I tried BBComposer 3.2, it appeared to be successful at first. But when I opened Firefox at another computer, BBComposer was disabled saying it is incompatible with Firefox 4.0.1. Well, I must say I have used it with the same browser before, and it worked. But now it wouldn't.
So I decided to tried another WYSIWYG Editor called Write Area, now in beta, which is also a Firefox add-on.
Problem:
It seems, the problem is not unique to BBComposer 3.2. What I do is, I zip up the whole Firefox portable (from PortableApps.com) application folder from the hard drive to my pendrive, carry it to another computer, unzip it to the hard drive and launch. Then I find the Write Area add-on to be disabled, saying incompatible with Firefox 4.0.1. But, I've installed and used it successfully before on another computer. I have to reinstall the add-on to re-enable it for every zip/unzip even on the same computer (within the same session, without booting). (See Solution below)
Anyway, I decided to stick to it for the time being while holding on to the workaround. In the meantime, I left a message on the author's blog in hopes of a solution in the near future.
Have a peek into my browser add-on page.
Write Area works on multiple-line text area, like Bloger's new-post edit window (see below). It doesn't work on text boxes. To use Write Area, right-clicking the mouse in a text area while the editing cursor is in it. Then from the popup menu, choose "Edit in a Write Area".
Compare Blogger's editing functions and Write Area's editing functions:
Other WYSIWYG editors add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/nfroidure/wysiwyg/
Look at the above pages. It doesn't say whether BBComposer is compatible with Fire 4.0.1. Unlike Mozilla Editor, it specifically states that it is not available for Firefox 4.0.1.
Write Area provides more functions and better control. By all means, try it. It uses CKEditor core.
Solution
And the author replied 5 hours after I left the message, offering a simple solution.
- Instead of installing directly from the Mozilla server, download the installation file (XPI file) for the add-on. The name of the file could be "write_area-1.0.1beta4-sm+fx.xpi" or something else with extension XPI.
- Rename the extension to ZIP. The XPI is a zip file anyway.
- Unzip just one file named "install.rdf". Open the RDF file with a text editor. Find this section:
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- The maxVersion for Firefox was originally 4.0. I changed it to 5.0.
- Save the file and copy it into the zip file overriding the original version.
- Rename the extension back to XPI.
- Then install the add-on from this file.
