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Rich Text Editor

Rich Text Editor

Use the rich text editor to format text in custom fields with the rich text area type. You can also use the rich text editor in many other features, such as Chatter publisher and groups.

Available in: the Salesforce mobile app, Salesforce Classic, and Lightning Experience
Available in: All Editions

You can perform the following operations with the rich text editor’s WYSIWYG interface.

  • Format text as bold, italicized, underlined, or strikethrough
  • Create bullet and numbered lists
  • Change paragraph indentation
  • Insert a hyperlink
  • Insert an image (copying inline images from external sources and pasting them into the editor isn’t supported)
  • Remove formatting

The availability of toolbar buttons varies across features. For example, the code snippet button is available in Chatter publisher but not in custom fields. Extra functions are supported for features such as Salesforce Knowledge and Ideas, like the ability to embed multimedia content.

Note
Note Beginning in Summer ’17, custom fields provide a rich text editor that no longer uses CKEditor in Lightning Experience and the Salesforce mobile app. Rich text editors provide a WYSIWYG interface only; you can’t edit HTML tags. When you copy content from a web page or another source and paste it into the editor, unsupported tags are removed. Text that was enclosed in unsupported tags is preserved as plain text. You aren’t notified when unsupported or potentially malicious HTML tags are removed. You can expect minor formatting or styling differences when editing a rich text field across the interfaces. We recommend using the toolbar to fix formatting or styling differences.

Lightning Knowledge continues to use the CKEditor for custom rich text fields. Knowledge article rich text fields provide additional functions, such as the ability to view and edit the source HTML, support for more HTML styles, and smart links between articles.

Some features have rich text editors across Salesforce Classic, Lightning Experience, and the Salesforce mobile app. For example, the Information field in groups provides a rich text editor in all three user interfaces. The Chatter Publisher has a rich text editor only in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.

  Salesforce Classic Lightning Experience The Salesforce Mobile App
Groups Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true
Lightning Components (ui:inputRichText and lightning:inputRichText) Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true
Custom Fields Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true
Chatter Publisher Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true  
Knowledge Article Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true  
Lightning App Builder (Rich Text Component) Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true  
Experience Builder (Rich Content Editor) Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true  
Flow Builder Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true  
Idea Themes Checkmark icon indicating true    
Send Email Action   Checkmark icon indicating true  
Sales Path   Checkmark icon indicating true  
Notes   Checkmark icon indicating true Checkmark icon indicating true

Rich Text Editor Considerations

When you use the editor, note the following.

  • The maximum number of characters you can enter in the rich text editor is equal to the field length specified when creating or editing the field. The default is 32,768 characters, which include characters used by HTML tags that apply formatting.
  • Clicked hyperlinks open in a new browser window. The rich text editor supports HTTP, HTTPS, and mailto hyperlinks.
  • The rich text editor doesn’t validate hyperlinks to web pages. Confirm that you’re specifying a valid URL.
  • To insert an image, click Insert Image and either select:
    • Web Address and enter the URL of the image. This option isn’t available in Lightning Experience.
    • Upload Image and select an image from your local host. You can upload only JPEG, PNG, or GIF files. The file can’t exceed 1 MB. You can’t add a hyperlink to an image. Copying inline images from external sources to the text editor isn’t supported.
    Optionally, enter a description that appears when you hover over the image. The image must have a URL that Salesforce can access.
  • The rich text editor supports all languages that Salesforce Knowledge supports.
  • The rich text editor doesn’t support JavaScript or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
  • The rich text editor is disabled for users who have accessibility mode enabled. It’s replaced with a text field.

Supported Formatting

We recommend that you use the toolbar to format your content. When you copy content from a web page or another source and paste it into the editor, unsupported tags are removed. Text that was enclosed in unsupported tags is preserved as plain text. The rich text editor supports the tags listed in the table.

<a> <dt> <q>
<abbr> <em> <samp>
<acronym> <font> <small>
<address> <h1> <span>
<b> <h2> <strike>
<bdo> <h3> <strong>
<big> <h4> <sub>
<blockquote> <h5> <sup>
<br> <h6> <table>
<caption> <hr> <tbody>
<cite> <i> <td>
<code> <img> <tfoot>
<col> <ins> <th>
<colgroup> <kbd> <thead>
<dd> <li> <tr>
<del> <ol> <tt>
<dfn> <p> <u>
<div> <pre> <ul>
<dl> <var>  
Note
Note Rich text editors in custom rich text area fields have minor formatting differences in Lightning Experience and the Salesforce mobile app, as compared to Salesforce Classic. For more information, see Editing Rich Text Area Fields in Records.

The tags can include the following attributes.

alt face size
background height src
border href style
class name target
colspan rowspan width

The following URL protocols are supported.

  • http:
  • https:
  • file:
  • ftp:
  • mailto:
  • #
  • / for relative links

Rich Text Editors Using CKEditor

Rich text editors in Salesforce Classic continue to use CKEditor. Beginning in Summer ’24, Salesforce uses CKEditor version 4.24.0.

In Salesforce Classic, CKEditor is used by:

  • Chatter Publisher
  • Custom Fields
  • Email
  • Flow Builder
  • Groups
  • Idea Themes
  • Knowledge Article

In Lightning Experience and the Salesforce mobile app, the following features have rich text editors that use CKEditor.

  • Email Composer, using the Send Email action
  • Lightning Knowledge

These features load the rich text editor in an iframe. To load the editor correctly in an iframe, your browser must use appropriate security settings. Refer to your browser’s instructions to configure the settings. For example:

  • Internet Explorer—Make sure that the Launching programs and files in an IFRAME security setting is set to Enable or Prompt.
  • Safari—We recommend changing your Privacy settings for cookies to Allow from websites I visit.
  • Chrome—Make sure that Block third-party cookies isn’t selected in the Privacy and security settings.
 
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