comment box boldface/italics/links on an iPhone

February 1, 2013 1:45 PM

Is there any way to make boldface/italics/links easier when posting comments from an iPhone?

I can't be the only person with this problem. I highlight part of my comment, and then the "cut/copy/paste" balloon covers up the boldface/italic/link buttons. And then I have to try and nudge the screen ever so slightly to get the buttons on the screen but not have them overlap the cut/copy/paste balloon AND not have it unselect the text. Half the time I just give up. Dunno if there's actually a way to address this, but I thought I'd maybe get your thoughts on the matter.

posted by Afroblanco to Bugs at 1:45 PM (20 comments total)

Heartily seconded!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:50 PM on February 1

When this happens, I just truncate the text, to get that button to show up. If I'm quoting someone and wanting to use italics and this happens, I just surround the text with quote marks instead.

Not a fix, but a workaround.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:52 PM on February 1

Are you holding the phone in landscape orientation? You might try flipping temporarily to portrait and see if you get the cut/copy/paste balloon in a different position.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:56 PM on February 1

I'm talking about portrait. Landscape doesn't work at all. There's barely even room for the buttons.
posted by Afroblanco at 1:59 PM on February 1

Are you holding the phone in landscape orientation?

Sonavagun, I've having trouble doing it in portrait; landscapes's much less hassle for me, at least.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:59 PM on February 1

There's barely even room for the buttons.

There's not a lot of room there, but I'm just wondering if a temporary switch will let you click the button you want. Then you could go right back.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:02 PM on February 1

Also, I've found that once you've selected some text you can pinch/zoom the page to clear the cut/copy/paste balloon. It doesn't need to be a big zoom, just a slight change will clear the balloon without deselecting your text.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:05 PM on February 1

I'm typing this on my phone while in landscape and I'm not having particular trouble using the buttons, including pasting in a link. I wonder what we're doing differently.
posted by rtha at 2:21 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

I usually set the italics or bold before I type or paste the text. That seems to work pretty well, although it requires a bit of preplanning.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:22 PM on February 1

Or, to be fair, annoyed erasing and rewriting.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:23 PM on February 1

I just type the html.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:31 PM on February 1

rtha--I'm with you. I don't encounter this problem on my iphone. I HAVE DISCOVERED MY SUPERPOWER.
posted by phunniemee at 2:48 PM on February 1

I think, but am not certain, that Afroblanco's a dude and y'all are chicks? So, finger/hand size?
posted by Diablevert at 3:15 PM on February 1

I wonder about that too, Diablevert - not the is Afroblanco a dude (he is, I've met him) and am I chick (yep) thing, but yeah, hand size. I do mostly use my thumbs, which, while not HUGE, are bigger than my fingers.

In short, my digits are a land of contrasts.

But here's how I do it:

Typetypetype oh I wanna link something here

So I go get the URL

Then I go back to mefi's text box, click the link thingy, paste in the URL, and when it refreshes to the text box again, the cursor is sitting where it should if I'm gonna type something that will linkify (like the "pasting a link" text in my comment above) so I just type the text. Proof, preview, post.
posted by rtha at 3:26 PM on February 1

I'm not a woman and I also happen to have large "piano beast" hands and I've never noticed this problem on my iPhone.
posted by Doleful Creature at 4:32 PM on February 1

Tagged
posted by dfriedman at 10:41 PM on February 1

Seems easy....
posted by dfriedman at 10:42 PM on February 1

I think putting the formatting buttons on the left would help. I have this problem all the time on the iPhone.
posted by empath at 3:28 AM on February 2

The buttons don't come anywhere near the test box for me. But it's also much easier to click B/I first instead of typing first and then highlighting -- mostly because highlighting text is an absolute pain.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:48 AM on February 2

You could also use the < and > buttons, just type <b>some bold text</b> for example. Gets easier with practice.
posted by arto at 6:25 PM on February 2