Link editor change
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When writing a new post today I noticed that the link editor has changed. It used to have input boxes for the URL and the title attribute.
Now it has input boxes for the URL and the link text.
This removes a very useful feature and replaces it with a useless one.
Don’t most people highlight a bit of text — the link text — and then open the link editor to create the link? It was hugely useful to also be able to edit the link’s title attribute. It’s much less useful to edit the link text since you can do that in the editor itself.
Now I have to switch to raw text mode, find the link, and add the title attribute. This makes writing posts much less fun. Links should have a title attribute, as this allows a popup info box when you hover over a link.
BTW: The image editor could be improved in this regard as well. It allows for the alt attribute, but it would be nice to have an entry box for the title attribute, since that’s what pops up on a hover.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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I want to second the comment above regarding the sudden change in the link editor interface. What is the point of this change? The old link editor gave us the ability to change the text that appeared when hovering over a linked text. Now it simply contains the linked text. This appears to a completely useless change. Please revert to the old link editor.
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I want to third this comment, and I would like a happiness engineer to comment – is this change temporary or permanent?
The wordpress ‘insert link’ help page still shows the old (correct!) dialogue box with the title attribute.
That’s the way we like it. Please change it back!!
I often write technical articles (on medical issues) and a post can have dozens of links to peer reviewed papers, these have to show the full author, paper title, publication and date as a hover pop up. Adding these in the text editor manually takes so much longer now. It has significantly increased my workload for no obvious gain to anyone as far as I can see.
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Thank you timethief! This looks like another case of supporting mobile users while ignoring PC users and serious writers. Very, very disappointing.
Is there a better blogging platform out there that better supports its long-form users? I’m reaching the end of my rope with WP.
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IMNHO this much ado about nothing as there is a workaround provided here https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/link-title?replies=15#post-2402832
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I’m aware of the HTML workaround (I mentioned it above). Given that I use a lot of links in posts, it adds a significant amount of work. Plus the mechanism remembered previous links and title texts, so now i have to create them all from scratch.
The replacement of title attribute with link text adds a useless entry box for me. I never use it, since I always add links after I’ve written the text.
To me that makes it much ado, and the whole thing kind of astonishes me. I really don’t see the upside.
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It’s not much work IMO but if you think it is you are certainly entitled to that opinion. :) I refuse to allow my responses to the frequent and persistent changes here to affect my health so I no longer protest anything.
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We likely have different posting styles. Some of my posts have dozens of links, often repeated links from previous posts, so the list of previous texts was very useful.
It’s certainly not the end of the world, but in the last year or so every change made to WP has not been a favorable one for how I use the tool. All those add up to give me a sense that WP has a different audience in mind than me.
Given that modern life seems to often send me that same message, it just gets kind of old and makes me feel lonely. WP used to feel more like home. Now it feels like fighting with a boss who doesn’t understand what I’m trying to accomplish and who isn’t interested in my opinion. (Something I took early retirement to get away from!)
Oh, well. So it goes.
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Your observations parallel my own and I could not have said it better than you did. I’m quitting blogging entirely this Fall and that means I will no longer be answering questions here.
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That’s a pity. I meant to follow you the first time we interacted but distractions of life, etc. You seem like an interesting, intelligent person — the sort the world has too few of. I’m following you now.
I’ve just done some reading about the title attribute, and I have to admit that I’m in the wrong here (drat). Its use is discouraged for pretty good reason, even ignoring mobile devices. Apparently no browser has implemented a way to access it other than mouse hover, and many users don’t use a mouse. Mobile devices and touch screens just add serious weight to the argument.
It has some value as internal labeling and using it to provide more info for links is about the only places it has any value, and the latter so long as you realize the audience that will ever see the popups is diminishing daily.
Gotta recognize the way the world is, not the way I wish it was!
And gotta admit, foregoing it entirely would make posting a lot easier. Every time I link to a movie, I put the full name, director name, and date, in the title attribute. Every time I link to a famous person, I put in their full name, what they’re known for, and life dates. That’s a lot of work!
Gotta find the bright side of the cloud! :)
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Following me? I think it’s time for me to say goodbye. I blog without obligation ie. only when I have something I feel is worth sharing.
Apparently no browser has implemented a way to access it other than mouse hover, and many users don’t use a mouse. Mobile devices and touch screens just add serious weight to the argument.
That is it in a nutshell. We desktop users seem to be like 3 day old fish. It seems that the mobile users and tablet users posting selfies, etc. are on the radar and we aren’t.
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Heh, I also never post unless I have something to say. The problem is that’s usually always. (I actually have a large backlog of possible posts.)
Asthma and heart issues don’t sound like much fun. I’m facing the big 6-0 in a few months, so I can relate to aging issues. This whole planned obsolescence thing about life seems like bad design to me! :)
Nice picture; like the hair!
Support (a role I played through much of my work career) is indeed addictive and stressful — double whammy. It’s wonderful to feel needed and appreciated; a heady drug, indeed. One of the most wonderful things about retiring (a couple of years ago) was this: No. More. Endless. Questions. I can’t tell you how nice that feels.
I guess us old fish will just have to learn to deal with kids on our virtual lawns and try to be graceful about it. The ancient Greek Stoics had a wonderful metaphor. A dog is tied to a large cart that is going down the road. The dog — like it or not — is also going down that road. It has two choices: be dragged kicking and screaming, which is only hard on the dog (and uncomfortable for observers); or it can be graceful about its fate and walk.
That said, I always figured there was a third option. Walk gracefully, but chew through that rope until you’re free! :D
I’m going to go ahead and change the status of this to Resolved.
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hello! can you please help me by ”liking” my video i need some votes.
https://forests2015.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/youth-speaker-entry-44-nidhal-attia-tunesia/
it’s about a competition on protection forests.
Thank you :)
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