rich:editor has several configuration options exposed as attributes, but CKEditor implementation which RichFaces uses under the hood, is much more advanced than that.

In order to expose all advanced configurations, there is config facet (or equivalent config attribute) which enables to setup practically any setup which is possible with CKEditor.

For example, you can configure custom toolbar setup, load extra plugins, load custom stylesheet in editor's area, etc.

Both of the configuration ways (facet or config) are able to interpolate EL expressions, which enables you to make the editor configuration dynamic.

To explore all configuration options, you may want to visit CKEditor Developer Guide and use CKEditor.config JavaScript API as reference.

In following sample, you can dynamically change the language of editor. Editor is also configured to grab focus after page load and has customized toolbar setup.