Rich Text Fields
All editionsA Multiple lines of text column set to Enhanced rich text in SharePoint renders in DFFS as a rich text field: formatted content — headings, bold, lists, links, tables, images — edited in a side panel rather than inline in the form.
This page is about the rich text field (a SharePoint column). It is not the same thing as the Rich text element you add from the form builder’s element menu, which holds static content authored once in the configuration and is identical for every item.
1. Opening the editor
Click anywhere in the field and the editor panel opens. On hover the field shows a pointer cursor, highlights its border, and reveals a pencil icon in the corner — the pencil is a visual cue, not the only target.
Two things you may legitimately want to do with the content are recognized and do not open the editor:
- Clicking a link inside the content follows the link as normal.
- Selecting text to copy it out — releasing the mouse after a drag-select leaves the editor closed.
This applies to New and Edit forms only. On a display form, and on any field a rule has made read-only, the content is not clickable and keeps the normal text cursor.
2. Saving and discarding
The editor panel has explicit Save and Cancel buttons.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Save | Your edit is kept. |
| Cancel, the X, or Esc | The edit is discarded. If you actually changed something you’re asked to confirm first; an untouched field just closes. |
| Clicking outside the panel | Nothing — the panel stays open. Deliberate: now that closing discards, a stray click on the form behind must not be able to throw away what you were writing. |
“Save” means save into the form, not into SharePoint. The field value is written to the list when you save the form itself, exactly like every other field. Closing the panel with Save and then cancelling the form discards the edit along with everything else.
Pasted images follow the same rule. Images pasted into a rich text field are uploaded as attachments on the item — and if you Cancel, they are not uploaded at all.
3. Two editors — and how to switch
DFFS ships two rich text editors. Jodit is the default. The Misc tab of the form configuration has a Use the Jodit editor toggle, so you only need to touch it if you want the simpler one.
| Setting | Editor |
|---|---|
| Use the Jodit editor — on (default) | The Jodit editor: the fuller toolbar, with pop-out controls for the color picker, link editor and table tools. |
| Use the Jodit editor — off | A simpler built-in editor with a compact formatting toolbar — a lighter editing surface for forms that don’t need the full set. |
Both editors store plain HTML, so the toggle changes the editing surface rather than the stored format. That does not make the two interchangeable: Jodit has the larger feature set — tables, for one, are Jodit-only — so content authored in Jodit can contain markup the simpler editor has no way to edit.
Switching is safe in one direction, not both.
Turning Jodit on is fine at any time — it handles anything the simpler editor produced.
Turning Jodit off is not, if items already hold rich content. The simpler editor strips markup it doesn’t support and keeps only the text. A stored table comes back as a run of plain text — the rows and cells are gone, not hidden — and once the form is saved, that’s what the item holds. Nothing warns you and nothing looks broken; the content simply arrives flattened.
So check what your existing items actually contain before switching a live form away from Jodit, and if any of them use tables, stay on Jodit. If a field has already been flattened, the previous value is recoverable from the item’s version history — provided versioning is enabled on the list.
Both editors size the field identically, and both show a field’s placeholder text when it’s empty.
Jodit replaced TinyMCE in DFFS 1.x, after TinyMCE’s licensing changes made it impractical to keep shipping. Functionality is comparable.
4. Tips & notes
- Set a placeholder so an empty field says what belongs in it — a rich text field with no value is otherwise just an empty box.
- Cancel is a real discard. Worth mentioning to form users if they’re used to editors that save on close; the confirmation prompt only appears when there is something to lose.
- Pasting from Word or a web page brings its markup with it. If a form needs consistent formatting, paste as plain text and format inside the editor.
- Decide the editor before users start entering content, not after. Moving to the simpler editor later silently flattens anything it can’t represent — see the warning in section 3. It’s the one setting on this page that can cost you data.
- Rich text and the custom render function are mutually exclusive. A custom render function is only offered on multi-line fields with rich text off.
- Rich text prints. Field content renders into the document produced by Print to PDF, formatting included.