Hyperlink removes selected text

[BetterRed]

How about putting the text that was selected & auto-deleted into the clipboard so the user can paste it back again as the label?

After creating the link the cursor is already positioned at the correct position to do that. Then its on the users head if they paste something they shouldn't.

Preventing users from making mistakes can result in denying them opportunity to learn from them.

BR

[arspr]

Hi, I also don't agree with the current behaviour.

I'd expect a <a href="whatever"></a> pair embracing my current selection, but not deleting it.

More over, it seems somehow incoherent with other features in the editor, as example the B, I, U buttons which just work in that way: adding a pair of tags around the selected text, without deleting it. Why should the <a> tag be different?

Maybe a tick could be added to the Insert Hyperlink dialogue in order to toggle that deletion on/off as desired?

(And of course, Kovid, forget about checking for valid/invalid HTML in either case: with or without deletion of the selected text. It's just TOO hard. I've just noticed that the only check the B/I/U buttons seem to do is that, if the selected text begins or ends in the middle of any tag, the added <b/i/u> tags avoid those incomplete tags. I do agree this is the "good" behaviour, and possibly the only one you can easily and coherently code. But even doing that check, nothing guarantees you that the obtained HTML code is valid; an example: if the selected text is just a tag like "</div>" where you are in trouble it doesn't matter if you keep it or not).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Preventing users from making mistakes can result in denying them opportunity to learn from them.

BR

+1
Boy have I learned how to debug HTML

[mrmikel]

One can hope for fewer opportunities for such learning.

I can't agree that protecting somebody from themselves when they are editing the HTML directly is a priority. There are a million changes to screw it up without even trying. I know, I did a global search and replace and scrunched all the paragraphs together and did only an undo instead of a revert. I had to bring in whole sections from an earlier document.

If you could edit the viewing window, I would agree, but you can only work in the HTML window.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I have absolutely no problems with not protecting the user from doing things that directly create invalid code. I do have a problem with the user asking the editor to perform some automated action that leads to invalid code. That is something I try to avoid as much as is reasonably possible.

Things the editor does as opposed to the user doing should try to not result in invalid code, as much as possible.

But, as it stands, the insert hyperlink already can create bad code. If the selected text includes a tag, that tag is removed. Personally, I feel the usability of using the selection as the link text outweighs the dangers involved.

A possibility is to add a field to the dialog. Put the selected text in there. Add a warning if there are any tags. The user can clear or type whatever they need.

[kovidgoyal]

Hmm, well I can change it so that it works like the bold, italic, etc. button, where the selection is automatically adjusted to ensure it does not end within a tag definition, but otherwise just wraps the selected text.

That is a compromise I am happy with, and I think all of you should be happy with as well.

[arspr]

Yes, Kovid, that's good. But if you are really interested in "your" way, and as it is an already made coding work, don't throw it away. Put the toggle in the tool dialogue and we would have both methods... As you previosly posted, "your" way can also be useful in some situations. It's just not intuitive, it's just not the expected default behaviour, but nobody can say that "it's wrong".

[Divingduck]

+1, Kovid, this sounds good.

Maybe you can add as well an input mask for a text within the hyperlink window. You can put the selected text in this mask if selected and if not, the user can make an input or not and have all possibile variations open (if this is possible to do w/o a huge amount of coding)

[kovidgoyal]

@Divingduck: A good idea. There's no reason the text field cannot be pre-filled in with the selected text, if any, that way the present code does not have to be changed at all either. It will simply continue to delete the selection, but also insert the contents of the text field, which will be prefilled with the selected text, giving a smooth default workflow.

[arspr]

Yes, a great idea. Nevertheless, Kovid, do not forget the in-the-middle-of-tags test. I mean maybe you should "shorten" this kind of plainly wrong selections before actually calling the tool dialogue.

[theducks]

to all these

[DrChiper]

[eschwartz]

I'm liking this suggestion much better, thanks!

[Divingduck]

Kovid, thanks for implementing this