[ARCHIVED] Creating a bold-text link in the RCE?

[Stef_retired]

I've run across a weird quirk in the RCE. I have a design predilection toward "bolding" my links. So, until recently, I  created my links by:

• typing words in the RCE
• highlighting those words and clicking the B on the RCE
• highlighting the words again to click the Insert Link button to type in the URL.

I then stepped away from course design for about a month.

Upon my return to the world of Canvas this week, I found that following the same sequence--first bolding the words and then creating the link--was having the odd effect of "un-bolding" the link.

I reported this oddity to Canvas support, and here's the short version of what I was told:

I understand that when you bold text, and then highlight it again to create a link, the section Unbolds...This is happening because of the way the RCE formats links into HTML, which requires that it first strips all formatting from the text. As such, if you would like to have bolded links, we just have to reverse the order. First highlight the text and turn it into a link. Once that has been accomplished, you can then highlight the link, and select the bold option. Which will provide you with a bolded link.

So I replied:

The only reason I even reported this is because it is relatively new behavior. In the past, I was able to perform the tasks in the order I mentioned--first bold, then link. I have no problem reversing the order, but just wonder: Has something in the TinyMCE editor recently changed?

And here's the response (again, abbreviated):

I know they made an update to the TinyMCE or at least an update to the code in how Canvas interacts with TinyMCE near the beginning of June. I can not see any mention of a specific change to HTML formatting however.

The beginning of June timing makes sense in my context. Even so, I have a couple of questions:

• Why? The RCE didn't have to strip code away before to create the link, so why does it have to do that now?
• Has anyone else encountered this behavior?
• Is it affecting any of the tutorials you might have created for your faculty (if you had been instructing users to bold a selection first and then create the link)?

I know this is not a big deal, but TinyMCE changes always intrigue me.

[G_Petruzella · Accepted solution]

Hey stefaniesanders​ -

I can't answer the 'why', alas. But I can confirm that I see this behavior as well. I'm fortunate in that my habit has always been to link first, then format, so my workflow (and what I tell others) is unaffected by this. *dodges bullet*

What follows doesn't really answer any of your questions - it's just an observation about a difference... now, the <a> tags TinyMCE creates automatically include some attributes, even when there are no values:

<a id="" class="" title="" href="https://www.google.com/" target="">Google</a>

I think I recall that, previously, an <a> created via GUI didn't include the id, class, title, or target attributes by default.

Could be related, I guess...

[kona]

I'm similar to  @G_Petruzella ​ in that I have no idea why anything changed, but my normal workflow is to link and then format.  *Also dodges bullet** I'm pretty sure that's the way we've explained things in our training documents, but I'll definitely be checking to make sure!

[Stef_retired]

 @G_Petruzella ​, thanks for clarifying the new TinyMCE behavior about assigning the new default target attribute; I had noticed that, but frankly wasn't sure what I was seeing. And  @kona ​, thanks for the :smileyinfo: confirmation of workflow. Link, then format....Link, then format... Link, then format....OK, I think I've got it. :smileysilly:

Seriously, I always love to hear how people handle the RCE.

[gulick_24]

@Stef_retired @G_Petruzella I know this thread was 6 years ago, but I'm having a similar issue. I've tried it both ways (link, then bold; or bold, then link), and while they both appear to work while in the RCE, as soon as I click "SAVE" all bolding disappears. I'm working in Chrome because Firefox constantly scrolls up to the top of the screen with every mouseclick, which is a whole other problem... anyway. Anything I can do to keep bold formatting once I click "save"?

[G_Petruzella]

Hm, how intriguing! I've just tried both ways, in both Chrome 89 and Firefox 86, and it works for me in all cases. I have no plausible suggestion as to why you're seeing that behavior. Wish I had a better answer - I wonder what the HTML looks like, before-and-after saving...

[Stef_retired]

@gulick_24 

I'm not able to recreate this either. Regardless of the order in which I apply the bolding to the text, the desired formatting is always retained upon save. I too am using Chrome. You might want to initiate a support case to see if an agent can help.

Bear in mind that I posted this way back when we were using the old version of the RCE; the editor has been completely revamped since then and became the default RCE earlier this year.

With respect to the pesky cursor jumping issue, I have good news: that's being fixed in the upcoming deploy. Please read through Canvas Deploy Notes (2021-03-17) for details.