Twice now I’ve told you about a bug in a WordPress upgrade that complicates adding links. They made a tiny hyperlink fix.
Most bloggers know that adding links can help their blogs. Sometimes, it adds more credibility in the form of citing sources. But it can also inspire more visits as linked sites may sometimes return the favor, sending some of their visitors to you. It looks like WordPress took one small step toward a hyperlink fix in a problem that recently popped up.
Until recently, you could easily add them and specify whether they should open in the same window or a new one.
I described the problem with illustrations about two months ago. But in a nutshell, until the bug popped up, you could enter a URL for a hyperlink and check a box to indicate whether to open the link in a new tab or the same tab in the same little popup. The change removed the checkbox. This meant you had to place the hyperlink, then hover over it, click and reopen the hyperlink popup, click an edit icon, then click the checkbox.
That’s four extra steps for no good reason.
I hoped WordPress 6.4 would address the issue. But after downloading it, I found no sign of a fix.
Now there’s a minor improvement…but not a true fix
I suppose I shouldn’t complain about an improvement to the problem. But it’s that the problem is so ridiculous and so annoying that it should never have been allowed to pop up to begin with. On top of that, once it did pop up, whatever caused it should have been addressed right that minute.
Instead, the developer or developers who caused this have just allowed people to deal with a problem they shouldn’t have to deal with at all.
They’ve now eliminated two of the four extra steps they caused. Now, when you place a hyperlink, you can hover over it, click to reopen the edit window and there’s now the checkbox right there:
That saves a couple of needless steps, at least. But you still have to place the link, then hover, then reopen it to get to that checkbox.
A partial fix is better than no fix at all. But a complete fix is best of all.
I’m hoping WordPress developers realize that.
