Markdown Editor in forum behaves incorrectly with code blocks

Michael Taylor 51,346

I'm trying to provide answers to questions in the forum and I often need to add links or code. The only way I've found to get this to work correctly is to switch to the markdown view in the editor. The problem is that then some common editor keys don't work anymore.

For example I'm in markdown mode right now. I type the start of a code block with the quotes and then put the closing quotes as well. Then go back to the starting quotes and down arrow. It jumps below the entire code block.

At other times when trying to put code into code blocks the up/down arrow keys just cause the caret to disappear. It's like the arrow keys are jumping to another part of the post (or perhaps elsewhere). You have to click with the mouse to where you want to go. This happens intermittently.

Additionally the delete key doesn't always work correctly either. Sometimes it does nothing and other times I've seen it delete entire lines or even the beginning of the line.

Overall the markdown editor with code is highly unreliable. I find it easier to type my code in VSCode or similar and then paste it in.

TP 83,971 Reputation points

2023-01-19T16:21:54.23+00:00

+1 I'm seeing same thing as well. The rich text view has other weird behaviors too. One example, if you have a link and you try to select text that includes the link, it automatically displays the popup link editor dialog and effectively blocks you from selecting.
Anonymous

2023-01-19T16:23:24.8533333+00:00

Agree with all of this. Also switching the view from markdown to rich and back causes unexpected modifications as well. I've found it's better to do the edits in notepad and paste it all in in one block but even so you may need to strip out the code block delimiters at top and bottom.
Joel Martinez 96 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-01-19T16:25:55.69+00:00

Hey folks ... really appreciate the feedback on this. We're actively reviewing and triaging this and other feedback/issues, so please keep it coming :)
Rich Matheisen 45,906 Reputation points

2023-01-19T20:30:57.8433333+00:00
Here's another one! If you open a code block and then paste code into the code block, it creates a second code block inside the first one!
Anonymous

2023-01-19T20:34:05.4766667+00:00

And if you try to create more than one quote in same comment or answer it duplicates both quotes and replies.
Rich Matheisen 45,906 Reputation points

2023-01-19T20:34:57.23+00:00

In a code block, there's no choice for just "PowerShell" as a "Development Language". There's an "Azure PowerShell", though.
TP 83,971 Reputation points

2023-01-20T21:07:24.02+00:00

Another one: It doesn't let you remove a link if the text is a URL. For example, in Rich text view if you have https://contoso.com and you click the Remove button on the popup to remove the link, it will keep the link and just decrease the number of characters that are part of the link. If you repeat the process, the number of characters that are part of the link gets smaller and smaller. If you remove it via Markdown, it will just make it a link again.
Adam Dunn 0 Reputation points

2023-01-26T16:51:34.22+00:00

@Michael Taylor - I am trying to reproduce your original bug, and I'm having a tough time doing so. You mentioned you were in markdown mode? Did you mean rich text mode? Do you think you might be able to rephrase your repro steps for me by chance?
Adam Dunn 0 Reputation points

2023-01-26T16:53:51.12+00:00

@Anonymous - Do you think you might be able to help me repro your bug as well by rephrasing the steps? We have made room for it in our backlog, but haven't been able to reproduce it. Thanks for any help you can give!
Michael Taylor 51,346 Reputation points

2023-01-26T17:07:55.0433333+00:00

@Adam Dunn which issue are you having an issue with? For the editor messing up links I post a new answer/comment. The editor is in its default mode where View Markdown is not set. I guess that is Rich Text mode? Here if I put in a markdown style link by typing square bracket, text, squarebracket, parens and then paste a URL inside the parens it mangles it. I then switch to markdown using View Markdown and fix the link. Inside the parens it appears the editor wrapped the URL in brackets.

As for the code bugs it happens in the markdown editor (View Markdown is enabled). I type the start of a codeblock using three tilda and three more on a separate line. I then move inside the code block and type a line or two of code. If I try to use the arrow keys then crazy stuff happens. For example today I had a multi-line code sample and I was at the top of the block. I pressed down arrow to move to next line and it jumped below the codeblock. I ended up having to use mouse to put the caret where I wanted.
Adam Dunn 0 Reputation points

2023-01-26T17:10:14.3+00:00

Folks, thank you for this feedback! These last two weeks are the first time this editor has been in front of such a large and engaged audience. We are continuing to triage these items, and work on them.
TP 83,971 Reputation points

2023-01-26T18:29:37.69+00:00

@Adam Dunn I just found another one. I posted a comment with two URLs, the links work fine in the comment on the forum, but in the notification email that was sent out the first link had extra text appended to it which made it broken
Anonymous

2023-01-26T19:30:21.4933333+00:00

Testing quoted text 1 Testing quoted text 1 Testing quoted text 1 Testing quoted text 1 answer 1
Testing quoted text 2 Testing quoted text 2 Testing quoted text 2 Testing quoted text 2 answer 2
Anonymous

2023-01-26T19:34:34.87+00:00

@Adam Dunn I just did another quick test here above. You can see in the screenshots below what I started with then with subsequent switches from Rich to Markdown and back it duplicates seemingly forever and the submit munges it all together.

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Markdown Editor in forum behaves incorrectly with code blocks