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3BL Content Editor: Formatting, Media & HTML Specifications

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how the editor works, what it supports, and how to maximize performance and discoverability using structured content.

The 3BL Editor is a structured, HTML-based publishing environment. Formatting is not decorative — it is a technical decision that affects how content is rendered, indexed, and distributed.

Character Limits

  • Headline: 255 characters
  • Subheadline: 255 characters
  • Body: No limit
  • Short teaser previews (email distribution): 280 characters

Supported HTML Elements

Group Element  Tag Attributes Notes
Developer Body <body> --

This is automatically sent because it contains the content being distributed. It is not an HTML tag that should be used for formatting.
 

Preformatted text

<pre>

–

Not explicitly a tag you can view in source code but the editor will implement the formatting on copy/paste.
Core

Heading 2

<h2>

 --

This tag is visually distinct on 3BL's owned and operated properties but will render as H2/H3 downstream.
 

Heading 3

<h3>

 --

This tag is visually distinct on 3BL's owned and operated properties but will render as H2/H3 downstream.
 

Paragraph

<p>

align

3BL's editor uses class for align.
 

Text formatting

<strong>

–

Bold text with extra importance; 800pt.
   

<em>

–

Italic text with extra importance. 
   

<u>

–

  
   

<sup>

–

  
   

<sub>

–

  
 

Lists

<ol>

type

This is an ordered list (aka numbered). Type allows us to offer variations of numbers or roman numerals but right now we only support numbered types of <ol>. 
   

<ul>

–

This is an unordered list (aka bullet points)
   

<li>

data-list-item-id

This is the item inside the list.
 

Link Attributes

<a>

href, alt, target, title, rel

  

Structure & Formatting

Break

<br>

–

  
 

Horizontal line

<hr>

–

  
 

Blockquote

<blockquote>

–

Similar to <body>, <blockquote> supports the following tags within the tag:

<p> <ol> <ul> <li>
 

Tables (basic)

<table>

cellspacing, cellpadding

Drupal does not currently support these attributes; AW does. 

  
   

<tr>

–

  
   

<td>

Colspan, Rowspan

Both Drupal and AW do currently support these attributes.

  
   

<th>

–

AW does not support this tag but Drupal does - so if you use this in drupal it will not show up in AW. 
   

<thead>

–

AW does not support this tag but Drupal does - so if you use this in drupal it will not show up in AW. 

Media

Embed

<embed>

src

YouTube, DailyMotion, Spotify (songs only; not podcasts).
 

Images

<img>

src, width, alt

png and jpeg only; max 100mb
 

Caption

<figcaption>

–

Only enabled for images right now, will check about tables. 

Content Sanitization & Unsupported Elements The editor automatically removes unsupported or unsafe elements, most commonly:

  • Special characters, emojis, math symbols
  • <div> (except for specific oEmbed use cases) 
  • <span> 
  • <video>
  • <audio>  
  • <iframe>

Before vs After: Enhanced Formatting Example The following example illustrates how structured formatting with multimedia improves clarity, rendering consistency, and semantic hierarchy – overall improving how readers interpret the story.

Rich Content & Performance Considerations Rich content is more than just visual enhancement, it affects rendering behavior, how information is consumed by search engines, accessibility, and consistency distributed across channels.

  • Your headline should clearly communicate what the content is about in less than 60 characters.
  • Use the description to add context about why this topic matters and why your organization is positioned to speak about it.
  • Secondary headers (H2, H3) help break up your content and transition from one topic to the next, which is more readable to robots than a long block of text.
  • Keep each section modular, using short and self-contained sections with one clear idea to avoid long, blended paragraphs covering multiple topics.
  • Add descriptive alt text to images to help visually impaired readers and AI systems interpret the visuals you use.

Read more about 3BL’s framework for optimizing content in our 2026 LLM and Generative AI Writing Guide

The 3BL Content Editor gives marketing, communications, and PR teams the creative flexibility to produce rich, multimedia-driven stories—while ensuring content is structured, sanitized, and distributed consistently across 3BL’s network of 79 partner sites.