Input format

Input format is the name Drupal 6 and earlier gave to text formats. Drupal 7.0 renamed it, and the Drupal 11 admin screens say text format.

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Input format is the former name of the Drupal text format: the saved set of filters that controls how text entered in a formatted field is displayed. The Filter module overview on Drupal.org still uses the old name in places. In Drupal 11, the admin screens, the configuration entity and the permissions all say text format, so search for that wording.

What changed

The Drupal 7 changelog lists the change for Drupal 7.0, released in January 2011: Renamed "input formats" to "text formats". Before that, the old name was on the editing form. A 2008 forum question about a Drupal 5.6 site asks how to remove the Input Formats section from the node add form. In Drupal 11, a format is a configuration entity of type filter_format that has a machine name, for example basic_html. The full explanation of how formats work is on the text format page.

Old wording and where it lives now

  • Input formats page. Drupal 6 listed formats at admin/settings/filters. Drupal 11 manages them under Configuration › Content authoring › Text formats and editors. Each one still applies filters in a set order.
  • Filtered HTML. A Drupal 6 default format that allowed an approved subset of tags. The Filter module overview calls Basic HTML a more permissive variant of it and Restricted HTML a more restrictive one.
  • Permission to use a format. In Drupal 11 it is named use text format [machine name], and you grant it to a role.

Common mistakes

  • Treating the format as input validation. It decides how stored text is processed on display. It does not reject or shorten what an editor types.
  • Granting a permissive format to everyone. The Filter help warns that improper text format configuration is a security risk, because HTML can carry malicious links or scripts. Keep untrusted roles on a restricted format.

For marketing and content teams

When a colleague, an agency or an older guide mentions the input format, they mean the Text format list below the body field on the editing form. Pick the format your team agreed on. If formatting looks wrong after a change, ask your developer to check the format's filters rather than retyping the content.

Sources

Questions about Input format

Yes. Drupal 7.0 renamed input formats to text formats. The Filter module overview on Drupal.org mostly says text format and still uses input format in places. The Drupal 11 admin screens, configuration entity and permissions all use text format.

Go to Configuration › Content authoring › Text formats and editors, at /admin/config/content/formats. Each format has a Configure link for its filters, its editor and the roles that may use it.

No. The format does not validate or shorten what is entered. Drupal stores the text unchanged and runs the filters when the text is displayed, so a stricter format changes the output, not the saved value.

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