What’s up with images? I stumbled on advanced image features. I don’t mean badly discoverable, but really clearly a UI bug. The features let me resize them and choose between left- and right-justification (and text flowing around them?) and it’s a pity that they’re not widely available. Specifically, I made this comment. First I switched my account to markdown (is there a way to switch a single comment?). I made the comment with the image. I switched my account to wysiwyg. I edited the comment and accepted the option to switch the comment to wysiwyg. At this point I had the resizing ability, but only for the old markdown image and not for new images I added in wysiwyg, either that comment or a comment that started as wysiwyg (the test comment below).
I replicated this procedure with this comment. It started as markdown and I can resize this image:
My apologies; I sometimes lose track of what sorts of technical knowledge is common among the Less Wrong crowd.
“Inline” and “block” are the two types (layout-wise) of elements in HTML (and many other systems). More or less, this means:
An “inline” element appears in the flow of text (a hyperlink, for example, is an inline element)
A “block” element is like its own paragraph (i.e., it’s like a block of text)
All of this is not specific to Less Wrong’s editor, or to any editor or website or anything; it’s just how HTML works.
So an inline image will be inserted right into the middle of a paragraph. A block image will be, basically, its own paragraph.
In a Markdown editor (whether LW’s or GW’s), whether an image is inline or block depends on whether the image syntax is in the middle of some other text, or whether it’s on a line by itself.
There are two ways to insert images, which I agree should be better documented somewhere.
To insert block-level images, you can select a piece of text and press the “image” button, these images will not be resizable.
To insert inline-images you use the markdown syntax of the form (closing parenthesis omitted because otherwise it would get parsed as an image):
. Is image supposed to be on that list? If so, that’s a simple explanation of the bug.
Re the rest: This was advice for the post-editor. For the comment editor we intentionally don’t make it super easy to attach images, since that makes it too easy to disproportionately get more attention than seems good.
We didn’t deactivate images to make it easier for us on the backend and allow arbitrary content-transfer between posts and comments, but that’s why you don’t see that button (you would see it on the post-editor).
What’s up with images?
I stumbled on advanced image features. I don’t mean badly discoverable, but really clearly a UI bug. The features let me resize them and choose between left- and right-justification (and text flowing around them?) and it’s a pity that they’re not widely available. Specifically, I made this comment. First I switched my account to markdown (is there a way to switch a single comment?). I made the comment with the image. I switched my account to wysiwyg. I edited the comment and accepted the option to switch the comment to wysiwyg. At this point I had the resizing ability, but only for the old markdown image and not for new images I added in wysiwyg, either that comment or a comment that started as wysiwyg (the test comment below).
I replicated this procedure with this comment. It started as markdown and I can resize this image:
but not this one:
The difference is that the first image is a block-layout image, and the second is inline.
Thanks, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. Is this documented anywhere? Is this page the best documentation for the editor?
Is your comment even intended for users, or is it a hint for debugging?
My apologies; I sometimes lose track of what sorts of technical knowledge is common among the Less Wrong crowd.
“Inline” and “block” are the two types (layout-wise) of elements in HTML (and many other systems). More or less, this means:
An “inline” element appears in the flow of text (a hyperlink, for example, is an inline element)
A “block” element is like its own paragraph (i.e., it’s like a block of text)
All of this is not specific to Less Wrong’s editor, or to any editor or website or anything; it’s just how HTML works.
So an inline image will be inserted right into the middle of a paragraph. A block image will be, basically, its own paragraph.
In a Markdown editor (whether LW’s or GW’s), whether an image is inline or block depends on whether the image syntax is in the middle of some other text, or whether it’s on a line by itself.
In Less Wrong’s draft.js editor… well, see this comment by habryka.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask me to explain further if anything’s not clear!
There are two ways to insert images, which I agree should be better documented somewhere.
To insert block-level images, you can select a piece of text and press the “image” button, these images will not be resizable.
To insert inline-images you use the markdown syntax of the form (closing parenthesis omitted because otherwise it would get parsed as an image):
We are working on an editor rework that will make this all less confusing, as well as an editor guide that will document behaviors like this better. Sorry for the confusion.
I think that you mixed them up. When I use the markdown syntax, I get full-width, presumably inline images, not block. Whereas when I follow your other instructions...I can’t follow them. When I select text, I don’t get an image button, just (Bold, Italic, Underline, Link | Title, Blockquote). Is image supposed to be on that list? If so, that’s a simple explanation of the bug.
Yes, you’re right. I mixed that up. Fixed.
Re the rest: This was advice for the post-editor. For the comment editor we intentionally don’t make it super easy to attach images, since that makes it too easy to disproportionately get more attention than seems good.
We didn’t deactivate images to make it easier for us on the backend and allow arbitrary content-transfer between posts and comments, but that’s why you don’t see that button (you would see it on the post-editor).