Editing Web page in HTML instead of Rich Text editor

Question

I've created a page via SITE ACTIONS > CREATE > WEB PAGES > BASIC PAGE.

That gave me the Rich Text editor, where I pasted in some stuff text from the platform I'm migrating from (conventional HTML). Note that I copied and pasted via the browser, not by pasting in the raw HTML.

For the most part it worked well. Picked up all the necessary formatting, etc. However, the pages are very wide - too wide. It makes it hard to read the text.

An easy (and pretty old fashioned) solution is to create a 1x1 table and to put all the text inside the table. Then, specify the table width (e.g., 500 pixels) and that's it.

I can create the table in the Rich Text editor and can even set its width. But I can't remove the border! I need the Source Editor for that (e.g., border="0").

On the various Web Parts I have in the site, I've a choice of using the Rich Text Editor or the Source Editor. But on these "web pages" (not web parts) I can only get the Rich Text editor. (There's a link on the right side, under "Site Action," that says "Edit Content.")

Is there a way to get the Source Editor on this kind of page?

Answer 1

I hate the basic page. I often find a webpart page with a content editor webpart to be much more flexible. Maybe give that a try.

Answer 2

You can open the basic page you created with SharePoint Designer and edit all of the properties of your table as well as any other elements you want to add. SharePoint Designer is free (download here). Good luck and happy editing!

Answer 3

I did some playing around with this and it is actually possible to enable the html source editor.

The rich text editor that pops up when you click 'edit content' is located in the file

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\htmledit.aspx

If you open up this file, lines 149-171 will look like this

RTE_ConvertTextAreaToRichEdit(
         g_strBaseElementID,
         false,
         false,
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.DocBodyDirection,
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.LCID,
         false,
         true,
         false,
         null,
         null,
         "FullHtml",
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.webUrl,
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.strThemeUrl,
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.strBodyClassName,
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.fAllowRelativeLinks,
         g_HtmlEditorSettings.strBaseUrl,
         false,
         0,
         0,
         false,
         true
    );

The second last parameter (line 169) is what determines whether html editing mode is enabled. Change the false to true, and save the file. Now when you click edit content, the editor that pops up will have an extra button on the toolbar in the top right corner.

Click that button and another window with the html source will be displayed.

Hope that helps. Standard disclaimer though: Modifying SharePoint infrastructure files in this way is generally not recommended and will affect all sites in all web applications. Any changes made are subject to being overwritten by future service packs or updates.

Answer 4

Another thing you should consider is putting the content into lists or publishing pages. You haven't said enough about what you are migrating for me to know if either of these is a good idea, but just migrating over HTML content without taking advantage of some of SharePoint's more sophisticated capabilities won't be as much of a step forward as it could be.

Answer 5

Thanks... I was looking for that code editor as well. Odd that it shows up in other places such as when you are typing a description for a calander meeting. Nobody needs it there! We need it when we create a web page! I wish the answer was not 'edit' the code to enable the button but I like that better than "just go use a list" No, that is not what I want to do. (And yes... maybe a web part page with a BIG content editor area would suffice.

THANKS ALL

Valerie