I’m currently building a rich text editor and wanted to share a practical use case for the upcoming Toolbar component.
In modern editors, the toolbar is no longer just a row of buttons — it effectively becomes a compact control surface for document styling and configuration. In my case, the toolbar needs to host a mix of interaction types, for example:
• Toggle groups for bold/italic/underline states • Color pickers for text and background styling • Numeric inputs for font size or spacing adjustments • Dropdowns/selects for headings, fonts, or presets
Because of this, it would be extremely helpful if the Toolbar were designed from the start to support embedding richer interactive components (not just buttons), especially those from ecosystems like HeroUI.
For editor workflows, the key challenges are:
• Managing focus correctly between mixed controls • Maintaining intuitive keyboard navigation across the toolbar • Handling popovers (color pickers, dropdown menus, etc.) inside constrained layouts • Providing clear grouping and overflow behavior for dense toolbars • Ensuring accessibility for composite editing controls
If the Toolbar evolves as a composable container for heterogeneous controls, it could become a foundational primitive for building editors, design tools, and configuration panels.
Would love to see this considered during the design phase — it would make the component significantly more useful in real-world applications.
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wei li
Feb 24
I’m currently building a rich text editor and wanted to share a practical use case for the upcoming Toolbar component.
In modern editors, the toolbar is no longer just a row of buttons — it effectively becomes a compact control surface for document styling and configuration. In my case, the toolbar needs to host a mix of interaction types, for example:
• Toggle groups for bold/italic/underline states
• Color pickers for text and background styling
• Numeric inputs for font size or spacing adjustments
• Dropdowns/selects for headings, fonts, or presets
Because of this, it would be extremely helpful if the Toolbar were designed from the start to support embedding richer interactive components (not just buttons), especially those from ecosystems like HeroUI.
For editor workflows, the key challenges are:
• Managing focus correctly between mixed controls
• Maintaining intuitive keyboard navigation across the toolbar
• Handling popovers (color pickers, dropdown menus, etc.) inside constrained layouts
• Providing clear grouping and overflow behavior for dense toolbars
• Ensuring accessibility for composite editing controls
If the Toolbar evolves as a composable container for heterogeneous controls, it could become a foundational primitive for building editors, design tools, and configuration panels.
Would love to see this considered during the design phase — it would make the component significantly more useful in real-world applications.