Closed Bug 535475 Opened 15 years ago Closed 3 years ago

After pasting a table I am unable to leave table editing mode

Categories

(Core :: DOM: Editor, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
DOM: Editor
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1674359

People

(Reporter: gmcfoley, Unassigned)

References

Details

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5 (.NET CLR 4.0.20506)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091204 Thunderbird/3.0

After pasting a table into the Write window of Thunderbird, I am unable to leave table editing mode.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make a table in MS WORD or OneNote.
2. Copy the table.
3. Paste the table into the Write window in Thunderbird. (Must be the first content added to the message.
Actual Results:  
From that point on I can find no way of adding content outside the table.
I agree with this user, I am running windows XP and can reproduce this.

More problem detail:

Reproduce:

1) Paste a table into a blank Thunderbird mail (such as a selection of cells from Excel.) You are now locked into this table. Editing anything before or after the table then appears to be impossible.

2) Paste a table at the end of a composted Thunderbird mail. You will now find that you may not add additional text following that table.

Solution:

1) Create a method of both table entry and table exit. This way users can exit the table-edit mode and re-enter if needed.

2) A) Alter tab behavior (shift-tab as well). If you tab in the last cell of a table, it should create a new line below the table. If you shift-tab in the first cell, it should create a new line above the table.
B) Create a new button, much like that of the delete row button which will add a new row to the table.

3) Force all tables to have line-feed trails and leads which cannot be removed.
Unfortunately composer editor doesn't do more than you tell it to.
(and when it does make assumptions, it is usually wrong.)

The problem here is that there are no focusable html elements there to move to
(just the pasted/or inserted table.)

Until we get a new or completely re-worked editor there will always be problems.
In this case try the following:
When you start the composition, hit enter twice.
Arrow up once, then do your paste or insert | table

This should put a BR element before and after your table.

Another approach is to use Edit |Select all ..then Insert HTML and manually
add the br's where desired.

I'm marking this as new, although there could be a dupe somewhere as this
behavior has been around for at least 7 years.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
I can confirm this.
The composer is a part of thunderbird that makes me think of changing my email app.
Is this issue really so low on the list of things needing fixed that nearly two years go by and not only is it still an issue but whether its a bug is questioned? This is a major issue and is most certainly a bug. It is definitely not expected nor should it be expected that if you paste a table into an e-mail you will become locked from editing anything beyond that table.

Now while I don't personally know much about the TB code, I can't imagine it being difficult to see if a user clicks outside the bounds of an html element. Why not change it to where if a user double-clicks beyond the LAST element that a new line is added?
(In reply to spam from comment #5)

> Now while I don't personally know much about the TB code, I can't imagine it
> being difficult to see if a user clicks outside the bounds of an html
> element. Why not change it to where if a user double-clicks beyond the LAST
> element that a new line is added?

Certainly, there is a problem here.
Is it a bug in the Thunderbird code..Probably not.
Thunderbird uses certain Mozilla core code (in this case core:Editor) to compose in HTML. That code is also used in other applications (Firefox and others) and sometimes the goals clash.
Maybe something can be done with TB's html edit rules to fix this outside of the core code.
If there is a test which reproduces this bug in the Midas Demo, please move this to Core::Editor.
Steps to reproduce in the midas demo:
Go to the sample table code here:
http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_table_test
Highlight the "results" table displayed on the right
Ctrl+c then Ctrl+v to paste into the midas compose window
Position the cursor into one of the cells by left-click the mouse

You are now stuck there unless you know that you must edit the raw html and add a br tag or something to focus on.
Component: Message Compose Window → Editor
OS: Windows Vista → All
Product: Thunderbird → Core
QA Contact: message-compose → editor
Version: unspecified → Trunk
It's been over four years since this bug has been reported. Why not fix it?
same as bug 192359?
I have abandoned thunderbird years ago because of it's composer bugs. Looks like this ancient bug is still open. This bug should go to school this year.
One work around is to:
- press ctrl-a and ctrl-x to select the whole message and cut it
- press enter to create a blank line
- left arrow to move before it
- and finally ctrl-c to paste back the message followed by the blank line.
well, I have only to add, that today, thursday 31th may 2016 the problem is still unsolved at least in TB 44.n.n

best greetings to all of you (using bugzilla today the first time)
(In reply to Joc from comment #13)
> One work around is to:
> - and finally ctrl-c to paste back the message followed by the blank line.
Just found this bug, and somewhat shocked to find it's so old.
Thanks for the work-around though.  Shouldn't that be ctrl-v though? ctrl-c will probably overwrite what you've just carefully cut.
Hi,

you're right, one need to press ctrl-v to paste back the content! I normally use shift-del and shift-ins. Here's the work around corrected:

One work around is to:
- press ctrl-a and ctrl-x to select the whole message and cut it
- press enter to create a blank line
- left arrow to move before it
- and finally ctrl-v to paste back the message followed by the blank line.
See Also: → 409766
Blocks: 1525576

(In reply to Joc from comment #16)

Hi,

you're right, one need to press ctrl-v to paste back the content! I normally
use shift-del and shift-ins. Here's the work around corrected:

One work around is to:

  • press ctrl-a and ctrl-x to select the whole message and cut it
  • press enter to create a blank line
  • left arrow to move before it
  • and finally ctrl-v to paste back the message followed by the blank line.

Glad I'm not the only one who stumbled across this issue. The workaround seems like the logical thing to do, but I am astonished to find this bug still unresolved.

It's steel exist. On Ubuntu 18.04 TB 68.8 x64

Windows 10, still exists.. TB 78.8
And frankly, this is a stupid bug to not be fixed.

Just leaving a comment to say this issue still exists, the work around is to create blank lines by hitting enter a few times and then inserting a table between them so that I can use the blank lines later to insert text. I always forget, and have to copy/delete the table, and then do the steps mentioned above. Very annoying for living in 2021 to need something like this.

Still exist in 78.13.0 (64 bit) Ubuntu. Maybe you can add this "enter" when someone paste table? if (part_of_clipboard == "<table") clipboard .= "\r\n" ? If it can not be done better for so many years? Or add some context menu at right click "get out of table, add new line" ?

Clearly I'm ranting now, but whatever...
Yeah it's more important anyhow to regularly rearrange the GUI and whatnot instead of fixing the real issues and giving the product the love it deserves. This is not the only thing.
It's frustrating.

QA Whiteboard: qa-not-actionable

Just thought I'd find out how to do this as clearly there must be a way to do it by now. How foolish of me! Please fix bugs that actually stop users doing what they need to do rather than add features they don't need.

We've heard you, frustrated Thunderbird users! Sorry for the inconvenience, but please remain respectful. Please note that this bug is an age-old issue in Core: Dom: Editor, which is technically outside Thunderbird territory. That said, Thunderbird's message editor is indeed much affected, and yes, we'd expect better in 2021 (although in the big scheme of bugs, this isn't among the biggest painpoints...). So coming from Thunderbird triage, I will try to get some traction on this in the most recent duplicate, bug 1674359, which has a perfectly reduced testcase and was recently filed by Mirko who's involved in this area, so it has recent activity and the right people on board. Let's avoid whining there so that they can focus on finding a solution.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(masayuki)
Hardware: x86 → All
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE

Sorry, that needinfo wasn't supposed to go here.

Flags: needinfo?(masayuki)
No longer blocks: 1525576
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