Constant bold fail on app

[BitOutOfPractice]

Hi lovely MN people.

I am constantly having bold fail when I try to use the * method. Usually when I’m quoting another MNer. It’s starting to make me look slightly unhinged

I’m on iPhone 6s iOS 11.0.3

Not a massive problem but thought I’d raise it

[TimMumsnet]

Hi there, is this when you're using the '*' in multiple places? Whenever the asterix is used, it will try to find a second to make the contents bold.

Could you show us an example post?

[BitOutOfPractice]

Hello Tim. Here’s an example. It all looked perfect when I pressed “post” but those pesky asterixes (asteri?) don’t seem to stay put

[BitOutOfPractice]

It’s doing it as I try to italicise now. Like I say, this also looked perfect before I pressed send

[TimMumsnet]

Thanks for the screenshots @BitOutOfPractice - I'm still struggling to reproduce exactly how you did this on the app.

I'm assuming you're using asterix and not the 'make bold' button? If you have the chance, could you:

1. Take a screenshot of the written post with asterix etc BEFORE posting
   
2. Then take a screenshot of the post AFTER posting
   

Apologies for the inconvenience, text formatting can be a bit of a minefield...

[BitOutOfPractice]

This is what’s happening on the app today using the make bold button. It doesn’t look like that on the screen when I type it

[daisychain01]

I am also having formatting problems with strike through, which has completely stopped working with the upgraded iOS 11.0.3 on my iPad Air.

Using two hyphens together won’t work because iOS 11 autocorrects and joins the two hyphens into a single line

—embolden Fail—

If you insert a space between them it won’t work either.

Any way of changing it maybe to just one hyphen, not two?

[tygr]

Having same issue with weird bolding and strikethrough not working.

Also on an iPhone SE and using the app.

[daisychain01]

I wonder if iOS 11 works differently on an iPad to an iPhone? I only use an iPad as my mobile is Galaxy Edge and no problems with formatting on the Edge.

[tygr]

bold is ok but occasionally whole sections go bold that look fine in preview.

—does this work—

Can’t make strikethrough work at all.**

[tygr]

Hmm. See random asterisks have appeared at the end.

[BitOutOfPractice]

Not just me then!

[daisychain01]

Oops I just realised I actually meant —Strikethrough Fail— not embolden Fail

Bold is ok because it’s just one asterisk either side.

[tygr]

Here we go. Didn’t screenshot this as was totally fine on preview. I put an asterisk either side of whisky to bold it. This is what happened.

[AaaaaaaarrghmyGMumsnet]

Hello tygr - thanks for this. We'll get tech to look into it, if you're still having the issue?

[tygr]

thanks I’m not sure so this is an experiment.* I just put one asterisk at the start of thanks and one after.*

Let’s see what happens when I post.**

[tygr]

Yup. Still happening

[TimMumsnet]

Hey guys, thanks so much for explaining the issue in detail. The root of the problem is pretty clear now.

I've developed a fix for the strikethrough bug, but the live-bold issue is more complex. Generally, it's really difficult to create a bug-free live preview, because there are so many edge-cases that need to be handled.

One way to resolve all of these bugs, is to remove the live editor, and just show the raw formatting like we do on the web, but I assume people prefer the live editor? Having to press preview every time could be frustrating.

[Mrswinkler]

I have this problem too. Use the bold button then click it off. Next paragraph automatically goes bold. iPhone on the app.

[tygr]

Tim.* Thanks. This is where I test before unleashing my random boldness on the rest of the site.*

Hopefully all working now —or is it?--

[tygr]

Um no. bold. No it appears it’s not working.

Oh dear.

[tygr]

maybe it only goes wonky when the first word is in bold? Is that it site bugs?

[tygr]

I give up

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

[MsJuniper]

I am also having this problem and it is driving me mad.

I find if I post something where I do use asterisks to bold, the rest of the post either has random bold parts or random asterisks which I have definitely not put in.

I can see while I’m writing the rest of the post that this is going to happen because the words flicker into bold and back while typing - particularly if I let the phone autocomplete or autocorrect. There’s nothing I can do to stop it as it all looks fine at the point of posting though.