1. Welcome

RichTextEditor is a document editor you open in your browser. It works just like a word processor — type, format, insert images, build tables. On top of that, it lets you:

Ask an AI assistant to rewrite, proofread, translate, or summarize what you've written.
Leave comments on a colleague's draft without editing the text yourself.
Track every change you make so the document owner can accept or reject them.
Roll back to any previous version of the document.
See who else is editing right now and where their cursor is.

This guide walks through every feature an author or reviewer needs. You don't need any developer knowledge.

2. The editor at a glance

When the editor opens, you'll see three regions:

Toolbar — the strip of buttons at the top. Click a button to apply formatting, open a dialog, or insert something.
Editing area — the white canvas where you type. This is your document.
Status / review rail — depending on the features your admin enabled, you may see a right-hand drawer for AI Review, Comments, or Revision History.

Tip. Hover over any toolbar icon to see its name. Most icons also have a keyboard shortcut shown in the tooltip.

3. Basic formatting

Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough

Select the text you want to change, then click the button — or use the keyboard shortcut.

Action	Shortcut
Bold	`Ctrl` + `B`
Italic	`Ctrl` + `I`
Underline	`Ctrl` + `U`
Strikethrough	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `X`
Remove formatting	`Ctrl` + `\`

Headings and paragraph styles

Place your cursor in a paragraph and pick a style from the Paragraph dropdown (the one showing “Normal” by default). Headings 1–6 are useful for structuring long documents and power the Table of Contents plugin.

Lists

Bulleted list — click the bullet button or press Ctrl + Shift + 8.
Numbered list — click the numbered button or press Ctrl + Shift + 7.
Press Tab inside a list item to indent; Shift + Tab to outdent.

4. Links, images, video, tables

Links

Select the text, click the link icon (or Ctrl + K), paste your URL, press Insert. Click an existing link to edit or remove it.

Images

Upload — click the image button, pick Upload, choose a file.
Drag and drop — drag an image file into the editor.

Once inserted, click an image to see a floating toolbar for resize, align, and the built-in image editor (crop, rotate, filters, annotate).

Video

Click the video icon, paste a YouTube/Vimeo URL, press Insert. The editor embeds a responsive player.

Tables

Click the table button and drag to pick the row × column size. Inside a table, right-click any cell for Insert / Delete row & column, merge cells, cell properties. Press Tab to jump to the next cell; Tab in the last cell adds a new row.

5. Slash commands

Type / on an empty line — a menu pops up with everything you can insert from the keyboard: headings, lists, tables, code blocks, AI actions, images, and more.

Start typing to filter. For example:

Type /h1 then Enter to make the current line a Heading 1.
Type /table to pick a table size.
Type /ai to open the Ask AI dialog.
Use ↑ / ↓ to move through the menu, Enter to insert, Esc to dismiss.

Why it's useful. You stay on the keyboard — never reach for the mouse to add structure. The same muscle memory as Notion or Slab.

6. Mentions

Type @ followed by a name to tag a colleague. A dropdown suggests people; pick one and their name is inserted as a clickable mention chip.

Mentions are useful inside comments, meeting notes, and action items — they become links (and, depending on your setup, send a notification) to that person.

Mentions are atomic chips — click to delete the whole chip, but you can't edit the middle of a name.
Start with # if your organization uses channel prefixes.

7. Comments

Comments let reviewers attach notes to a specific passage without changing the text.

Resolve or delete

Inside the thread panel, click Resolve to collapse the comment once the issue is addressed, or the trash icon to remove it entirely.

Who sees what. Comments are visible to anyone with access to the document. Resolved comments stay in the history and can be reopened by any collaborator.

8. Track Changes (suggesting mode)

Track Changes turns your edits into suggestions instead of committing them outright. It's the right mode when you're reviewing someone else's draft and the author will decide what to keep.

Turn it on

Click the Track Changes toggle on the toolbar — it highlights blue when active. Your subsequent edits become suggestions:

Typed text appears in your author color with an underline.
Deleted text is shown with a strikethrough — it isn't actually removed until accepted.

Review suggestions

Open the Review drawer (right rail). Each suggestion shows who made it, what changed, and two buttons:

Accept — commits the suggestion.
Reject — discards the suggestion; the document reverts to the original.

Shared with AI. AI Review suggestions appear in the same drawer as human suggestions. Accept / Reject works the same way regardless of source.

9. Revision history

Revision History is a time machine for your document. It keeps named and auto-saved snapshots so you can roll back or see what changed.

Open the history panel

Click the History icon on the toolbar. The right-hand drawer shows a timeline of snapshots with timestamps and authors. Click any entry to preview. Click Restore this version to make it current.

Diff view

Select two revisions to see a line-by-line difference — green = added, red = removed.

Named versions

Take a named snapshot before a big rewrite (“Draft sent to legal”, “v1 final”) so it's easier to find later. You can rename existing snapshots from the menu too.

How often are snapshots taken? Auto-snapshots happen while you type (typically every 2–5 minutes of inactivity). You can also take a manual snapshot from the menu to mark a milestone.

10. AI Toolkit

The AI Toolkit brings three ways to work with an AI assistant without leaving the editor.

10.1 Ask AI — a focused single-shot

Select a passage, click the Ask AI button. A dialog opens with preset actions (Proofread, Rewrite, Summarize, Translate, Shorten, Expand, Add a paragraph, Add an AI comment) and a free-text prompt box. Results show as a preview with Accept / Reject.

10.2 AI Chat — a docked conversation

Click the AI Chat icon to dock a chat panel. Ask follow-ups, iterate on a draft, request alternatives. The chat history stays with the document until you clear it.

10.3 AI Review — batch suggestions

AI Review runs a proofread pass over the whole document and opens the Review drawer with every suggestion. Walk the drawer top-to-bottom, accepting or rejecting each.

Streaming responses

For long responses, text appears progressively as the AI generates it — no waiting for the full answer before seeing anything.

Does the AI use my document? Whether the AI provider stores your content depends on how your administrator configured it. Ask your admin for a written privacy answer — the editor itself doesn't send anything outside your organization unless a resolver is configured.

11. Dictation

Click the microphone icon in the toolbar and speak — the editor transcribes in real time. Interim transcripts render under the cursor so you can see what the browser heard before it commits.

Browser support: Chrome, Edge, Safari (macOS / iOS 14+), Opera. Firefox hides the button.
First click: your browser asks for microphone permission. Grant it once.
Auto-punctuation: sentences are capitalized and periods added automatically.

12. Real-time collaboration

When your admin has enabled collaboration, you'll see live indicators while others are working in the same document:

Presence avatars — circles with initials show who else is in the document right now.
Remote cursors — each participant's cursor appears in their color with their name floating next to it.
Live review stream — comments, track-change suggestions, and AI review items sync to everyone as they happen.

You don't do anything special — just open the same document as your colleagues. Changes appear automatically.

13. Importing and exporting

Paste from Word, Excel, Google Docs

Just paste. The editor cleans the source formatting and keeps structure (headings, lists, tables) while dropping Office-specific markup. Ordered and nested lists from Word now round-trip correctly.

Export as PDF

Click the PDF icon on the toolbar. The editor opens a print-preview and saves a PDF of the current document.

Export as DOCX (Word)

If your admin enabled DOCX export, click the Word icon to download the current document as a .docx file. Paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, inline formatting, hyperlinks, and images all round-trip.

Structured JSON / Markdown

If your admin enabled structured-content mode, you can export a JSON representation or Markdown equivalent — useful for storing in databases or pasting into chat tools.

14. Full keyboard shortcut reference

Action	Shortcut
Bold / Italic / Underline	`Ctrl` + `B` / `I` / `U`
Strikethrough	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `X`
Remove formatting	`Ctrl` + `\`
Heading 1 / 2 / 3	`Ctrl` + `Alt` + `1` / `2` / `3`
Paragraph	`Ctrl` + `Alt` + `0`
Bulleted list	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `8`
Numbered list	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `7`
Indent / Outdent	`Tab` / `Shift` + `Tab` (inside list)
Insert link	`Ctrl` + `K`
Undo / Redo	`Ctrl` + `Z` / `Ctrl` + `Y`
Find / Replace	`Ctrl` + `F`
Open slash-command menu	`/` (on empty line)
Insert mention	`@` + name
Add comment on selection	`Ctrl` + `Alt` + `M`
Toggle Track Changes	`Ctrl` + `Shift` + `E`
Open AI assistant (on selection)	`Ctrl` + `Space`
Save (triggers host form submit)	`Ctrl` + `S`

15. Tips for a smooth workflow

Draft first, format later. Write everything in plain paragraphs; apply headings and lists at the end. Slash commands make this fast.
Use Track Changes when reviewing, not authoring. It keeps the original author's edits separate from yours.
Take a named snapshot before a big rewrite. Revision History always lets you roll back, but named snapshots are easier to find six months later.
Ask AI to “shorten” before you send. A surprising number of drafts lose nothing from being 20% shorter.
Resolve comments. They stay in history either way, but resolving them gives reviewers a clean picture of what's still outstanding.

16. Troubleshooting

My changes didn't save

The editor doesn't auto-save by itself — your application's Save button is what commits the document. If you closed the tab without clicking Save, open the Revision History panel; the auto-snapshots may include your last version.

A toolbar button is missing

Toolbars are configured per application. If you need a specific button (e.g. Insert Code, Track Changes toggle), ask your admin to enable that plugin.

AI isn't responding

Your admin configures which AI provider the editor talks to. If nothing happens when you click Ask AI, check with your admin that a provider resolver is enabled for your tenant.

I pasted a table and the formatting looks wrong

The editor strips Office-specific markup on paste. If you need the exact original formatting, paste into a cell-by-cell table the editor creates, rather than pasting an entire Word table. For tables with formulas, use the Excel paste option.

Someone else's cursor is blocking mine

Presence cursors are visual only — they never block you from typing. If the remote cursor label is covering text, move your own cursor; the overlap disappears on motion.

17. Getting help

For end-user questions — how to do something — ask your administrator or refer to this guide.

For product documentation and release notes, visit richtexteditor.com.

For support tickets and license questions, contact support@richtexteditor.com.

Download this guide as .docx

RichTextEditor End-User Guide