Slack's New Rich Text Editor Shows Why Markdown Still Scares People

Slack's New Rich Text Editor Shows Why Markdown Still Scares People

4 years ago
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https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa7nbn/slacks-new-rich-text-editor-shows-why-markdown-still-scares-people

Slack just updated its longtime editor for its primary interface—and the rich-text result hints at a longstanding tension over how much of a helping hand users need from their text editors and communication programs.

Power users, like programmer Arthur O’Dwyer, make the case that they don’t really need any—and the rich-text interface they added just gets in the way. “I wish Slack would provide a way to disable the WYSIWYG rich-text-input box,” he wrote in a viral blog post. “I don’t think it’s useful, and it’s extremely annoying to have to keep backspacing to fix mistakes.”

Slack's New Rich Text Editor Shows Why Markdown Still Scares People

Nov 21, 2019, 6:33pm UTC
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa7nbn/slacks-new-rich-text-editor-shows-why-markdown-still-scares-people > Slack just updated its longtime editor for its primary interface—and the rich-text result hints at a longstanding tension over how much of a helping hand users need from their text editors and communication programs. > Power users, like programmer Arthur O’Dwyer, make the case that they don’t really need any—and the rich-text interface they added just gets in the way. “I wish Slack would provide a way to disable the WYSIWYG rich-text-input box,” he wrote in a viral blog post. “I don’t think it’s useful, and it’s extremely annoying to have to keep backspacing to fix mistakes.”