Should I Use Rich Text, Plain Text, or Code for My Snippets?

PasteBase offers three editor types: rich text, plain text, and code. When you create a new paste, you choose which editor to use, and that choice determines how the content is formatted, displayed, and copied. Choosing the right editor is not complicated, but picking the best one for your content makes a real difference in how useful the paste is when you copy and paste it into other tools.

The three editor types at a glance

Rich text editor

The rich text editor is built on TipTap and gives you a familiar word-processor experience. You can format text with bold, italic, underline, headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, and hyperlinks. The content is stored as HTML, which means when you copy a rich text paste and paste it into an email client, document editor, or messaging tool, the formatting transfers intact.

Best for: Email templates, customer support responses, formatted messages, onboarding instructions, policy documents, meeting agendas, and any content where formatting improves readability.

Plain text editor

The plain text editor is exactly what it sounds like: a simple text area with no formatting tools. What you type is what you get, character for character. When you copy a plain text paste, you get raw text with no hidden formatting, no HTML, and no styling.

Best for: Quick notes, phone scripts, addresses, serial numbers, license keys, simple messages, social media posts, content for systems that strip formatting anyway (like SMS platforms or basic form fields), and any text where formatting is irrelevant or unwanted.

Code editor

The code editor is powered by Monaco (the same editor that powers VS Code) and provides full syntax highlighting for dozens of programming languages. You select a language when creating the paste, and the editor highlights your code accordingly. The editor also provides proper indentation, line numbers, and a monospaced font.

Best for: Code snippets, shell commands, Docker configurations, SQL queries, API request templates, configuration files (YAML, JSON, TOML), regex patterns, and any content that is meant to be read and used as code.

A decision framework

When deciding which editor to use, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Does formatting matter? If your content needs bold text, bullet lists, headings, or links, use the rich text editor. If formatting is irrelevant, consider plain text or code.
2. Is this code or a technical configuration? If yes, use the code editor. Syntax highlighting makes technical content dramatically easier to read and verify.
3. Where will I paste this? If you are pasting into an email client that supports rich text, the rich text editor ensures your formatting carries over. If you are pasting into a terminal, a text field, or a system that ignores formatting, plain text or code will give you cleaner results.

When to use the rich text editor

Choose rich text whenever the person who reads your pasted content will benefit from visual structure. Emails are the most common example: a follow-up email with bold key dates, a bulleted list of next steps, and a hyperlinked resource is far more effective than a wall of plain text. Support responses, sales outreach, HR communications, and any customer-facing template should almost always use rich text.

The rich text editor also works well for internal documents like process descriptions, onboarding checklists, and meeting agendas where headings and lists make the content scannable. For more on using rich text for emails, see how to create email templates.

When to use the plain text editor

Plain text is the right choice when formatting adds no value or when the destination strips formatting anyway. Here are common plain text use cases:

• Short reference text — Company addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, tracking IDs
• Phone scripts — Call scripts where agents read from the screen and formatting is not visible to the caller
• SMS and messaging templates — Text messages and chat responses for platforms that do not support rich text
• Social media posts — Twitter/X posts, LinkedIn updates, and other social content where plain text is the norm
• System inputs — Content that goes into form fields, command-line inputs, or APIs that expect raw text

Plain text pastes are also faster to create since there are no formatting decisions to make. If you just need to store a piece of text for quick copy-paste access, plain text is the most efficient choice.

When to use the code editor

The code editor is purpose-built for technical content. Any time you are storing something that is meant to be executed, compiled, or interpreted as code, the code editor is the right choice. Syntax highlighting is not just a visual nicety: it makes it immediately obvious when something is wrong, like a missing closing bracket or an incorrect keyword.

Common code editor use cases:

• Shell commands — Complex one-liners, SSH configurations, cron definitions
• Docker and infrastructure — Compose files, Dockerfiles, Kubernetes manifests, Terraform configs
• Database queries — SQL queries, migration scripts, data export commands
• API templates — cURL commands, request bodies, authentication headers
• Configuration files — YAML, JSON, TOML, INI, Nginx configs, CI/CD pipelines
• Code boilerplate — Function templates, class structures, test scaffolding

For a deeper dive into storing code, see how to store code snippets.

Can I change the editor type after creating a paste?

No. The editor type is set when you create the paste and cannot be changed afterward. This is by design: each editor type stores content in a fundamentally different format (HTML for rich text, raw text for plain text, code with language metadata for the code editor), and converting between them would risk losing formatting or structure. If you need to switch editor types, create a new paste with the desired editor and copy the content over.

Mixing editor types in a team

Within a single team, you can have pastes using all three editor types. A support team might use rich text for customer-facing email responses, plain text for phone scripts, and code for troubleshooting commands that agents paste into terminals. The editor type is per paste, not per team, so you have full flexibility to use the right tool for each piece of content.

For more information about each editor's features, visit the editor types help article, or see the individual articles on the rich text editor and the code editor.