What does an online text editor do?
It is a writing surface in a browser tab: a page you can type into with real bold, italics, headings, lists, quotes and links, plus the counts and exports you would expect from a note-taking tool. It loads instantly, needs no account and keeps a draft on the device so a refresh does not lose the work.
The formatting is done by the browser itself through contenteditable, the same mechanism behind every rich text field on the web, rather than by a large editing library. That keeps the page light and the behaviour familiar, and it means formatting carries over when you copy the result into another field.
Behind the writing tab are two views that are worth more than they look. The HTML tab shows exactly the markup the editor produced, which is what would be pasted into a page, and the plain text tab strips every tag away, which is what you want when the destination is an email box, a form or a system that stores text. Between the three, the editor covers both the writing and the getting-it-elsewhere part of the job.
How to write in the online text editor
- Type into the Write tab. Bold, italics and the other inline styles are on the toolbar, which also carries shortcuts such as Ctrl+B.
- Use the block style menu for a section heading, a sub-heading, a quote or a preformatted code block.
- Add links with the Link button, and remove styling with the Tx button when pasted content has carried unwanted formatting along.
- Watch the counts below the page: words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and how long the text takes to read.
- Switch to the HTML tab to check the markup, or the plain text tab to copy something with no tags in it at all.
- Leave Paste as plain text switched on unless you deliberately want to keep the formatting of something you paste, and clear the draft when you are finished if the machine is shared.
Online Text Editor limits and rules
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Formatting | Bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, headings, lists, quotes, code, links and alignment |
| Export | Copy the HTML, copy the plain text, download document.html or document.txt |
| Draft | Saved to this browser's local storage, on this device only, and removable with one button |
| Counts | Words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and reading time at 200 words a minute |
| Images | Not supported — a browser editor has nowhere to put a file without uploading it |
| Collaboration | None. One document, one person, no history beyond undo |
| Page layout | None — no page size, margins or print layout worth trusting |
| Storage | Cleared by the browser's own site-data settings, which will take the draft with it |
When to use it
- Drafting a paragraph with a heading or a list without opening a word processor.
- Getting plain text out of copied rich content by pasting it and copying the text view.
- Writing a snippet of markup for a page and reading the HTML the editor produced.
- Keeping a throwaway note that survives an accidental refresh.
- Composing a message on a computer that has no editor installed and no account you want to sign into.
Is it private?
The document never leaves the browser. There is no upload, no account and no server-side storage. The draft is kept in this browser's local storage for this site on this device so a refresh does not lose it, and pressing Clear the draft removes it — which is worth doing on a shared computer.
Frequently asked questions
In this browser's local storage, which is a small key-value store that belongs to this site on this device. It does not sync, it is invisible to anyone else using a different machine, and it disappears if you clear site data or the browser decides to reclaim space. The Save indicator appears about a second after you stop typing, which is when the write happens. Turn autosave off, or clear the draft when you finish, if the machine is not yours.
Because the destination of most writing is not a web page. An email field, a support ticket, a chat box and a form that stores text all want plain text, and pasting from a rich editor into one of them usually drags formatting along — background colours, odd font sizes, nested spans. Copying the plain text view instead guarantees that nothing but the characters arrives. It is the same content seen without its markup, and it is the version to reach for when formatting is not the point.
The exact markup the browser produced for what you typed, which is honest but not always tidy. Bold made with the toolbar becomes a strong element in most browsers and a span with a font weight in a few; a heading is an h2 or h3; a quote is a blockquote. There is no prettifying and no scaffolding, so what you see is what would land on a page. Downloading document.html wraps it in a minimal valid page, which is enough to open it in a browser or drop it into a static site.
Neither is supported, and the reason is deliberate. An image in a contenteditable field has to come from somewhere — either an upload, which this site does not do, or a base64 data URI, which bloats the document and is easy to paste by accident. A table editor is a large amount of interface for something that is usually built once and then exported. Both are better done in a real editor. The plain text and HTML views let you paste either one in by hand if you know the markup you want.
Not immediately, because the draft is written to local storage as you type. Reopening the page in the same browser, on the same device, will restore it automatically. What will lose it is clearing the browser's site data, using private browsing, or working in a browser that blocks storage for the site — in which case the editor still works but simply starts empty each time. For anything you would be upset to lose, download the .txt or .html copy as well; that is a file rather than a hope.
It is a rule of thumb, and the rule is 200 words a minute, which is a common average for silent reading of prose by an adult. Technical material, a document full of numbers, or text in a second language is routinely slower, and skimming is much faster, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a measurement. It is useful mainly for comparing two drafts: if one says six minutes and the other fifteen, the difference is real even if the absolute number is not.
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Written and maintained by Md. Nur Hossain Repon.