hated the project I was using it for, which no doubt coloured my perceptions!

EDIT: I recently upgraded to TinyMCE 3 in my own CMS, and found that the code it generates now requires far less cleaning than was previously the case.

I have an issue that I can’t figure out with one installation of TinyMCE where it creates an empty p tag (paragraph) which doesn’t get filled when text is entered into the field, rather, all the textareas have got an empty paragraph at the bottom

Jonathan, I’d be very grateful if you would like to share your bit of PHP that strips out the empty p tags on submit, as I don’t know any PHP myself!

Out of interest, I am using Expression Engine now as my main blog, which I love – very easy to understand as a front-end developer going into back-end. But I will look into CMS made simple for a free solution for much simpler cases, as EE costs and can be used to great complexity.

I stripped out almost all formatting options and included the CSS from the actual website so the content in the wysiwyg window displays exactly like on the website.

I also had problems with clients pasting in from Word etc, but did not realise you can block this using the config! (thats awesome). Up until now I have placed warnings on the page and in the CMS help guide as well as during the clients inital training. This isnt always effective though.

Nice to see its a common problem

Thanks for the tip about WysiwygPro – I hadn’t actually heard of it before. Superficially at least it looks pretty similar to TinyMCE and FCKEditor, I’m curious to know what you think sets it apart?

WordPress allows non-technical administrators/editors/authors to manage the websites it a fairly competent manner. Problems with TinyMCE soon became obvious. I have since installed FCKEditor and find it much better (although it does not stop the “clue-less” from ruining the website’s look and feel (pink text at 30 odd pt used in an olive green based theme does not look good!!!).

I have also used WysiwygPro and find it technically the best of the WordPress enabled wysiwyg editors; but you do have to pay for it – nothing for nothing I suppose.

Thanks for the good read.

Regards,
Peter

http://wiki.moxiecode.com/index.php/TinyMCE:Configuration/valid_elements

Of course valid_elements needs to go hand-in-hand with the editing buttons you display to the user. There is no point disallowing strikethrough if you give the user access to a strikethrough editing button, and vice versa.

Thanks