Key editor options for adding TinyMCE to an application

Target location for TinyMCE

selector

This option allows a CSS selector to be specified for the areas that TinyMCE should make editable.

When using this option in TinyMCE’s regular editing mode, the element will be replaced with an iframe that TinyMCE will perform all operations within. When using this option in TinyMCE’s inline editing mode, the selector can be used on any block element and will edit the content in place instead of replacing the element with an iframe.

For more information on the differences between regular and inline editing modes see Setup inline editing mode.

Type: String

Example: replace all textarea elements on the page

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea'  // change this value according to your HTML
});

Example: replace a textarea element with id "editable"

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea#editable'
});

Example: inline editing mode on a div element with id "editable"

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'div#editable',
  inline: true
});

target

Sometimes there might be already a reference to a DOM element at hand, for example when element is created dynamically. In such case initialising editor on it by selector might seem irrational (since selector - id or class should be created first). In such cases you can supply that element directly via target option.

The selector option has precedence over target, so in order for target to work, do not use the selector option.

Type: Node

Example: using target

const el = document.createElement('textarea');
document.body.appendChild(el);

// ...

tinymce.init({
  target: el
});

Adding placeholder content to the editor

placeholder

This option adds placeholder content that will be shown when the editor is empty.

If the editor is initialized on a textarea element, the placeholder attribute can be used instead.

Type: String

Example: using placeholder

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  placeholder: 'Type here...'
});

Focusing on the editor

Tab order

The tab order of the elements in a page, including TinyMCE, should be configured by setting the tabindex attribute on the relevant HTML elements. The browser will then natively handle the tab order.

To configure tabindex for the TinyMCE editor, set the attribute on the target element for the editor.

In iframe (classic editor) mode, TinyMCE will copy the tabindex attribute from the target element to the editor’s iframe, to allow this to work correctly.

Example: configuring tab order

<script>
tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea'
});
</script>
...
<input tabindex="1">
<textarea tabindex="2"></textarea>
<input tabindex="3">

auto_focus

Automatically set the focus to an editor instance. The value of this option should be an editor instance id. The editor instance id is the id for the original textarea or div element that got replaced.

Type: String

Example: using auto_focus

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  auto_focus: 'element1'
});

custom_ui_selector

Use the custom_ui_selector option to specify the elements that you want TinyMCE to treat as a part of the editor UI. Specifying elements enables the editor not to lose the selection even if the focus is moved to the elements matching this selector. The editor blur event is not fired if the focus is moved to elements matching this selector since it’s treated as part of the editor UI.

Type: String

Example: using custom_ui_selector

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  custom_ui_selector: '.my-custom-button'
});
...
<textarea></textarea>
<button class="my-custom-button">Button</button>

highlight_on_focus

This feature is only available for TinyMCE 6.4 and later.
In TinyMCE 7.0, the default setting for highlight_on_focus was changed from false to true. Any editors using this highlight_on_focus: true option in TinyMCE , can remove this option from their TinyMCE init configuration when upgrading to TinyMCE 7.0.

The highlight_on_focus option adds a blue outline to an instantiated TinyMCE editor when that editor is made the input focus. When using the oxide-dark skin, the outline is white.

This allows users to clearly see when the editor is in focus, or which editor has focus if more than one TinyMCE instance is available.

Type: Boolean

Default value: true

Possible values: true, false

Example: using highlight_on_focus

tinymce.init({
  selector: "textarea",
  highlight_on_focus: false
});

Using highlight_on_focus with custom skins

If a custom skin is being used, two variables can be updated to match the highlight_on_focus option’s appearance with the custom skin.

The two rules and their default values are:

@edit-area-border-color: #2D6ADF;
@edit-area-border-width: 2px;
This is entirely optional. If the default values are not changed, the highlight_on_focus option works with a custom skin exactly as it does with TinyMCE default skins.

Extend TinyMCE with plugins

There are two options for adding plugins to TinyMCE: plugins and external_plugins. Tiny recommends using the plugins option for plugins bundled with the product or included in your cloud subscription. Custom or third-party plugins should be included using the external_plugins option to simplify updating and upgrading TinyMCE.

plugins

This option allows configuring which plugins TinyMCE will attempt to load when starting up. By default, TinyMCE will not load any plugins.

The plugins can be provided as either:

  • A string of space or comma separated plugin names, such as 'plugin1 plugin2', or

  • An array of plugin names, such as [ 'plugin1' , `plugin2' ]

Type: String or Array

Example: using plugins with a string

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: 'advlist autolink link image lists charmap preview'
});

Example: using plugins with an array

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  plugins: [ 'advlist', 'autolink', 'link', 'image', 'lists', 'charmap', 'preview' ]
});

Check this documentation page for a list of available plugins.

external_plugins

This option allows a URL based location of plugins to be provided that are outside of the normal TinyMCE plugins directory.

TinyMCE will attempt to load these as per regular plugins when starting up. This option is useful when loading TinyMCE from a CDN or when the TinyMCE directory is separate from custom plugins.

This value should be set as a JavaScript object that contains a property for each TinyMCE plugin to be loaded. This property should be named after the plugin and should have a value that contains the location that the plugin that will be loaded from.

The URLs provided can be:

  • Absolute URLs: Including the protocol, such as https://www.example.com/plugin.min.js.

  • Relative to the root directory of the web-server: Including the leading “/” to indicate that it is relative to the web-server root, such as /plugin.min.js.

  • Relative to the TinyMCE base_url: A relative path without the leading “/”, such as ../../myplugins/plugin.min.js. By default, the base_url is the directory containing TinyMCE javascript file (such as tinymce.min.js). For information on the base_url option, see: Integration and setup options - base_url.

Type: Object

Example: using external_plugins

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  external_plugins: {
    'testing': 'http://www.testing.com/plugin.min.js',
    'maths': 'http://www.maths.com/plugin.min.js'
  }
});

Starting the editor in a read-only state

readonly

Setting the readonly option to true initializes the editor in readonly mode instead of editing (design) mode. Once initialized, the editor can be switched to design mode using the tinymce.editor.mode.set API.

Type: Boolean

Default value: false

Possible values: true, false

Example: Using readonly

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  readonly: true
});

  • TinyMCE

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • JS

  • Edit on CodePen

<script type="text/javascript">
  function getEditorStatus (editorId) {
    return tinymce.get(editorId).mode.get();
  }

  function toggleEditorStatus (editorId, currentStatus) {
    if (currentStatus === "design") {
      tinymce.get(editorId).mode.set("readonly");
    } else {
      tinymce.get(editorId).mode.set("design");
    }
  }

  function enableDisable (targetEditor, targetElement) {
    const status = getEditorStatus(targetEditor);
    const button = document.getElementById(targetElement);
    toggleEditorStatus(targetEditor, status);
    if (status === "design") {
      button.innerText = "Enable editor";
    } else {
      button.innerText = "Disable editor";
    }
  }
</script>

<textarea id="readonly-demo">Hello, World!</textarea>

<button id="enableDisableButton" class="live_demo" onclick="enableDisable('readonly-demo','enableDisableButton')">Enable editor</button>
.button {
  display: inline-block;
  min-width: 158px;
  height: 45px;
  line-height: 45px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  cursor: pointer;
  font-size: 14px;
  padding: 0 25px;
  text-align: center;
}
.button:active {
  transform: translateY(1px);
}

.button-color {
  background-color: #1976D2;
}

.button-color:hover {
  background-color: #1d6abe;
}

.link-text {
  color: #fff;
  font-weight: 600;
}
tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea#readonly-demo',
  readonly: true,
  content_style: 'body { font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size:16px }'
});

Behavior in readonly mode

Behavior Details Allowed (True/False)

Navigation and Interaction

  • Users can place the cursor within the editor

  • Navigation behaves the same as in design mode, including:

    • Moving through block elements (table of contents, images, media elements)

    • Using arrow keys, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down

  • Media elements can be played

  • Users can select and copy text

  • Users can interact with links

True

Prevented Actions

  • All input events (keyboard and IME input)

  • Content modifications:

    • Pasting content

    • Cutting content

    • Deleting content

    • Drag and drop operations

  • Formatting changes:

    • Keyboard shortcuts for formatting (e.g., Cmd/Ctrl + B)

    • Auto-linking when pressing space after URLs

  • Element modifications:

    • Toggling checklists (via click or Cmd/Ctrl + Enter)

    • Indenting lists

    • Adding new table rows via Tab key

    • Resizing tables, media elements, or images

False

Toolbar and UI Behavior

  • Most toolbar buttons are disabled

  • Fields in dialogs (e.g., link dialog) are disabled

  • When switching from design to readonly mode:

    • All open dialogs and UI components adjust to reflect readonly state

False

Enabled Features

True

Executing custom functions while the editor starts (initializes)

setup

This option allows a callback to be provided that will be executed before the TinyMCE editor instance is rendered.

To specify a setup callback, provide the setup option with a JavaScript function. This function should have one argument, which is a reference to the editor that is being set up.

A common use case for this setting is to add editor events to TinyMCE. For instance, if you would like to add a click event to TinyMCE, you would add it through the setup configuration setting.

Type: Function

Example: using setup

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  setup: (editor) => {
    editor.on('click', () => {
      console.log('Editor was clicked');
    });
  }
});

init_instance_callback

This option allows a function to be provided that will be executed each time an editor instance is initialized. The format of this function is initInstance(editor) where editor is the editor instance object reference.

Type: Function

Example: using init_instance_callback

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  init_instance_callback: (editor) => {
    console.log(`Editor: ${editor.id} is now initialized.`);
  }
});

You may also want to take a look at the setup callback option as it can be used to bind events before the editor instance is initialized.

Changing URL used to load the editor

base_url

This option allows the base URL for TinyMCE to be configured. This is useful if TinyMCE should be loaded from one location while the theme, model and plugins are loaded from another.

By default, the base_url is the directory containing TinyMCE javascript file (such as tinymce.min.js).

Type: String

Example: using base_url

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  base_url: '/my/tinymce/dir'
});

cache_suffix

This option allows a custom cache buster URL part to be added at the end of each request TinyMCE makes to load CSS, scripts, etc. Just add the query string part that should be appended to each URL request, for example "?v=4.1.6".

Type: String

Example: using cache_suffix

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  cache_suffix: '?v=4.1.6'
});

content_security_policy

This option allows a custom content security policy to be set for the editor’s iframe contents.

Type: String

Example: using content_security_policy

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  content_security_policy: "default-src 'self'"
});

referrer_policy

Used for setting the level of referrer information sent when loading plugins and CSS. Referrer policies can be used to:

  • Improve the privacy of end-users.

  • Assist with server-side filtering of cross-origin requests for TinyMCE resources.

Type: String

For a list of valid referrer policies (directives), see: MDN Web Docs - Referrer-Policy.

Example: using referrer_policy

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  referrer_policy: 'origin'
});

suffix

This option allows the suffix of TinyMCE to be manually provided. By default this value will be set to the same as the suffix of the script holding TinyMCE. When loading things like the theme and plugins this suffix will be inserted into all requests. For example, loading TinyMCE with a tinymce.min.js file will make TinyMCE load .min versions of everything it lazy-loads, like theme.min.js and plugin.min.js The suffix option is useful for overriding this behaviour.

Type: String

Example: using suffix

tinymce.init({
  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your HTML
  suffix: '.min'
});