Question

The Format Painter plugin allows a user to copy and paste formatting from one location to another, such as font style and size. The format painter is capable of working with a wide variety of formats such as inline and block formats and styles such as table styles.

Format Painter is a premium plugin from Tiny. Please see the Premium features section for all the buying options.

Once you have obtained the Format Painter plugin, refer to the following instructions for using it.

Configuring the Format Painter toolbar button

Use the following script to configure the Format Painter toolbar button:

Example

tinymce.init({
  selector: "textarea",  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: "formatpainter",
  toolbar: "formatpainter"
});

Result: The (Format Painter) button appears in the toolbar menu.

Using Format Painter

The format painter is accessed using either keyboard shortcuts or a toolbar button.

The format painter operates in two modes, one for retrieval and one for application of formatting. The usage of the keyboard is slightly different from the usage of the toolbar buttons.

Usage with toolbar button

1. Position the cursor at the source content to retrieve the formatting.
2. Enable the Format Painter button to copy the formatting. The Format Painter toolbar button background color changes to grey.
3. Select the goal content to apply the formatting.

Result: The formatting from the source content is applied to the goal content.

Usage with keyboard

1. Position the cursor at the source content to retrieve formatting.
2. Press the Ctrl+Alt+C keys to read the formatting.
3. Select the goal content to apply the formatting.
4. Press the Ctrl+Alt+V keys to apply the formatting.

The format painter retains the formatting after application making it possible to apply the same formatting multiple times by using the Ctrl+Alt+V keyboard shortcut.

Options

The format painter acts upon all formats registered in the editor. In addition to any standard formatting, it will treat lists as a block format whenever the lists plugin is made available.

formats

The format painter plugin will register many formats upon initialization. To override these formats, use the formats option.
The example below showcases the formats registered automatically by the plugin upon initialization. The formatpainter_removeformat is used to clear any existing formats before applying the new ones. It is similar to the removeformat format.

Type: Object

Example

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: 'formatpainter',
  formats: {
    formatpainter_checklist: { selector: 'ul', classes: 'tox-checklist' },
    formatpainter_liststyletype: { selector: 'ul,ol', styles: { listStyleType: '%value' } },
    formatpainter_borderstyle: { selector: 'td,th', styles: { borderTopStyle: '%valueTop', borderRightStyle: '%valueRight', borderBottomStyle: '%valueBottom', borderLeftStyle: '%valueLeft', }, remove_similar: true },
    formatpainter_bordercolor: { selector: 'td,th', styles: { borderTopColor: '%valueTop', borderRightColor: '%valueRight', borderBottomColor: '%valueBottom', borderLeftColor: '%valueLeft' }, remove_similar: true },
    formatpainter_backgroundcolor: { selector: 'td,th', styles: { backgroundColor: '%value' }, remove_similar: true },
    formatpainter_removeformat: [
      {
        selector: 'b,strong,em,i,font,u,strike,sub,sup,dfn,code,samp,kbd,var,cite,mark,q,del,ins',
        remove: 'all', split: true, expand: false, block_expand: true, deep: true
      },
      { selector: 'span', attributes: ['style', 'class'], remove: 'empty', split: true, expand: false, deep: true },
      { selector: '*:not(tr,td,th,table)', attributes: ['style', 'class'], split: false, expand: false, deep: true }
    ]
  }
});

formatpainter_blacklisted_formats

This option makes it possible to block the unwanted formats in the format painter.

Type: String

Default: 'link,address,removeformat,formatpainter_removeformat'

Example

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: 'formatpainter',
  formatpainter_blacklisted_formats: 'link,address,removeformat,formatpainter_removeformat'
});

Check out the Format Painter demo to try out this new feature.