# Text editors - what are you using?

**URL:** <https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807>\
**Category:** Learn\
**Created:** [June 17, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807 "2019-06-17T19:38:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![eniac314](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.elm-lang.org/eniac314/32/2279_2.png) [@eniac314](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/u/eniac314)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807/1 "2019-06-17T19:38:03Z")

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Lately I have been trying to make a simple text editor using a text area.

It’s using [pablohirafuji/elm-markdown](https://package.elm-lang.org/packages/pablohirafuji/elm-markdown/latest) under the hood, It gives me an AST that I render using elm-ui after adding a few custom elements not present in the original markdown spec (like font selection or color).

I am wrapping the text area in a custom element in order to grab the selection bounds and to highlight newly inserted element.

[demo here](https://ellie-app.com/5QMZ8cVJMx2a1)

It is still far from being ready, but I think I should be able to complete it. This approach does not feel very robust however, and my code isn’t pretty.  
I know there has been several topics concerning rich text editors on this forum, but unless I am mistaken I don’t think there is a pure-elm editor ready yet.

The example editor coming with elm-markup does look promising though.

What have you people been using in order to let users create contents for your elm-spas?

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**Author:** ![antew](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.elm-lang.org/antew/32/2102_2.png) [@antew](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/u/antew)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807/2 "2019-06-17T21:13:57Z")

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We use quill wrapped in a custom element, it has been much nicer thank our original custom element version that only used ContentEditable.

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**Author:** ![eniac314](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.elm-lang.org/eniac314/32/2279_2.png) [@eniac314](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/u/eniac314)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:21am UTC](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807/3 "2019-06-18T05:21:45Z")

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Is Quill hard to use? do you have any code I could look at?

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**Author:** ![mattpiz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.elm-lang.org/mattpiz/32/860_2.png) [@mattpiz](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/u/mattpiz)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807/4 "2019-06-18T09:14:24Z")

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Never did myself but I remember a few conversations happening around the subject:

- [Pure Elm Text Editor](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/pure-elm-text-editor/1709)
- [Text editor done in pure Elm](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editor-done-in-pure-elm/1365)
- [Elm Markup v3 - A compiler for a markup language](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/elm-markup-v3-a-compiler-for-a-markup-language/3705)
- [DOM-modifying JS libraries possible without Native code?](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/dom-modifying-js-libraries-possible-without-native-code/872)

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/elm_lang/original/1X/50a05e53677a2c3b47776d7abd0f113eb50193a1.png) [@system](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2019, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/text-editors-what-are-you-using/3807/5 "2019-06-28T09:14:29Z")

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