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Manual Installation

docs/installation/manual.mdx

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This guide walks you through setting up Plate from scratch, giving you full control over styling and component rendering. This approach is ideal if you're not using a UI library like shadcn/ui or Tailwind CSS.

<Steps>

Create Project

<Callout type="info"> This guide uses **Vite** for demonstrating the initial project setup. Plate is framework-agnostic and integrates seamlessly with other React environments like Next.js or Remix. You can adapt the general setup principles to your chosen framework. </Callout>

To begin with Vite, create a new project and select the React + TypeScript template:

bash
npm create vite@latest

Install Core Dependencies

First, install the necessary Plate packages. These packages provide the core editor functionality, React integration, and basic plugins for marks and elements.

bash
npm install platejs @platejs/basic-nodes
  • platejs: The core Plate engine and React components.
  • @platejs/basic-nodes: Plugin for basic nodes like headings, bold, italic, underline, etc.

TypeScript Configuration

Plate provides ESM packages. If you're using TypeScript, ensure your tsconfig.json is configured correctly. The recommended setup for Plate requires TypeScript 5.0+ with the "moduleResolution": "bundler" setting:

jsonc
// tsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ... other options
    "module": "esnext", // or commonjs if your setup requires it and handles ESM interop
    "moduleResolution": "bundler",
    // ... other options
  },
}
<Callout type="info"> If you cannot use `"moduleResolution": "bundler"` or are on an older TypeScript version, please see our [full TypeScript guide](/docs/typescript) for alternative configurations using path aliases. </Callout>

Create Your First Editor

Start by creating a basic editor component. This example sets up a simple editor.

tsx
import React from 'react';
import type { Value } from 'platejs';
import { Plate, PlateContent, usePlateEditor } from 'platejs/react';

export default function App() {
  const editor = usePlateEditor();

  return (
    <Plate editor={editor}>
      <PlateContent 
        style={{ padding: '16px 64px', minHeight: '100px' }}
        placeholder="Type your amazing content here..."
      />
    </Plate>
  );
}
<Callout type="info"> `usePlateEditor` creates a memoized editor instance, ensuring stability across re-renders. For a non-memoized version, use `createPlateEditor` from `platejs/react`. </Callout> <ComponentPreview name="installation-next-01-editor-demo" height="200px" />

At this point, you'll have a very basic editor capable of displaying and editing plain text.

Adding Basic Marks

Let's add support for basic text formatting like bold, italic, and underline.

tsx
import React from 'react';
import type { Value } from 'platejs';

import {
  BoldPlugin,
  ItalicPlugin,
  UnderlinePlugin,
} from '@platejs/basic-nodes/react';
import {
  Plate,
  PlateContent,
  usePlateEditor,
} from 'platejs/react';

const initialValue: Value = [
  {
    type: 'p',
    children: [
      { text: 'Hello! Try out the ' },
      { text: 'bold', bold: true },
      { text: ', ' },
      { text: 'italic', italic: true },
      { text: ', and ' },
      { text: 'underline', underline: true },
      { text: ' formatting.' },
    ],
  },
];

export default function App() {
  const editor = usePlateEditor({
    plugins: [BoldPlugin, ItalicPlugin, UnderlinePlugin],
    value: initialValue,
  });

  return (
    <Plate editor={editor}>
      <PlateContent style={{ padding: '16px 64px', minHeight: '100px' }} />
    </Plate>
  );
}
<Callout type="info" title="Default Components"> Mark plugins like `BoldPlugin`, `ItalicPlugin`, and `UnderlinePlugin` come with default components that render as `<strong>`, `<em>`, and `<u>` elements respectively. You don't need to register custom components unless you want to customize their appearance. </Callout> <ComponentPreview name="installation-next-02-marks-demo" height="200px" />

You'll need to implement your own toolbar to apply these marks. For example, to toggle bold: editor.tf.bold.toggle().

Adding Basic Elements

Now, let's add support for block-level elements like headings, and blockquotes.

tsx
import React from 'react';
import type { Value } from 'platejs';

import {
  BlockquotePlugin,
  BoldPlugin,
  H1Plugin,
  H2Plugin,
  H3Plugin,
  ItalicPlugin,
  UnderlinePlugin,
} from '@platejs/basic-nodes/react';
import {
  Plate,
  PlateContent,
  PlateElement,
  usePlateEditor,
  type PlateElementProps,
} from 'platejs/react';

const initialValue: Value = [
  {
    children: [{ text: 'Title' }],
    type: 'h3',
  },
  {
    children: [{ text: 'This is a quote.' }],
    type: 'blockquote',
  },
  {
    children: [
      { text: 'With some ' },
      { bold: true, text: 'bold' },
      { text: ' text for emphasis!' },
    ],
    type: 'p',
  },
];

// Define element components
function H1Element(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return <PlateElement as="h1" {...props} />;
}

function H2Element(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return <PlateElement as="h2" {...props} />;
}

function H3Element(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return <PlateElement as="h3" {...props} />;
}

function BlockquoteElement(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return (
    <PlateElement
      as="blockquote"
      style={{
        borderLeft: '2px solid #eee',
        marginLeft: 0,
        marginRight: 0,
        paddingLeft: '24px',
        color: '#666',
        fontStyle: 'italic',
      }}
      {...props}
    />
  );
}

export default function App() {
  const editor = usePlateEditor({
    plugins: [
      BoldPlugin,
      ItalicPlugin,
      UnderlinePlugin,
      H1Plugin.withComponent(H1Element),
      H2Plugin.withComponent(H2Element),
      H3Plugin.withComponent(H3Element),
      BlockquotePlugin.withComponent(BlockquoteElement),
    ],
    value: initialValue,
  });

  return (
    <Plate editor={editor}>
      <PlateContent style={{ padding: '16px 64px', minHeight: '100px' }} />
    </Plate>
  );
}
<Callout type="note"> Notice how we use `Plugin.withComponent(Component)` to register components with block element plugins like headings and blockquotes. This is the recommended approach for associating React components with Plate plugins when you need custom styling or behavior. </Callout> <ComponentPreview name="installation-next-03-elements-demo" height="200px" />

Handling Editor Value

To make the editor's content persistent, let's integrate state management to save and load the editor's value.

tsx
import React from 'react';
import type { Value } from 'platejs';

import {
  BlockquotePlugin,
  BoldPlugin,
  H1Plugin,
  H2Plugin,
  H3Plugin,
  ItalicPlugin,
  UnderlinePlugin,
} from '@platejs/basic-nodes/react';
import {
  Plate,
  PlateContent,
  PlateElement,
  usePlateEditor,
  type PlateElementProps,
} from 'platejs/react';

const initialValue: Value = [
  {
    children: [{ text: 'Title' }],
    type: 'h3',
  },
  {
    children: [{ text: 'This is a quote.' }],
    type: 'blockquote',
  },
  {
    children: [
      { text: 'With some ' },
      { bold: true, text: 'bold' },
      { text: ' text for emphasis!' },
    ],
    type: 'p',
  },
];

// Define element components
function H1Element(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return <PlateElement as="h1" {...props} />;
}

function H2Element(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return <PlateElement as="h2" {...props} />;
}

function H3Element(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return <PlateElement as="h3" {...props} />;
}

function BlockquoteElement(props: PlateElementProps) {
  return (
    <PlateElement
      as="blockquote"
      style={{
        borderLeft: '2px solid #eee',
        marginLeft: 0,
        marginRight: 0,
        paddingLeft: '24px',
        color: '#666',
        fontStyle: 'italic',
      }}
      {...props}
    />
  );
}

export default function App() {
  const editor = usePlateEditor({
    plugins: [
      BoldPlugin,
      ItalicPlugin,
      UnderlinePlugin,
      H1Plugin.withComponent(H1Element),
      H2Plugin.withComponent(H2Element),
      H3Plugin.withComponent(H3Element),
      BlockquotePlugin.withComponent(BlockquoteElement),
    ],
    value: () => {
      const savedValue = localStorage.getItem('plate-manual-demo');
      return savedValue ? JSON.parse(savedValue) : initialValue;
    },
  });

  return (
    <Plate
      editor={editor}
      onChange={({ value }) => {
        localStorage.setItem('plate-manual-demo', JSON.stringify(value));
      }}
    >
      <div style={{ padding: '8px 0' }}>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.tf.setValue(initialValue)}
          style={{
            padding: '4px 8px',
            margin: '0 4px',
            border: '1px solid #ccc',
            borderRadius: '4px',
            cursor: 'pointer',
          }}
        >
          Reset
        </button>
      </div>
      <PlateContent
        style={{
          padding: '16px 64px',
          minHeight: '100px',
          border: '1px solid #eee',
          borderRadius: '4px',
        }}
        placeholder="Type your amazing content here..."
      />
    </Plate>
  );
}
<Callout type="info" title="Value Management"> The example above demonstrates a basic pattern for managing editor value: - Initial value is set through the `value` option in `usePlateEditor` - Changes can be handled via the `onChange` prop on `<Plate>` - The reset button uses `editor.tf.setValue()` to restore the initial value - To control the value, see [Controlled Value](/docs/controlled) </Callout> <ComponentPreview name="installation-next-demo" />

Next Steps

You've now set up a basic Plate editor manually! From here, you can:

  • Add Styling:
    • For a quick start with pre-built components, consider using Plate UI
    • Or continue styling manually using CSS, CSS-in-JS libraries, or your preferred styling solution
  • Add Plugins: Plate has a rich ecosystem of plugins for features like tables, mentions, images, lists, and more. Install their packages (e.g., @platejs/table) and add them to your plugins array.
  • Build a Toolbar: Create React components for toolbar buttons that use the Editor Transforms to apply formatting (e.g., editor.tf.bold.toggle(), editor.tf.h1.toggle()). You can also use the editor state with the Editor API.
  • Learn More:
</Steps>