Supported Formatting in Auction and Item Descriptions

BidWrangler's description editor allows you to format auction and item descriptions using a wide range of standard rich-text and HTML features. This article outlines what formatting is supported, what is restricted, and common issues you may encounter when saving content.

The editor supports standard text formatting, including:

• Bold, italics, and underline

• Subscript and superscript

• Text color and background color

• Font selection and text size (within editor options)
  

You can use:

• Left, center, right, and justified alignment

• Block quotes

• Horizontal lines

• Tables (simple table structures)
  

• Bulleted lists

• Numbered lists

• Nested lists

• Indentation

• Paragraph spacing
  

• Insert images

• Insert hyperlinks

• Anchors (jump links within the same page)

• Basic iFrames (limited compatibility depending on the content source)
  

You can open the HTML source view to directly edit supported HTML elements.
Most standard formatting tags (e.g., <strong>, <em>, <p>, <ul>, <table>) are supported.

While most modern emojis aren’t supported, a handful of symbols can be safely used for emphasis or visual cues. These save and display reliably in descriptions:

• ⚠️ (Warning)

• ✅ (Check mark)

• ❌ (Cross mark)

• ❗ / ❕ (Exclamation marks)

• ✨ (Sparkles / highlight)

• ➤ / ➔ (Arrows / bullets)

• • (Bullet)

• – / — (Dashes)

Use these symbols to highlight important details, steps, or warnings in your auction and item descriptions.

To maintain stability, security, and consistent rendering across devices, the following content is not supported:

• Most emojis, including Unicode emoji characters outside the safe list above

• Complex or script-based HTML (e.g., <script>, embedded JavaScript)

• Inline styles that overwrite global site CSS

• Certain external embeds that rely on blocked on insecure scripts

• Large or malformed iFrames

• Raw paste of content containing hidden formatting from Word/Google Docs

Most emojis can break parsing in certain fields, cause character-encoding issues, or display inconsistently across platforms.
The development team is aware of client interest in emoji support and may revisit this in the future.

• Use the built-in formatting toolbar whenever possible.

• If you prefer working in HTML, keep tags simple and avoid custom scripts.

• When pasting content from Word, Google Docs, or other rich text editors, use Paste as Plain Text to avoid hidden formatting.

• Stick to the safe emoji/symbols listed above to prevent save errors.

Here is an example of what will show when trying to save an auction with one or more incompatible emojis:

When this happens, simply review your Simple Description and Description fields and remove any special characters and/or emojis and try saving again.

If you continue to have issues or have any questions, please reach out to us at helpdesk@bidwrangler.com.