Features change the page
Edit any text on a live web page
E Edit text in place in the toolbar, free with no account
Click any text and type. Useful for seeing whether the headline you are arguing about fits, at the size it will actually be, in the layout it will actually be in.
What you get
- Type over anything
- Any text node on the page becomes editable where it sits.
- A visible affordance
- An editable element is marked, so it is clear what is live and what is not.
- Everything reverts
- Closing the toolbar restores every edit. Nothing is saved to the page or anywhere else.
How Verbatim does it
The element is set to contenteditable for as long as you are in the mode, and set back afterwards. Nothing is saved and nothing is sent, so a reload restores the page exactly: the only change was an attribute on one node in your own copy of the document.
How to use it
- Press Alt+Shift+P, then E.
- Click text and type.
- Press Esc to close and restore the page.
What it will not do
- Edits live in your browser tab only. A reload, or closing the picker, puts the original back.
- A framework that re-renders on its own schedule may overwrite an edit. That is the framework, not the editor.
Compared with a mockup, or editing the real thing
Copy is usually written in a document and judged in a layout it has never been in. It reads fine at 60 characters a line and breaks the button at 70. Editing the live page removes the translation step: you see the real typeface, the real measure, the real wrap point, at the real width.
Nothing is saved and nothing is sent. The element is set to contenteditable while you are in the mode and set back afterwards, so a reload restores the page exactly.
When to use this one
Use Edit text to try wording in place. Pair it with Hide elements and Screenshot when the result has to be shown to somebody: change the words, remove the banner, capture the frame.
Questions about Edit text in place
Does editing the page change anything permanently?
No. It is your own copy of the document in your own browser. A reload restores the page exactly, and nothing is saved, uploaded or sent anywhere.
Can I edit any text on the page?
Any text node you can click. Text painted into an image or a canvas is not text as far as the browser is concerned, so it cannot be edited.
Does the layout update as I type?
Yes, live, at the real width in the real typeface. That is the point: you see the line break and the button overflow while you are still choosing the word.
Can I undo an edit?
The usual editing undo works inside a field while you are in it, and a reload discards everything at once.
Is this useful for anything other than copywriting?
Screenshots for a deck or a client, mostly, and checking that a layout survives a longer string before anyone builds a CMS field for it.
Already have it? The first thirty seconds covers the shortcut, all thirteen keys and what to do if something does not work.