588571 - Underlining won't stop

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Mark Bilger]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100802 Thunderbird/3.1.2 ThunderBrowse/3.3.2
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 3.1.2

When replying to an email I usually put the cursor after a non-underlined line of text and use the same color but use underline as my reply.  When that message gets to my recipient, they try to re-reply after my underlined reply with a new color WITHOUT underline but underlining continues after my reply and won't go off.  You can even highlight the text and push the underline button and whether the button is on or off, the underline won't ever go away.  All following replies in any colors are also underlined and it still won't go off.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.reply by inserting comments inside a message's text and turn on underline when doing so.
2.send the message to someone who tries to reply right after that underlined text without underline but in another color
3.Thunderbird doesn't stop underlining and you can't turn it off.
4.all replies inserted inside the message after that one will be underlined no matter what you do.
Actual Results:  
Everything stays underlined after the first underlined reply text.  I predict that Thunderbird is putting an HTML "underline on" code at the beginning of the text but doesn't put a "stop underline" HTML code when you push the underline button to stop it.  Almost like the underline button is for "on" only and doesn't have an "off" function.

Expected Results:  
Let me turn off underline anytime I want and let me un-underline text when I highlight the text and press the underline button.  Just like Outlook Express does!

The recipient is using Outlook Express to read and reply.  But I can't turn off underline with Thunderbird either.

I'm not using anything but the initial installation of Thunderbird.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Worksforme, I cannot reproduce this following STR of comment 1.
When replying, I could even hit Enter with cursor in the middle of underlined text and the new line would not be underlined.

I think we have bugs for similar cases where TB is too stubborn about preserving unwanted formatting, but this doesn't seem to be one of these.

Furthermore, in cases where TB gets confused, you can always use Ctrl+Shift+Y to Format > "Discontinue text styles" which will reliably remove all formatting for the any subsequent typing, no matter where and how you start.

Comment 2

[Alex Lindsay]

An old bug, but similar for me. I'm on Thunderbird 38.6.0 (ubuntu 14.04). I copied in text that happened to be a webpage link, and now everything I type after pasting that text in is blue and underlined. Doesn't matter if I use ctrl-u, deselect underlining in the toolbar, deselect blue font in the toolbar, use ctrl-shift-y to "Discontinue text styles"...nothing stops the blue underlined monster!

Comment 3

[veganaiZe]

I'm getting this same (or very similar) bug in Thunderbird 52.2.0 (32-bit) on Windows 8.1 (64-bit).  While composing a new message, if I paste in a link to an HTTP address and then highlight it and select "Insert -> Link...".  And finally paste in the (same) link into the input box and click OK.  The link appears underlined, in blue -- as expected.  It is all alone, on its own line.

If I click just after the end of the link then any new text, on that same line, appears in the hyperlink style as well -- I've tried highlighting the offending text, which causes the Underlined icon to become illuminated/enabled, and then depressing it (the underline button) but it has NO effect and stays lit/enabled.  The text remains formatted and impossible to change in any reasonable manner.

Here is a link to a desktop video recording which demonstrates the "feature"...
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1vf0VJVd6U0c0RlLWVodnJSVkE

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Alex Lindsay from comment #2)
> An old bug, but similar for me. I'm on Thunderbird 38.6.0 (ubuntu 14.04). I
> copied in text that happened to be a webpage link, and now everything I type
> after pasting that text in is blue and underlined. Doesn't matter if I use
> ctrl-u, deselect underlining in the toolbar, deselect blue font in the
> toolbar, use ctrl-shift-y to "Discontinue text styles"...nothing stops the
> blue underlined monster!

Hey Alex and veganaiZe, sorry for the inconvience.
There's a simple trick to stop the blue underlined monster:
Format > Remove Link (Ctrl+Shift+K)

Which actually and reliably terminates/removes all the link magic.

(In reply to veganaiZe from comment #3)
> I'm getting this same (or very similar) bug in Thunderbird 52.2.0 (32-bit)
> on Windows 8.1 (64-bit).  While composing a new message, if I paste in a
> link to an HTTP address and then highlight it and select "Insert ->
> Link...". ... The text remains formatted and
> impossible to change in any reasonable manner.

Maybe reporter in comment 0 was affected by this problem, too, although links are not mentioned in the description.

UX evaluation of the hyperlink behaviour:
Clearly, there are several usability problems here.

1) Link formatting is totally too stubbornly sticky.
- Space after a link doesn't always terminate the link, but certainly should. It's very unlikely for users to insert and format an unfinished link text and then add extra words to the link text. Much less when the link text is actually an URL. Worse, that behaviour is not even consistent, sometimes it's sticky and sometimes not (depending on how link was created?).
- We should examine if we really want to continue the link to continue with cursor placed directly after an existing link. I think not. Interestingly, again the behaviour is not consistent, sometimes it does continue and sometimes it doesn't (not sure why).
2) There's an UX-discovery problem how to terminate/remove link formatting.
- "Insert link" VS "Format > Remove Link" are on different menus, which might be formally correct, even necessary, but odd. Perhaps a tooltip about terminating/removing the link on the insert > Link menu could help.
- Context menu on a (partially/completely) selected link shows nothing at all about the link, neither editing nor terminating/removing. Very odd.
- We might even consider some more sophisticated bubbles which appear automatically with options around the link, when links are selected or have just been typed/inserted.

All of the above needs new bug(s) and more detailed analysis...

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Link UX problems continued:

3) Bug 210787 - Link & hover CSS color for links are ignored while composing: default blue textcolor (display error violating UX-wysiwyg, gets sent correctly)

Comment 6

[veganaiZe]

Thank you Thomas D!  The next menu ('Format') has all of the features that I need:

-> Discontinue Text Styles  Ctrl+Shift+Y
-> Discontinue Link  Ctrl+Shift+K
-> Remove Named Anchors  Ctrl+Shift+R

...I hadn't noticed those.

I've tested in Thunderbird 52.2.0 (32-bit) and it works for my issue. 

Maybe something similar could be added to the context-menu?