BUG REPORT: Links not showing underlined when changing rows
-
There is a rather annoying bug when using links. When linking something, I want the text to be underlined, as per usual. However, for some reason, today I noticed that a bug has appeared: whenever a linked text changes a row, the underline vanishes.
When changing to a view (tab/phone/desktop) where the same link doesn’t change row, the underline is retained, but when changing to a view where that very same link changes row the underline disappears. The same problem is on my desktop PC (Chrome & Edge) and tab (Android app).
Of course, what should happen, and what has happened until now, is that the underline of the link is retained regardless of whether the text changes rows.
Someone please fix this bug ASAP. I’ve replicated it easily with a fresh draft, so it is not specific to any one post.
(FYI: An official channel to report bugs on wordpress.com seems to be hard to come by, which could be improved as well.)
WP.com: Yes
Correct account: YesThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to moderators and staff)
-
After further testing, this new bug may(?) be specific to the theme I’m using: Twenty Sixteen. Something must have changed, as the bug was not present earlier in December, and I’ve used the theme for over a year without the problem present.
-
Hey there, happy to take a look. Which specific page or post is affected, and can you share what section? I’m not spotting it immediately but I’m also not positive what you’re referring to re: links changing to rows.
-
Hey. Here is a quick example page (private) to demonstrate the issue. In fact, on Android, in mobile phone mode it now appears that no link is underlined. In tablet and desktop modes the problem persists as described.
-
-
And to be clear: all posts are affected by this bug, under the Twenty Sixteen theme. Whenever a linked piece of text changes rows, the underline of the link disappears.
-
In addition to the private bug demonstration post, here’s just one quick example of the bug on a pre-existing post: here, in desktop and tablet modes on Android app (with Samsung Galaxy S10e in preview mode), on the second paragraph, ending “(Kaplan, 2019; McAloon, 2019)”. Only the first source is underlined, and the latter is not, because the latter changes rows (“McAloon, *row change* 2019”). Note, however, that the bug is device and mode sensitive: if the same part of the text does not change rows on your screen, you will see the same part underlined. Only if the linked piece of text changes rows on your screen, the underline will disappear.
-
Thanks for that! I see the cause: instead of using a text-decoration: underline, this theme is using a box-shadow. And that seems to break when there’s more than one line. This theme hasn’t been changed recently, but I noticed the same effect on this site. I noticed the article is from 2015; it’d make sense that this would have been a trend just in time for the 2016 theme.
I have to admit I’d never noticed before whether the box shadow renders with wrapped text, but I can see how browsers may trip over that. I’d also imagine it’s the sort of visual difference that wouldn’t get a retroactive fix at this point, because it would change how existing sites look.
So what to do? If your site supports custom CSS (included in Premium, along with a bunch of other features), you could override that with a regular underline. Or if you’re willing, you could switch to a newer theme. I noticed it looks like Twenty Seventeen also features box-shadowed underlines, but more modern themes use more modern treatment for fancy underlines.
What are your thoughts? How can we help?
-
I am very confident that the bug was not previously present. I obsessively check my sources and reread my text (in diffent modes), and would very likely have noticed if it had been present before. Meaning that something seems to have happened within the last few weeks (or so) that has already changed how existing sites that use the theme look, insofar as links are concerned.
Still, I – alongwith everyone who will eventually notice the change and be bothered by it – could always look for a new theme (while putting extra effort into making sure any candidates can do links right). Don’t really have the time in the near future, but it has to be done at some point if the bug cannot be fixed. Unfortunately, I do not have premium and don’t think I can afford it right now.
-
Correction:
After reviewing old versions of the pages from Internet Archives, it does seem that the issue was present already in 2021. That is, unless something in the browsers themselves have changed(?). It is very surprising that I could’ve missed the issue before (I’ve written a 1000+ source draft during the last year, so it really is baffling). I noticed it especially as the issue became visible on the editor a few days ago. Previously, at least the editor had showed the links correctly, otherwise I would have started to delve into the issue much sooner.Overall, it seems that the only option for me is to look for a new theme at some point, while paying more careful attention whether different themes can correctly handle links. For those who can afford premium can explore that route.
-
Another added observation:
On desktop (Windows 10), the issue is not(!) present on Firefox browser, but is present on Chrome and Edge. Makes me think something at least in Chrome has changed during the last few weeks or so. I’m not sure about Edge, as Chrome is my default browser. -
(The previous observation would also hint at the same thing having changed in the Android app browser that WordPress app uses internally. I think I would have noticed the change there as well, as I do use the app a lot as well, in addition to using a lot of Chrome on desktop.)
-
*I think I would have noticed the _issue_ there as well, as I do use the app a lot, in addition to using a lot of Chrome on desktop.
-
I had a look at your examples using Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on Mac – so far the only one where the issue comes up is Chrome. I think you’re correct that it’s definitely related to something in Chrome; more accurately something in Chromium which is the base browser project for Chrome, Edge and a few other browsers such as Vivaldi:
https://www.chromium.org/Home/The Android WordPress app also uses Chromium for the in-app browser, which is why the bug shows up there too.
This appears to be specific to Chromium, and not to WordPress.com or the WordPress software – I whipped up a quick basic HTML file on my computer with the following code and without any other applied stylesheets; the underline still disappeared on the link which wraps to another line in Chrome:
<a href="#" style="box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 currentColor; text-decoration: none;">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In suscipit, ante sit amet pellentesque suscipit, elit felis convallis lacus, et condimentum mauris ante vitae odio.</a> </p> <p><a href="#" style="box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 currentColor; text-decoration: none;">short link</a></p>Screenshot of how that looks in Chrome:
-
Excellent. It appears this thread should be sent to the Chromium team. I’ll mark it as resolved as far as WordPress is concerned.
-
I submitted a bug report for Chromium:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1403442 -
I had a look earlier to see if I could find any existing bug reports for it but I couldn’t spot anything obvious; hopefully they’ll be able to work on a fix now that you’ve submitted that report!
Have a pleasant weekend :)
- The topic ‘BUG REPORT: Links not showing underlined when changing rows’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 