Why should I use Plone's default visual editor (Kupu)?

Although you can use alternative editors with Plone, such as FCKeditor, there are several good reasons to prefer Kupu. This is why Kupu is both the default and recommended visual editor of Plone.

1. Kupu is tightly integrated with Plone

In the evolution from Plone 2.1 to 2.5 and 3.0 Kupu became more and more powerful and was integrated more tightly with Plone. For example:

• Kupu’s look & feel is consistent with Plone’s.
• Kupu’s internal link dialog retrieves site information from Plone, so you don’t need to lookup internal URL’s.
• You can insert images stored in Plone into rich text
• Kupu is not just for simple pages: it can be used to edit rich text fields in your own Archetypes-based content types.
• Kupu is used by other optional products, such as PloneFormGen and Ploneboard.
• Kupu’s configuration is integrated in Plone’s Site setup.
• Kupu is part of Plone’s standard distribution. You don’t need to install it separately.

2. Kupu keeps content and style separated

While some other editors put styling code (such as font color and size) into the content, Kupu keeps content and style separated. What this means is that authors and editors can apply structural features (such as tables, headings and item lists) and predefined styles to their text, without concern for graphic design and consistent layout. Kupu enters only structural HTML tags with class attributes into the content.

However, this does not limit you in any way to create nicely formatted and colorful pages. You can use the full power of CSS to design attractive styles, that will automatically apply to all content of your site. It's up to you to define a rich set of meaningful styles that authors and editors can choose from.

3. Kupu is very configurable

As an administrator, you’ll find a wealth of configuration options in Site setup > Visual editor. For example, you can:

• Define the styles that authors can apply to text in Kupu.
• Configure what types of object show up in the internal link dialog.
• Select buttons to appear in Kupu’s toolbar.

Also, you’ll find a tab with Kupu’s own documentation in the setup section. Amongst other things, this explains how you can make a customization policy, so your configuration will persist (re)installation and upgrades of Kupu.

4. Kupu works in the most important browsers

Like Plone, Kupu is standards compliant and browser independent. Kupu is known to work well in both Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. It does not require any browser plugins or other client-side installation or configuration.

5. Kupu is used by many open source CMS’s

Kupu is not only used by Plone, but also by Zope, Silva, Twiki, Lenya and other content management systems and frameworks. This ensures that there will be more than enough interest in Kupu to continue development and keep it current with evolving web standards.