"Keep Line Breaks" missing in 3.9.1

I think a couple of different issues are being discussed here.

My issue has nothing to do with toggling between the visual and text editor tabs (although if that removes markup, that seems to me like it’d be a problem — I frequently want to switch over to the text view to check one little piece of HTML, then switch back for ease of use).

My issue, and I think IASWebmaster’s and Philip’s, has to do with the way WordPress handles pasted inputs. The old version had a “keep linebreaks” box that, when checked, made pasted returns render as new paragraphs, and now they just show up as br tags. This specifically is for pasted inputs, not typed input. It’s the same whether using the built-in version of TinyMCE or the TinyMCE Advanced plugin.

The problem is not with switching between visual and text in the editing box, but with the icon for “Paste as Text” (the little clipboard with a T on it)

When clicking this icon, instead of getting a text entry box, with the option to either keep line breaks or turn them off, we now get this message:

“Paste is now in plain text mode. Contents will now be pasted as plain text until you toggle this option off. If you’re looking to paste rich content from Microsoft Word, try turning this option off. The editor will clean up text pasted from Word automatically.”

Either way you try it, this new feature does not work. I would like the option NOT to keep the line breaks as explained above (and as WP used to allow).

Ah, I see. It looks like your issue and mine are related to the same thing — preferring the way the “paste as text” button used to work — but the specific behavior we’re wishing was still there is different.

Do I understand this right — you left the checkbox unchecked in order to render everything as a single paragraph, no p OR br tags, and I checked it in order to force close/open p tags?

I disagree esmi.
My position is the same as that expressed by egable1.
” I frequently want to switch over to the text view to check one little piece of HTML, then switch back for ease of use”
This is an ABSOLUTE requirement – I find it almost impossible NOT to toggle between ‘Visual’ and ‘Text’.
I repeat, this is an absolute requirement.

Regards
Ian

Hello egable1.
You said “you left the checkbox unchecked in order to render everything as a single paragraph, no p OR br tags, and I checked it in order to force close/open p tags? “
What checkbox please?

Regards

Egable1 — yes, exactly. I paste large bits of text often taken from e-mails or PDFs and the new editor treats every single line as a paragraph meaning that I have to go through and manually delete all those paragraph marks. So, when I pasted, I would uncheck the “Keep Line Breaks” option. I’m not sure why my pasting is leading to load of line breaks and yours isn’t, but I think we are on the same page in our displeasure with the new method of pasting.

As for Iansss, I’m unclear on the trouble he is having. I toggle between Visual and Text all the time without trouble.

People – this is not a support forum! If you require assistance then, as per the Forum Welcome, please post your own topic instead of tagging onto someone else’s topic.

Esmi, I am not sure to whom your comment was directed, unless all of us, but this post is categorized as WordPress ? Support ? Requests and Feedback.

So now I am really confused. You asked us to start a new thread for the new version of Word Press. I did. Is there something wrong here? (Other than the fact we still have no answer as to how one can paste choose to eliminate line breaks as in the previous version of WordPress?)

this post is categorized as WordPress ? Support ? Requests and Feedback

Correct. It’s not a support forum for sorting out your current issues. It’s for discussing requests for new features and feedback on existing features in WordPress.

iansss — I think what you’re describing is a different issue from the one we’re discussing in this thread. (The checkbox was in a popout menu that existed until 3.8.3, and isn’t in 3.9 or 3.9.1.) Any issues with toggling between the editor modes is something separate, although I haven’t personally noticed any markup being removed when I toggle back and forth.

IASWebmaster, can you clarify what you mean when you say a paragraph? What kind of tag does it put in —

<br />

or

</p>
<p>

?

I think we’re talking on slightly different wavelengths, because it seems almost like you’re getting the behavior I want and I’m getting the behavior you want, which doesn’t make sense. Do you want ALL markup stripped when you paste in something with returns?

@esmi — I think IASWebmaster and I do both have specific feature requests, as soon as we can make clear what they are. ??

That’s what I thought I did. Still confused.

I will assume that my feedback has been registered and hope that something will be done about the line breaks/pasting issue.

Thank you.

Any issues with toggling between the editor modes is something separate,

Agreed. And as such a new topic needs to be posted in one of the support forums – eg How To & Troubleshooting.

Aha — I tried a few things in a site I own that still has 3.8.3 installed, and now I think I understand what both of our requests are. (IASwebmaster, please correct me if I’m wrong.)

Both have to do with the handling of pasted inputs that contain returns. The current behavior is that they are output this way:

<p>Line one is here. <br />Line two is here. </p>

The old behavior, as of 3.8.3, was that there was a checkbox that yielded two different outputs depending on whether it was checked or not.

If it was checked, this output was delivered (which is what I wanted):

<p>Line one is here. </p> <p>Line two is here.</p>

If it was NOT checked, this output was delivered (which is what IASwebmaster wanted):

<p>Line one is here. Line two is here.</p>

I hope that makes sense.

egable1: sure.

I have an email I want to paste into WordPress on a page. I copy the body of the text.

When I go to paste in WP, it pastes exactly as it looks in the email (with very short lines of text). In the previous version of WP, I could paste this into a box that had the option “Keep Line Breaks” as a tick box. When I unchecked said tick box, the text would go in seamlessly. Now it goes in as many short lines of text. If I Paste and Match Style, there are no tags at all despite the separation of lines of text. If I do a regular Paste, I get tags for all kinds of things I don’t want. Looks like it is treating each line as <span style>

Here’s the most recent example:

<span style="color: #000000;">Subject: CFP: Monographic essay on a work by Giulio Paolini ("In?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">collezione" series, no. 2)</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Deadline: Sep 30, 2014</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">For its “In collezione” series (Italian/English) the Fondazione Giulio?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">e Anna Paolini in Turin, Italy, invites international researchers and?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">scholars with a graduate (i.e. Master's and or Ph.D.) degree in art?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">history or in another area of the humanities to submit their?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">application for the writing of a paid essay on one of the three works?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">by Giulio Paolini indicated below. The length of the text must be from?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">a minimum of 7,000 to a maximum of 10,000 words.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The winning proposal will be selected based on an abstract that must be?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">at least 500 words long to be sent to the Foundation by 30 September?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">2014.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">Candidates may choose from one of the following works:?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">? Senza titolo, 1961</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">???One of the most representative examples of the artist’s early work,?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">it is comprised of a tin of white paint placed on the lower edge of an?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">empty stretcher and held down by a transparent polyethylene sheet?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">stretched across the stretcher like a canvas.?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">? Mimesi, 1975</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">???Two plaster casts of the bust of the Hermes of Praxiteles are?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">arranged opposite each other, just slightly staggered so that their?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">gazes cross. An icon par excellence of Paolini’s art.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">? Delfo (IV), 1997</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">???The fourth variant of a theme begun in 1965 introduces a?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">photographic portrait of Giulio Paolini, taken at a distance as he?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">gazes over the balcony of his home, set inside an enlargement of the?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">same photograph matching the frame of the window.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The “In collezione” series examines the 67 works by Giulio Paolini –?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">paintings, sculptures, installations – executed between 1960 and 2011?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">that currently comprise the Foundation collection. Each volume contains?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">the in-depth study of one work (or the joint study of several related?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">works).</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The monographic studies, accompanied by illustrations, propose a wide?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">range of investigation: from description to interpretation, from formal?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">aspects to conceptual ones, from the position within Paolini’s research?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">to the contextualization within the art-historical field of their time.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The back matter which follows the main text includes the exhibition?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">chronology and bibliography for the work analyzed, as well as?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">additional information and testimonies.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">The Foundation is a non-profit organization whose main purpose is the?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">study and mediation of the activities of Giulio Paolini.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">For further details on the competition and the works concerned, see the?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">corresponding page in the Foundation website at?</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><a href="https://www.fondazionepaolini.it/it/callforpapers.php">www.fondazionepaolini.it/it/callforpapers.php</a><span style="color: #000000;">.</span>

egable1 — yes, exactly. I want the second; you want the first. But I believe the removal of this feature is what is causing problems for both of us.