Introduction

When you configure a table in $TCA and add a field of the type "text" which is edited by a <textarea>, you can choose to use a Rich Text Editor (RTE) instead of the simple form field. An RTE enables the users to use visual formatting aids to create bold, italic, paragraphs, tables, etc.

../../../_images/RteBackend.png

The rtehtmlarea RTE activated in the TYPO3 backend

For full details about setting up a field to use an RTE, please refer to the chapter labeled 'special-configuration-options' in older versions of the TCA Reference.

The short story is that it's enough to set the key enableRichtext to true.

'poem' => array(
    'exclude' => 0,
    'label' => 'LLL:EXT:examples/locallang_db.xlf:tx_examples_haiku.poem',
    'config' => array(
        'type' => 'text',
        'cols' => 40,
        'rows' => 6,
        'enableRichtext' => true
    ),
),

This works for FlexForms too:

<poem>
    <TCEforms>
        <exclude>0</exclude>
        <label>LLL:EXT:examples/locallang_db.xlf:tx_examples_haiku.poem</label>
        <config>
            <type>text</type>
            <cols>40<cols>
            <rows>6</rows>
            <enableRichtext>true</enableRichtext>
        </config>
    <TCEforms>
</poem>

Important

Don't forget to enable Rich Text Editor in the back end, in User Settings -> Edit and Advanced functions, check "Enable Rich Text Editor", if not already done.