CKEditor 5 Review

Is CKEditor 5 a worthy upgrade over CKEditor 4 and what new features have been added?

In CKEditor 5 Review, we shall be answering the question “Is CKEditor 5 a worthy upgrade over CKEditor 4, and what new features have been added?”. In short, CKEditor 5 can provide a wide and diverse range of WYSIWYG editing solutions. This means that it could facilitate the creation of features and apps similar to Google Docs, Twitter, and Slack, all within this very same, singular framework.

What is CKEditor 5 used for?

While CKEditor 4 provided a very useful accessibility checker, CKEditor 5 continues this tradition, with a few new features added.

These builds are ready-to-use and cater to some of the most common editing needs. Customization is the key, and that is certainly something that CKEditor 5 provides. All sorts of metrics for editing according to WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) specifications are usable, giving users unparalleled freedom when creating their content.

Whether you choose to do the customization yourself, or if you choose the Markdown method, you won’t be lost through the process, because it is very streamlined. Quite a few features improve the accessibility of content created by CKEditor 5, and here is a list of some of them:

• The Markdown method
• Leveraging pre-configured markers
• Automatic suggestions for names, groups, subjects, etc.
• Auto-save
• Text-transformation tools
• Enables image-inserting
• Spell-checking
• Auto-Linking
• Keyboard shortcuts available

Now that we have introduced CKEditor 5 in our CKEditor 5 review, let’s take a closer look at what improvements have been made from CKEditor 4.

You may be wondering if CKEditor 5 is a worthy upgrade over CKEditor 4 and what new features have been added. This is precisely what this CKEditor 5 review was made for, so let’s not dilly-dally, but let us jump straight into what’s new. 

The goal while creating CKEditor 5 was to make it as different from its predecessor as possible. Therefore, users will notice how their experience has been modernized, giving them unparalleled abilities for collaboration in real-time. 

Created through ES6, it uses modules to provide the requisite tools for integration with all new technologies, such as Angular, React, Node.js, Vue.js, and more. 

CKEditor is a top-of-the-range JavaScript-rich text editor. For the experts, it has exquisite web pack assistance and provides virtual DOM. In case you aren’t an expert in the field and don’t understand what all of that means, it is used to build applications and the like through JavaScript. To clear this up somewhat, here are four functions of CKEditor 5:

• Creating images that are responsive – Dragging and dropping images will automatically upload them. Additional support that has been built-in just for responsive imaging will allow your website to be mobile-accessible. 
• Converts content from Office into HTML
• Embedding media – Facilitates the embedding of media like videos or tweets 
• Formatting of the automated variety – If your users have a tendency to write, auto-formatting and functional shortcuts on the keyboards will make their lives easier.

Now, one thing seems to be missing from the former iteration, and, judging by the comments of users, they are not happy about it. CKEditor 4 was beloved because of its ultra-efficient accessibility checker, but why doesn’t CKEditor 5 have one? 

This hugely popular Accessibility Checker was a revolutionary solution that allowed users to check how accessible their content is, and to help them in remediating these digital accessibility issues.

Without it, how will users know how accessible their content is? Well, the new method in place is to create content accessible, so that there is no need for further adjustments at later dates. 

Next, we shall lay out exactly what the differences between CKEditor 4 and CKEditor 5 are. 

What changes have been made for CKEditor 5? Here’s a list:

• The UX has been greatly improved – Under the public Editor Recommendations project, reviewed features that analyze syntax, semantics, and standard UX and UI aspects have revolutionized the modus operandi.
• All editing aspects have been reviewed using the public Editor Recommendations undertaking, making sure all UX and UI aspects are in order, as well as looking into HTML syntax. 
• Intuitive image insertion and automated uploading and resizing has been made even easier
• Automated formatting enables the creation of headings, lists, and more
• A revamped toolbar has been provided, where the editor is constantly visible while scrolling. 
• Customizability – CKEditor 5 provides a plethora of customization options, with the core being open for reuse. This means that it can then be used by other devs to create their own iterations of editors. 
• MVC Architecture employed with data model – Thanks to this improvement, devs are able to better control data output, as well as editing using pure JavaScript. 
• The code quality is 100% quality-assured.

These are just some of the features provided, with lots more being prepared by the people behind this brand new editor.

Is it possible to migrate from CKEditor 4 to CKEditor 5? 

Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to migrate from one to the other. With all the changes made, CKEditor 5 is basically a completely different editor, meaning that your projects will have to be restarted or started from scratch.

There are three pricing options offered by CKEditor 5:

• A free option
• Subscription $37/p.m.
• Custom option

If you’d care to find out what each of these extensive selections offers, you may visit their website.