Looks like on August 15, we'll all be forced into the WYSIWYG editor. :(

[Seweryn Kalemba]

@Adrian @tzsebe Thanks a lot!

I can share you unpublished version if you would be keen on testing it before publishing to marketplace. It may have some minor bugs since it was created in the span of couple hours :D 

Let me know if you're interested.

[tzsebe]

Thanks for clarifying those things, I'm glad markdown pasting will still work. Not sure I'd I'd continue without it. :)

[tzsebe]

@Caity Thanks for fielding all the questions. :)

IMO there absolutely needs to be a way to paste markdown INTO the field. Without that, it doesn't meet the MVP bar.

It's extremely common for me to be writing some notes separately (in notepad or similar), in a markdown-esque format (really just nested bullets), and quickly pasting it into Trello when I'm done. It's just quick and easy to make local edits that way (e.g. if I'm taking notes during a phone call or something).

I guess I can look into using a chrome extension like PasteHuman, but the fact that I have to do that to work around this is really disappointing. This is equivalent to making backwards-incompatible, breaking changes to an API.

Speaking of which, another question: What about writing card descriptions using the API? Will that at least continue to support markdown?

[Caity]

Hi @mnicky, happy to try to explain this!

Both of your interpretations are correct—there are separate editors involved and separate ways of formatting text.

If you've use other Atlassian products, you might have noticed that they use a version of the same WYSIWYG editor as Trello. That editor is built to use Atlassian Document Format rather than Markdown.

I know it's disappointing to lose full Markdown support, and I've created a feature request ticket for the team at Atlassian that's responsible for the editor to let them know that there's interest in full Markdown support. To be totally straightforward, I don't think it's likely that they they'd be able to add this in the near future, but it's on their radar.

[Caity]

Hi Anthony, I'm not sure what question hasn't been answered yet. I thought that the question in this page was whether Trello would add a way to continue using Markdown, and I've tried to be very clear that, no, we are moving forward with removing the Markdown editor, and we will not be reversing this decision. I wouldn't want to mislead you into thinking otherwise.

I have seen some questions pop up about copying Markdown, so I want to make sure everyone knows that the new editor has a "View Markdown" option to help you copy the raw Markdown if you'd like to copy or move the content out of Trello.

Although I didn't see any other direct questions about this change, there were some other statements made above that I'm happy to take some time to clarify.

Regarding the behavior you described when copying from a spreadsheet, I agree that isn't how that should work. In fact, that was reported as a bug and fixed last year, and I'm not able to replicate it myself. If you're still seeing it, I would encourage you to file a bug report. However, I don't believe it would be considered to be a GDPR violation, as the attachment could immediately be deleted.

Finally, regarding the suggestion that the only reason so few people are using the new editor is because the only way to turn it off is on the Labs page, this wasn't always the case. Originally, Trello initially included a link in the card description to turn off the new editor. That link wasn't removed until more than 99% of users had switched to using the new editor.

Hopefully all of these points are clear now. I understand that it's disappointing that you won't be able to continue using Markdown, and I hope the "View Markdown" option I shared above will help you with this transition.

[JD]

@Seweryn Kalemba 

You're amazing!  I was fine with dealing without it for comments, but the fact that you got it working is awesome.  Can't thank you enough.

[Seweryn Kalemba]

@Adrian Williams A quick update for you. I was able to make this work too for comments. Check out the latest version and let me know how does it work for you.

[Beatrix Paal]

@Caity 

You said earlier in this thread that there was a button to download markdown.  Maybe on July 19 that was true.  It's not there anymore, at least for me.

July 19 was still in the good old days when you could simply turn off the WYSIWYG editor if you spent enough time and energy on digging up how.

Now it's September 19 and the only option is to watch and experience the growing pains of Trello engineers as they discover that writing a good and reliable WYSIWYG editor that does not piss users off is synonymous with futility

RN the editor actually does LESS than basic markdown. But looking into my crystal ball I see how it will get "improved" in the future.  And turned into a bloated mess that is completely contrary to the Trello philosophy (Well, the philosophy that originally got Trello started and that got lost when the company was sold)

[cklvdigital]

I hate this change.

In my team, people have stopped formatting their cards because nobody wants to use the WYSIWIG editor. This makes Trello increasingly worthless.

[JD]

After looking at an exported board data set, it appears that -- for the time being -- they're still storing the data in Markdown format, or converting it on-demand.

But you're right.  This stinks of a precursor to moving to a new proprietary format.

[JD]

@Greger 

"The entire purpose of __Markdown__ itself is to __not need an editor__."

Very well said.

And I didn't want to block quote this whole bit, but the WYSIWYG editor is refusing to let me make my own text "Normal Text"  Blah.  If only this supported Markdown.

[Robin S]

Thanks,
works great. Regarding the enlarged card view: This should be parameterizable, like doubling or trippling the original size or some percentage. Right now it stretches from left to right which is not useful on a large screen.

[Caity]

@tzsebe OK, yes, I was able to confirm that Markdown in descriptions added via the API will still format properly.

[Adrian Williams]

@storizzi Check out the extension created by @Seweryn Kalemba 

There's no Safari version but opening up Chrome is surely less of a stretch than switching back and forth between your desktop and phone.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/better-trello/dnhdnenpngcecekbhklemaidbdpibiae

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-discussions/Looks-like-on-August-15-we-ll-all-be-forced-into-the-WYSIWYG/m-p/2785550#M4048

[storizzi]

The mobile app doesn't have a markdown editor yet (thank goodness) so you can always use that. I am relying on it. I have quite a complex workflow and if I edit anything using the desktop app now, it messes up the workflow completely. What I do is copy on my mac and paste into the card on my iPhone.

Yes, I know it's ridiculous, but otherwise I have to abandon my workflow that I took three years to develop.

Yes, I hate this arbitrary decision.

No I am not surprised, because Atlassian bought them. Any acquisition ends up with this kind of thing, trust me. I've been through many on the receiving end in my career.

But it has kicked me up the proverbial to create my own simplified kanban app, and start moving the workflow over to there - because once the editor comes to the mobile, I have no chance.

Still, on the upside, that's one less subscription that I'll have to pay for!

Kind of feel like an idiot plowing three years into an ecosystem that could disappear at any time due to one stupid little change like this tbh.

[Caity]

@Beatrix Paal When you mention downloading Markdown, are you referring to the button to view Markdown? That's still available here:

[Beatrix Paal]

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-discussions/Looks-like-on-August-15-we-ll-all-be-forced-into-the-WYSIWYG/m-p/2802863#M4089

That.  Huge L.

[Seweryn Kalemba]

@JD Thank you for these kind words! I'm glad I could help with small effort. :)

[Adrian Williams]

One remaining frustration is that even with the extension we can't have the markdown editor for comments.

I took a look at the extension and Trello's javascript and I see it would be non-trivial to get an override working for comments.

I'll give it some more thought but don't immediately have any good suggestions for making it work.

[Seweryn Kalemba]

@tzsebe Happy to hear that. Also, I will fix these kind of issues in the coming days.

[Caity]

@tzsebe It should still work when creating card descriptions using the API; I'll confirm this on Monday and follow up.

I was looking into the pasting behavior, and I was incorrect in one of my previous statements—it actually is possible to paste Markdown into the editor and have it format properly, but it depends on what's copied and how.

If you're pasting Markdown from a plain text editor into the Editor, it will convert to formatted text automatically. However, if you've written Markdown in a rich text editor, then it will copy over exactly because it's considered to already be formatted.  The workaround for that is to use the option to paste without formatting (e.g., shift + cmd or ctrl + v). A little clipboard icon will show up, and from there you can select whether you want to paste as plain text or as Markdown. It's definitely a bit tedious—if possible, I'd suggest switching to plain text mode in the other app so you don't have to bother with that step.

If that doesn't match what you're seeing, could you please share some more details about where you're copying from so we can troubleshoot?

@RichardJECooke Want to make sure you see this as well as I gave you the wrong information earlier, apologies! Would you please try this out and let me know if it works for you?

[Caity]

@Anthony Smith For your questions 1, 2, and 4, I've already addressed these, so I won't be repeating my answers here. If there are new questions about how to use the new editor or otherwise adjust to this change, I'm happy to help with those.

For # 3, the expected behavior, which I'm able to reproduce, is that it should copy the text from the cell and not upload an image. If you're seeing something different, submitting a bug report, which it sounds like you've already done, is definitely the way to go.

[Caity]

I understand you're really disappointed by this change, and I know that it must feel frustrating that you won't be able to continue to use Trello for your workflow. I've passed along this feedback to the editor team. However, we've made this decision very carefully, and we're fully committed to this change. 

[Caity]

Hi @Juan Ochoa, we have some more info on exporting from Trello here: https://support.atlassian.com/trello/docs/exporting-data-from-trello/