Cursor Overlay

A visual overlay for cursors and selections.

Cursor Overlay
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Files
components/demo.tsx
'use client';

import React from 'react';

import { Plate } from '@udecode/plate-common/react';

import { editorPlugins } from '@/components/editor/plugins/editor-plugins';
import { useCreateEditor } from '@/components/editor/use-create-editor';
import { Editor, EditorContainer } from '@/components/plate-ui/editor';

import { DEMO_VALUES } from './values/demo-values';

export default function Demo({ id }: { id: string }) {
  const editor = useCreateEditor({
    plugins: [...editorPlugins],
    value: DEMO_VALUES[id],
  });

  return (
    <Plate editor={editor}>
      <EditorContainer variant="demo">
        <Editor />
      </EditorContainer>
    </Plate>
  );
}

The Cursor Overlay feature provides visual feedback for selections and cursor positions, particularly useful for maintaining context when the editor loses focus or during drag operations.

Features

  • Maintains selection highlight when another element is focused
  • Dynamic selection (e.g. during AI streaming)
  • Shows cursor position during drag operations
  • Customizable styling for cursors and selections
  • Essential for external UI interactions (e.g. link toolbar, AI combobox)

Installation

npm install @udecode/plate-selection

Usage

import { CursorOverlayPlugin } from '@udecode/plate-selection/react';
import { CursorOverlay } from '@/components/plate-ui/cursor-overlay';
const plugins = [
  // ...otherPlugins,
  CursorOverlayPlugin.configure({
    render: { afterEditable: () => <CursorOverlay /> },
  }),
];

Preserving Selection Focus

To maintain the editor's selection state when focusing UI elements, add the data-plate-focus="true" attribute to those elements:

<ToolbarButton data-plate-focus="true">
  {/* toolbar content */}
</ToolbarButton>

Plugins

CursorOverlayPlugin

Plugin that manages cursor and selection overlays.

Options

Collapse all

    Object containing cursor states. Default: {}

API

editor.api.cursorOverlay.addCursor

Adds a cursor overlay with the specified key and state.

Parameters

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    Unique identifier for the cursor (e.g., 'blur', 'drag', 'custom').

    The cursor state including selection and optional styling data.

editor.api.cursorOverlay.removeCursor

Removes a cursor overlay by its key.

Parameters

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    The key of the cursor to remove.

Hooks

useCursorOverlay

A hook that manages cursor and selection overlay states, providing real-time cursor positions and selection rectangles.

Parameters

Collapse all

Returns

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    Array of cursor states with their corresponding selection rectangles and styling data.

    Function to manually trigger a recalculation of cursor positions.

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