Petition to remove the Inline Linking tool from WP 4.5

Another irritation besides the fact that the link tool doesn’t go away: I use the Link Options area (under the gear icon) all the time, to set things like opening in a new tab/window, and rel=nofollow.

There is some code that appears in the link area by default:

_wp_link_placeholder

This text appears in the link area, and it doesn’t go away when you input a URL, you need to first highlight or double click the placeholder text, delete it, then enter your URL.

This new inline link tool has added several additional clicks, so it fails any measure of usability.

I hadn’t seen that, AUMW-Jay, but this release doesn’t seem as stable as the previous few, and the new “features” aren’t proving to be worth the bother, in my opinion.

fix??? My clients are pissed and now I’m having to debug 4.5 code on a fri night… I’ll post the fix when I get it

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/ticket/36637

:0 Turned out to be 5% user-error, 90% lack of UX/scope, and 5% lack of real-world QC IMO.

I am having identical issues to AUMW-Jay — the inline link toolbar does NOT go away after creating a link and obscures text, and the link options area appears with the _wp_link_placeholder text requiring clicking and highlighting. The update has added multiple extra steps to creating any link, and is messing terribly with my workflow.

Before every WordPress release team release Beta 1,2,3… and then Release Candidates so people could test new features and provide feedback so if there are any issues so we could it. So if this feature made it to the release then majority of people weren’t facing this issue.

But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the people who are facing this issue. But reverting this feature isn’t the solution. You guys can share as much details as you have and how to reproduce and if there’s a pattern in your sites so we could fix these bugs and improve this feature, instead of just deleting it.

Reverting it will be going backward instead of going forward and creating something awesome. For now, you should be able to use the old link tool by clicking on the ‘Text’ editor.

That’s just my humble opinion and I understand your frustration. Let’s wait for 4.5.1 Beta and hope it will fix it. ??

So, there’s a few of you reporting the link box not going away, not just those of you posting here.

I’ve not seen anyone able to reproduce it, so I’m wondering if y’all would like to provide some extra details to help troubleshoot this and see if we can get to the bottom of it.

For the record, the link dialog box not going away isn’t related to the ticket #36637, which is about the default link text showing up in the box ??

OK, so what data is of interest;
– What OS are you using (Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS-X Yosemite, Ubuntu etc.)
– What browser are you using (please include version numbers where possible, these are usually found via the Help menu under About)
– Are you running any browser add-ons, if so which, and can you reproduce the problem when running the browser in safe mode/incognito/without any extensions
– Have you made sure that your antivirus isn’t accidentally picking up and preventing execution of parts of the WordPress JavaScript files (try disabling your AV for 10 minutes and see if the problem remains)

The link box not going away is happening to me on Windows 10
Using Chrome 49.0.2623.112 m
It does still happen in incognito mode.
Extensions enabled: lightshot, avast, google docs and its related extensions, pin it button, adblock plus.
It still occurs with adblock plus disabled.
It still occurs with avast antivirus disabled.

@ Hardeep Asrani, What is so great to some, it’s hell to some. No it’s not a great feature. It’s a great feature to you and a handful of other users. It’s a nightmare to me and to a handful of other users. And because of that this thing should be at least optional OR enriched with the buttons which we need… open in new window and nofollow.

It’s not just a matter of the thing being buggy. It a workflow breaker to many. Change it or remove it. Removing it’s not an option? Fine, change it to meet all users needs.

P.S. I don’t think it’s right to say what is backward and forward. What is forward to you is backward to others.

I don’t like this inline link editor either, but I understand that it’s a part of making user experience better. Every change makes a lot of people happy/sad and it’s just about getting used to it. It’s added to make this process faster and you will find it useful once this issue is fixed.

And it’s an open source community. WordPress is managed by people, just like you and me, so just like Jan said, “The WordPress development does not occur in a vacuum. If you have a site that you depend on then please, take it upon yourself and get involved.”

I’m not a God. I’m just another user, like you and everyone involved in this thread.

And the biggest issue here is, we are not able to reproduce this issue. So it will be helpful to get as much feedback as possible so we all could reproduce this issue. I tried on several installations and it worked just fine, so I’ll keep trying from my side to see if I could reproduce this issue.

Hope I didn’t come up as rude or negative. ??

I found a way to reproduce (and fix the issue) – I use the Rel Nofollow Checkbox plugin on all my sites. Toggling this plugin on/off makes the issue appear or not.

I’m guessing there are other plugins which also trigger the same failure issue.

See, we made some progress. That plugin was last updated 12 months ago, so yea, it needs some updating after 4.5. ??

AUMV-Jay. Thanks, you are right… that fixes the issue to me too. But much remain against the thing. In my case, the need to make the link open in a new tab leads me to a new and unnecessary click. And using mostly external links I don’t have a auto-completion anymore. Not if I don’t go through that second click.

Maybe you can suggest adding an open new checkbox in that box. That is something a log of users will find useful. And it’s a new feature so wait sometime and developers will create plugins to extend this feature. Hope it’s working on your decide too. Let’s see how it goes for other. ??