Answers.Body: <p>A new alternative is to use the <a href="https://lab.civicrm.org/extensions/prettyworkflowmessages" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pretty Workflow Messages</a> extension, which allows you to edit a header and footer that go around the original message, and can be edited with a normal editor.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-05-05T14:13:10.147Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-05-05T14:13:10.147Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jon G - Megaphone Tech
Answers.Body: <p>Jaap's comment is correct.  It's unfortunately not possible to use a WYSIWYG editor on system templates because they're not (just) HTML, but contain Smarty code as well.  Not only would Smarty break CKEditor, but CKEditor would break the Smarty code.</p>
  
  <p>This unfortunately makes editing system templates difficult to do.  However, one trick that makes it easier is to copy the text into software that understands Smarty templates.  I use <a href="https://netbeans.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Netbeans IDE</a> for this.  While this may be overkill for most uses, Netbeans can recognize both HTML and Smarty tags and the tag that closes a section.  So it's easy to use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_folding" rel="nofollow noreferrer">code folding</a> to identify and hide the sections that don't concern you.</p>
  
  <p>I work in Netbeans, then paste the text back into CiviCRM and press "Save".  It's relatively quick to iterate this way.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-02-20T18:25:16.263Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-02-20T18:25:16.263Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jon G - Megaphone Tech
Body: <p>If I edit a user driven message template, then CKEditor works nicely. If I try to edit a system message template, the template fills only into a textarea, without CKEditor.</p>
  
  <p>Since it's done as site admin having all the permissions, and these symptoms are the same on dmaster.demo.civicrm.org for <a href="https://dmaster.demo.civicrm.org/civicrm/admin/messageTemplates/add?action=update&amp;id=1&amp;reset=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">system templates</a> and for <a href="https://dmaster.demo.civicrm.org/civicrm/admin/messageTemplates/add?action=update&amp;id=65&amp;reset=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">user templates</a>, I guess this is a bug.</p>
  
  <p>Do you have any workaround here?</p>
  
  <p>My install is on Aegir 3.17.3 with Drupal 7.64 and CiviCRM 5.10</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-02-20T17:35:23.727Z
Comments.Text: I am not sure whether it is a bug. The system messages contains smarty code which would probably break the CKEditor.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Jaap Jansma - CiviCooP
Tags: <message-templates><ckeditor><system-workflow-messages>
Title: CKEditor can only edit user driven message templates
ThreadText: # CKEditor can only edit user driven message templates
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-02-20)
  
  If I edit a user driven message template, then CKEditor works nicely. If I try to edit a system message template, the template fills only into a textarea, without CKEditor.
  
  Since it's done as site admin having all the permissions, and these symptoms are the same on dmaster.demo.civicrm.org for [system templates](https://dmaster.demo.civicrm.org/civicrm/admin/messageTemplates/add?action=update&id=1&reset=1) and for [user templates](https://dmaster.demo.civicrm.org/civicrm/admin/messageTemplates/add?action=update&id=65&reset=1), I guess this is a bug.
  
  Do you have any workaround here?
  
  My install is on Aegir 3.17.3 with Drupal 7.64 and CiviCRM 5.10
  
  **Tags:** message-templates, ckeditor, system-workflow-messages
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I am not sure whether it is a bug. The system messages contains smarty code which would probably break the CKEditor.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2019-02-20. Score: 4 | Accepted answer
  
  username_1's comment is correct. It's unfortunately not possible to use a WYSIWYG editor on system templates because they're not (just) HTML, but contain Smarty code as well. Not only would Smarty break CKEditor, but CKEditor would break the Smarty code.
  
  This unfortunately makes editing system templates difficult to do. However, one trick that makes it easier is to copy the text into software that understands Smarty templates. I use [Netbeans IDE](https://netbeans.org/) for this. While this may be overkill for most uses, Netbeans can recognize both HTML and Smarty tags and the tag that closes a section. So it's easy to use [code folding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_folding) to identify and hide the sections that don't concern you.
  
  I work in Netbeans, then paste the text back into CiviCRM and press "Save". It's relatively quick to iterate this way.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2021-05-05. Score: 0
  
  A new alternative is to use the [Pretty Workflow Messages](https://lab.civicrm.org/extensions/prettyworkflowmessages) extension, which allows you to edit a header and footer that go around the original message, and can be edited with a normal editor.
  
  
  ---
  
  