There is a plugin that used to work for this but has been broken with changes to wp2.7.
I needed to fix this so I've done a bit of hacking work on the plugin and figured I'd put it up here.
I'm sure there's an easier way to init the MCE editor than the way I've done it but this seems to be working quite smoothly so far!
The original plugin was published over here:
http://www.laboratoriocaffeina.it/development/2007/08/22/add-tinymce-to-author-description-in-wordpress.html
I have modded the plugin to work as below.
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Add TinyMce to Author Profile
Plugin URI: http://www.laboratoriocaffeina.it/development/2007/08/22/add-tinymce-to-author-description-in-wordpress.html
Description: Adds WYSIWYG to Author profile
Version: 0.2a
Author: cedmax
Author URI: http://www.dioblog.it
*/
if ( (strpos($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'], 'wp-admin/user-edit.php')) or (strpos($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'], 'wp-admin/profile.php'))) {
add_action('admin_head', 'add_tinymce');
}
remove_filter('pre_user_description', 'wp_filter_kses');
add_filter('pre_user_description', 'wpautop');
function add_tinymce() {?>
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-includes/js/tinymce/tiny_mce.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-includes/js/tinymce/langs/wp-langs-en.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */
tinyMCE.init ({
mode : 'exact',
elements : 'description',
width:"100%",
theme:"advanced",
skin:"wp_theme",
theme_advanced_buttons1:"bold,italic,strikethrough,|,bullist,numlist,blockquote,|,justifyleft,justifycenter,justifyright,|,link,unlink,wp_more,|,fullscreen,wp_adv,separator,separator",
theme_advanced_buttons2:"formatselect,underline,justifyfull,forecolor,|,pastetext,pasteword,removeformat,|,media,charmap,|,outdent,indent,|,undo,redo,wp_help",
theme_advanced_buttons3:"",
theme_advanced_buttons4:"",
theme_advanced_styles : "Header 1=h1;Header 2=header2;Header 3=header3;",
language:"en",
spellchecker_languages:"+English=en",
theme_advanced_toolbar_location:"top",
theme_advanced_toolbar_align:"left",
theme_advanced_statusbar_location:"bottom",
theme_advanced_resizing:"1",
theme_advanced_resize_horizontal:"",
dialog_type:"modal",
relative_urls:"",
remove_script_host:"",
convert_urls:"",
apply_source_formatting:"",
remove_linebreaks:"1",
paste_convert_middot_lists:"1",
paste_remove_spans:"1",
paste_remove_styles:"1",
gecko_spellcheck:"1",
entities:"38,amp,60,lt,62,gt",
accessibility_focus:"1",
tab_focus:":prev,:next",
content_css:"<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-includes/js/tinymce/wordpress.css",
wpeditimage_disable_captions:"",
plugins:"safari,inlinepopups,paste,wordpress,media,fullscreen"
});
function toggleEditor(id) {
var elm = document.getElementById(id);
if (tinyMCE.getInstanceById(id) == null)
tinyMCE.execCommand('mceAddControl', false, id);
else
tinyMCE.execCommand('mceRemoveControl', false, id);
}/* ]]> */
</script>
<?php } ?>