TinyMCE fullscreen: expand a classic editor and return to the surrounding page

In an original incident-report form, the editor sits between equipment details and an attachment panel. An author needs more room to revise a long narrative, then return to those fields before submitting. Enlarging the authoring surface should preserve the current report and leave a clear route back to the form.

Start with viewport fullscreen

For an application where current TinyMCE is already loaded in classic mode, merge these options into its setup:

tinymce.init({
  selector: '#incident-narrative',
  plugins: 'fullscreen',
  toolbar: 'undo redo | bold italic | fullscreen',
  fullscreen_native: false
});

Retain the existing license, loading configuration, plugins, and save handlers. The fullscreen toolbar control toggles the expanded state. The plugin also supplies a View-menu item, if the application's menu configuration exposes it.

For a separate application action, TinyMCE documents this command:

narrativeEditor.execCommand('mceFullScreen');

narrativeEditor must refer to the current report's initialized instance. The command toggles state; calling it twice does not mean “ensure fullscreen.” Keep the application action's label and behavior consistent with the actual editor state.

The documented keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+F on Windows and Linux, or Command+Shift+F on macOS. Keep a visible route as well, especially where browser or operating-system shortcuts may conflict.

Choose native mode for a specific reason

Set fullscreen_native: true only after evaluating its behavior in the target application. Native fullscreen can remove the browser's surrounding interface, whereas the default mode enlarges the editor within the window. TinyMCE documents these native-mode limitations:

• Escape exits fullscreen and overrides normal editor uses of Escape, such as closing a menu or dialog. Consider that effect for keyboard users.
• In Firefox, repeated off/on shortcut toggles without intervening editor interaction can fall back to filling the browser window.
• In Firefox, an editor initialized inside an iframe fills only that iframe.

The HTML Fullscreen API guide explains the underlying browser-level permission and entry behavior. It does not configure TinyMCE's classic editor, toolbar, or return to the surrounding form.

Do not add inline: true to this example in the hope of enlarging an in-place editor. The Full Screen plugin explicitly supports classic mode only. Choose an appropriate authoring layout before debugging a button whose editing mode is unsupported.

Check the return to the incident form

Use a disposable report with an equipment identifier above the editor and an attachment description below it. In the narrative, change “Power was restored at 09:10” to “Power was restored at 09:25.” Enter fullscreen, continue editing, then leave fullscreen through the visible control.

Confirm that the equipment field and attachment panel are reachable again, the narrative retains 09:25, and the page has no leftover overlay blocking interaction. Check the actual scroll position and focus after exit; browser fullscreen behavior alone does not establish that a surrounding application layout has recovered correctly.

If the expanded editor is clipped or appears behind another panel, inspect the application's transformed ancestors, stacking contexts, and scrolling containers. Reproduce the problem in the real page layout before changing unrelated editor content styles.

Save the report after returning

Fullscreen changes the working area; it does not submit the report. Capture the current narrative through the existing save path, as described in the TinyMCE content extraction guide. Keep failed saves visible rather than treating the exit from fullscreen as completion.

Reopen the saved incident report and read the corrected 09:25 statement alongside its equipment identifier and attachment description. The author should finish with one coherent report after using the larger editing surface.