We found someone to do a plugin for us outside this forum, and after going back and forth with them, having to repeat myself, and trying to get them to do what was expected, they told me it was too difficult even though there are plugins that do something similar already.
Essentially what we need is a customized placeholder plugin, like what FckEditor had. The trick is we have a custom bbcode-like syntax (singular, no ending tags) that needs to be converted into HTML while in WYWIWYG mode, and back into this format when going into source mode or posting the contents.
What gets me is he figured out that <label tags are protected objects and decided to convert our tags into <label tags (had a heck of a time getting him to do that). But he couldn't figure out how to do the reverse, which I just don't get.
On top of that, there are just weird bugs that I don't understand. He passed us a "finished product" with debug alert box.
I'm frustrated, and a bit fed up. I would be doing this myself if I had the time to do it. Unfortunately my time is being directed towards server side development at the moment, and I just don't have any time to spare. And what we've received so far from this guy is not ready or stable enough to be put in the wild.
I'm hoping to find someone here that knows enough about CKEditor that when I give the full details will be like "oh I can do this easily" and deliver for us.
Anyone interested please reply here, or send me a PM. Either way works for me.
Thanks,
Luke