How To Customize Editor Placeholders (instruction text)

  • 30 October 2019
  • 7 replies
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  • Gainsight Employee: Golden Ruler
  • 345 replies

There are 3 editor placeholders that we use in our platform. In this post you will learn what will change and how to update the default placeholders yourself.

Placeholders used in the editor + their usecases

Default placeholder

The default placeholder Add as many details as possible, by providing details you'll make it easier for others to reply will be applied to all editor usecases (written below) if you don’t make any changes. The phrase is localised and will be shown in your own language.

If you don’t want to make use of the default placeholder you should provide your own placeholders in Control with the Module and Key provided below. You can already update the default placeholder prior to the release!

Usecase 1: Placeholder when starting a new topic

Module: Forum - Key: new.topic.placeholder.textarea

Usecase 2: Placeholder for writing a first reply to a topic

Module: Forum - Key: topic.first.reply.placeholder.textarea

Usecase 3: Placeholder for writing a reply to a topic that has replies already

Module: Forum - Key: topic.reply.placeholder.textarea

Changing the editor phrases

You can apply the voice of your brand by changing the phrases, here’s how:

  1. Log in to Control as a Community Manager or Admin
  2. Navigate to Customization → Phrases
    1. Search for `Placeholder` and edit an existing phrase
    2. Add a new phrase with the module, key and translation

Overview of phrases

Module Key Usecase
Forum new.topic.placeholder.textarea This placeholder will be shown
when creating a new topic
Forum topic.first.reply.placeholder.textarea This placeholder will be shown
when there are NO replies in a topic yet
Forum topic.reply.placeholder.textarea This placeholder will be shown
if a user wants to reply

 

Placeholders will be added to your editor Friday November 1, 12:00 CET. If you haven’t made any changes to the placeholders yourself, the default placeholder Add as many details as possible, by providing details you'll make it easier for others to reply will be applied.

 


7 replies

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Thank you for the tutorial and the heads-up!

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The placeholders mentioned above have been added to your editors

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 Hi @Yoeri. Thanks for this tutorial. In the control environment, our placeholder translations appear the same as they did before the new editor was rolled out. But the default translation is showing in the frontend. I just cleared my cache/cookies and it’s still showing the default version. Any idea what could be happening? Thanks.

Control environment current
Front-end current

 

Userlevel 2
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Hey,

We see your phrases being applied (e.g. in this topic). In your screenshot you are referring to the topic placeholder used in the create new topic page. In order to change that one you need to add the following phrase:

Module: Forum    
Key: new.topic.placeholder.textarea

Looks like this phrase is currently missing in your setup, hope this helps :)

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Thanks, @Yoeri. Sorry about that oversight – my mistake.

As per this post, it says you’ll find the options to update the instruction texts under Control > Settings > Phrases, but I don’t see this option at all for some reason -- am I looking in the wrong area?

 

I’m trying to update the help text present on the Sign Up/Login screens for each field, how can I do that?

Userlevel 2
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As per this post, it says you’ll find the options to update the instruction texts under Control > Settings > Phrases, but I don’t see this option at all for some reason -- am I looking in the wrong area?

The right location is Control → Customization → Phrases, I’ve updated the text to reflect this. You should be logged in as community manager or admin to view and access this page.

 

I’m trying to update the help text present on the Sign Up/Login screens for each field, how can I do that?

These articles explains how to update the text on the sign up and login screens: 

 

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