The Aha! text editor
You probably spend more time in the Aha! text editor than anywhere else in your Aha! account. The text editor is where you fill in a description for a record, take notes on a meeting, leave comments for teammates, or add details to a future release.
This article covers some of the key features of the text editor. If you are already familiar with the text editor and want to focus on using it more efficiently, you might be interested in text editor shortcuts.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
The text editor toolbar
If you are new to the Aha! text editor, let's start with a tour of the toolbar at the top.
The toolbar adjusts to fit the width of your screen. So if you view Aha! records on different screens — or view the same record in its details or drawer view — the toolbar might look slightly different for you.
In this table, we will walk you through the text editor toolbar in its expanded form. View an Aha! record in its detail view to follow along.
Icon | Name | Options | Function |
| Formatting |
| Format your selected text into paragraphs, headers, preformatted code blocks, or pull quotes. |
| Bold | Bold your text | |
| Italics | Italicize your text | |
| Underline | Underline your text. | |
| Font styling |
| Style text or clear styling. |
| Alignment |
|
|
| List |
| Insert a list. |
| More menu |
|
|
| Draft with AI |
| Create new content and improve existing content with the assistance of AI. |
| History | View a history of all changes made to your text editor. | |
| Comment |
| You and your team can comment inline on the text editor. Choose whether to show or hide those comments. |
| Full screen |
| Choose to expand the text editor to fit your screen or collapse it back to its default size. |
Use visual styling options
Form follows function. You will use the Aha! Roadmaps text editor to document some of your most important work — from strategic innovations to business cases, meeting agendas, and launch plans. So format your writing to guide your audience, emphasize your conclusions, and build a convincing narrative.
Add a Table of contents so your audience can skip ahead to a relevant section. Use header formatting for different sections of your work, then enable the table of contents (in the + [More] dropdown).
Click any link to jump to a specific section
Click the icon in the upper right to collapse it.
Insert a link with
#topas the URL to jump your audience from a section of the text editor back up to the table of contents.
Use Callout boxes to highlight critical copy. Select Callout box in the + [More] dropdown, then choose from one of four options: Information, Note, Warning, or Tip. Each has its own background color to draw your audience's eyes to different types of messages.
Insert Images to visualize information, then comment on them directly in threaded conversations.
Add Labels to organize lists and update statuses. Highlight text, open the + [More] dropdown, click Label, then select a color. For example, you may want to visually communicate that a project is at risk or that a task has been completed.
You can also directly mention Aha! Roadmaps records by typing the # key followed by the name of ID of the record.
Use text styling options
The Aha! text editor offers multiple ways to style text — so you can enhance the clarity, readability, and impact of your content:
Bold your text.
Italicize your text.
Underline your text.
Strikethroughyour text.Put your text in a
code snippet.Change the color of your text. Selecting font color from the + [More] menu enables you to select from a range of choices from a color selector. You can enter a custom color by pasting in a hex code if you choose.
Highlight text. A variety of color options are available.
Choose from a variety of font options.
Change your font size.
Collaborate in real time
Multiple users can simultaneously edit and see other users editing in the text editor. When more than one user is present in the same editing session, other participants are shown as flags that display the users' names. The flags move in real time as other users make updates in the text editor.
To begin collaborative editing, start by modifying a description field or note where your fellow collaborators are currently adding content.
You can collaborate live in description fields for saved records, notes, and custom note fields. You cannot in comments.
In addition to live collaboration, you can also include users or Aha! records with # and @mentions. Notify your collaborators of a record or note by typing an @ symbol followed by the user’s name. Add links to other records by typing the # symbol, which will let you look up an issue directly from the text editor using either the reference ID or name of the record. Click on a mentioned user to open their user history in a new tab. Click a mentioned record to open its drawer view.
Comment directly on text
The words we write often need to be reviewed for accuracy, tone, and focus. But giving clear feedback can be difficult. Inline text comments let you highlight and comment on the exact parts of the text you want to address, then create conversation threads to focus on and resolve the issue.
To create a new inline comment, highlight the text you want to comment on and click the Add comment + icon that appears on the right side of the text editor. Your text will be highlighted and underlined in orange, the Comments sidebar will appear, and you can start creating your comment. Click Save comment once you are done.
Resolved comments will be highlighted and underlined in green and you can always reply to a resolved comment to reopen it.
Inline comments have access to the full text editor. You can format your text, @ and #mention Aha! users and records, add and color tables, or insert images.
Draft and improve text with AI
You can use the artificial intelligence (AI) writing assistant in Aha! software to help you create clear, polished text in the right tone — so that you can communicate effectively without spending extra time and effort. Use AI to draft emails to customers, refine what you have already written, summarize long passages, and more.
Click the wand icon on your toolbar to prompt AI to generate a first draft of your text in a note, record description, or comment. Highlight existing text and click the wand to prompt AI to apply changes in tone, summarize passages, make formatting changes, and more.
Embed a whiteboard
You can embed a whiteboard directly into your note or the description of your feature, requirement, or initiative to add diagrams, sketches, and other visuals alongside text. Click + on the text editor toolbar and select Whiteboard while editing a record description. A new whiteboard will be added below your cursor. Click the pencil icon to edit the whiteboard. When you are finished editing the whiteboard, click the X to exit and return to editing your note or description. To remove an embedded whiteboard, click the trashcan icon and click to confirm that you would like to delete it.
Floating toolbar and full-screen mode
The toolbar is always available as you scroll down the text editor. This ensures that you never have to scroll back to the top when you need to format.
Click the Enter full-screen mode icon on the text editor toolbar to expand the note or description to the full height and width of your browser window. The floating toolbar is available in full-screen mode as well. As you scroll down and up, the text editor toolbar will remain at the top of your screen.
Add and comment on media
You can add images, audio, and videos inline so you do not need to attach additional documentation with rich media. Click the + [More] menu from the text editor toolbar, select Image icon, choose your image, audio, or video file, and click Attach. The file will appear inline. When you insert a video or audio file, anyone who can view the note or record you have added it to can press the play button to listen or watch the embedded media.
The text editor also supports copy/paste and drag-and-drop for quickly adding media.
Inserting media will add it both inline and as an attachment to the record.
To comment on an inserted media file, highlight it inline and add your comment. You can also comment on images attached to Aha! Roadmaps records.
When you add an image or video, grab the edges to resize it depending on the level of detail you need.
Supported audio file types include mp3, .wav, and .ogg. Supported video files include .mp4, .webm, and .ogv and should be under 300MB.
Add and modify tables
To insert a table, place your cursor in the location where you would like the table to appear. Then select the Table option from the More menu on the text editor toolbar and use the grid of cells to highlight the number of rows and columns that you need.
The table will automatically size itself to fit the dimensions of your text, images, or links. You can resize the table by dragging any of the borders of your table.
Modify the table by clicking on a cell or highlighting a group of cells, then clicking the dropdown in the top-right corner of a cell. From the dropdown, you can merge cells, split cells, adjust the cell text's vertical alignment (top, middle, bottom), add and remove rows/columns, clear table contents, or delete the table.
If you use Aha! Roadmaps, you have a few more styling options available when you add a table to a presentation slide, including custom fill colors, colored borders, transparency, and line spacing.
You can also customize the look of your table by adding background colors to cells, rows, and columns. Select the cell(s) you want to color, click the Table dropdown in the corner of a selected cell, then click Cell background color to select from one of 70 colors.
If your background color makes it hard to read your text, you can change your text color to white.
Track history and restore historical versions
The text editor tracks the history of changes made to a note or description. To view the record of changes and the user(s) who made them, click the View history icon on the text editor toolbar.
During a collaborative session that involves multiple users, each user that modified the document will be displayed in the history of the record.
To restore a previous version, simply select one of the historical versions of your document and choose Revert to this version.