Author Archives: Gabe Sumner

Create a Rich Text editing experience that authors won’t avoid

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

WYSIWYG Rich Text editors are central to every CMS.   These tools enable content authors, who might know nothing about HTML, to create HTML content. However, content authors frequently fear and avoid their CMS’s rich text editor.  These tools are perceived … Continue reading →

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Copy from MS Word, Paste into a Rich Text WYSIWYG editor

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

This title will send chills up the spine of web developers & content authors everywhere.  Web Developers fear the bloated markup caused by this action.  Content authors fear the difficulty of mixing their favorite authoring environment with their CMS’s editor. … Continue reading →

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Unclutter your Rich Text Editor’s toolbar– Essential vs. Useless Features

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

WYSIWYG Rich Text Editors (like TinyMCE, CKEditor, RadEditor, etc.) are central to how content gets into a CMS.  These tools enable content authors, who know nothing about HTML, to create HTML.  However, these tools are notoriously fragile, buggy and confusing … Continue reading →

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WYSIWYG Rich Text Editors – What could possibly go wrong?

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

I’m researching this subject for an upcoming session.  For this session, I wanted a screenshot showing the abominations made possible by too many Rich Text features. Here is what I came up with… I’m using TinyMCE, but it could’ve been … Continue reading →

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How to filter blog posts by categories or tags in Sitefinity – without screenshots

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

Each blog post in Sitefinity can be classified using tags and/or categories. These classifications can then be used to display a filtered list of blog posts related to a particular subject. For example, Sitefinity classifications & filters could be used … Continue reading →

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How to filter blog posts by categories or tags in Sitefinity – with screenshots

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

Each blog post in Sitefinity can be classified using tags and/or categories. These classifications can then be used to display a filtered list of blog posts related to a particular subject.  For example, Sitefinity classifications & filters could be used … Continue reading →

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20 things to consider when selecting a CMS

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

This blog post relates to a session (by the same name) I’ve given at conferences and user groups. Synopsis Choosing a CMS can be a daunting task.  There are plenty of Content Management Systems to choose from; ranging in price … Continue reading →

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CHM Support – why documentation sucks!

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

For those who don’t know, CHM is an acronym for Microsoft Compiled HTML Help.  It was released in 1997 when dial-up connections were used to access the Internet.  CHM is a solution for product help files.  Product documentation is contained … Continue reading →

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GiveCamp impressions from the Sitefinity Evangelist

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

The 1st ever National GiveCamp event has come and gone.  Despite a sleep deprived state of mind, many developers are now attempting to slog through a fresh work week.  During 38 hectic weekend hours, these volunteers addressed (for free!!) the … Continue reading →

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Truncating text in a Sitefinity 4.0 Widget Template

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Gabe Sumner

While displaying a list of events inside Sitefinity, I wanted to truncate the event text at 200 characters. Here is how I did this: Create a Truncate ASP.NET control.  This control would accept a string and truncate it based on … Continue reading →

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