We published this video a while ago but didn’t really show it off until today. We do all sorts of experiments here at Theme.fm and based on user feedback we might decide to release a plugin some day ;) This video shows how macros could be used when writing WordPress posts.
If you ever used TextMate you’re familiar with these, and there’s a bunch of other software for Windows, Mac and Linux that help you in similar scenarios, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if this was inside WordPress?
We created a little very rough plugin with some simple JavaScript code that fires when the tab key is pressed. It looks back for the 5 symbols behind the cursor and acts upon them, currently blockquotes, lists and of course “lorem ipsum”. This could easily compete with shortcut keys already available to the visual editor in WordPress, but hey, if there was a shortcut key for every possible HTML tag you’d go crazy, right?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Let us know if something like this could ever become useful and whether this is at all user friendly. I know some people would prefer to click a button in their editor, so I’m judging from the developer’s point of view! Thank you for watching and stay tuned!
Pretty cool. Would you make a Markdown version of this?
Maybe. I love Markdown myself and use it for drafting posts and then translate to HTML with a bundle in Textmate. Not sure about using Markdown in WordPress itself though. Thanks for your comment!
I’m using PHP Markdown Extra plugin in my blog. Just write in markdown and the plugin will translate it automatically. It makes it easier when modifying old posts. I believe there are a lot of people who use this plugin too.
Cool, thanks! I’ll definitely give it a spin :)
This is a great markdown plugin as well by Mark Jaquith http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/markdown-on-save/
The markdown version is stored separately (in the post_content_formatted column), so you can deactivate this plugin and your posts won’t spew out Markdown
It’s a great plugin for ppl who write inside the WordPress dashboard. But since I always write using TextMate with blogging bundle, a translation plugin like PHP Markdown Extra would be my only choice.
Wow, this is great!
It would be awesome to also have an admin screen to set your own macros, too.
I’d love to contribute if you ever decide to publish it as a plugin!
Hi Konstantin :) Yeah that sounds like a good idea, thanks! Stay tuned, we might be releasing this on Github in a few weeks.
a zen coding plugin for the editor?
Sort of :) yeah
What a great idea! I would be very interested in trying this out!
Thanks Tony, we’ll keep you posted ;)
I also love this idea Konstantin! I think you should do the plugin. Let me know if you need a tester :)
I certainly will Brad, thanks for your comment! :)