Rich Text: Remove overridden underline format

[ntsekouras]

Resolves: #94243
Resolves: #71631

From the issue:

Currently the underline format is overridden from core in order to add an option in block's toolbar formats dropdown.

In core this button (alongside with the justify one) were removed years ago. TLDR;

Underline - It introduces a potentially bad user experience issue: readers confusing the underline text with a link. Underlined text is broadly interpreted as web links.

Additionally, right now is buggy, because it doesn't handle the shortcuts for it (Command + U).

This PR removes the overridden format and aligns with core.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the post editor and insert some text in a paragraph
2. Open the formats dropdown in the block's toolbar
3. Observe the Underline format is not rendered
4. Use the shortcut Command+U (Mac) or Ctrl+U (Windows)
5. The text should be underlined and the format active

Before	After

Pre-merge Checklist

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[github-actions]

Calypso Live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-118803

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[matticbot]

This PR modifies the release build for the following Calypso Apps:

For info about this notification, see here: PCYsg-OT6-p2

• wpcom-block-editor

To test WordPress.com changes, run install-plugin.sh $pluginSlug remove/underline-format-override on your sandbox.

[matticbot]

This PR does not affect the size of JS and CSS bundles shipped to the user's browser.

Generated by performance advisor bot at iscalypsofastyet.com.

[Copons]

👋 Hi @ntsekouras!

IMHO, we should not remove the Underline button, but we might want to fix the missing shortcut instead, or even just remove the mention from our docs (since ⌘+U is not supported everywhere like, for example, ⌘+B). 🤔

There was a long discussion many years ago about the Underline and Justify formats (p7jreA-2em-p2#comment-1853), and the long story short, as far as I can remember, was:

• Dotcom classic editor used to support them even after they were removed from Core.
• Users used them consistently.
• Once Gutenberg replaced the Dotcom classic editor, they disappeared.
• HEs received a significant amount of requests about them.
• We decided to add them back to make the Dotcom experience consistent and seamless.

Now, we all agree that they are poor web design choices. I believe Core shouldn't encourage poor web design choices, so it makes perfect sense to remove them from Core.

However, Dotcom is a third-party consumer of Core. If our users want to Underline, we should give them the functionality.

Let me know what you think! 🙂

[ntsekouras]

Thanks for sharing the context!

These discussions seem to have happened around 5 and half years ago. Do you think it's something still needed and widely used? Is there some kind of metric for its usage (although I wouldn't expect one to exist)?

Could it be an opportunity to revisit the underline and even the justify or uppercase formats?

Actually I have already opened a PR to add the shortcut, but ideally we should align with core.

[Copons]

These discussions seem to have happened around 5 and half years ago. Do you think it's something still needed and widely used? Is there some kind of metric for its usage (although I wouldn't expect one to exist)?

Yeah, it all happened around when Core removed those formats.
Unfortunately, we don't record toolbar clicks.

Back then, we only noticed the problem thanks to HEs telling us.
I guess we could give HEs a quick heads-up, tentatively remove the format, see what happens, and revert if folks have really strong opinions about it.

My only concern (fairly minor, to be honest) is that users who underlined their content won't be able to de-underline it anymore without modifying the code.

[ntsekouras]

My only concern (fairly minor, to be honest) is that users who underlined their content won't be able to de-underline it anymore without modifying the code.

That's a valid concern, yes. There will be the shortcut, but they won't probably know about it, since it wasn't working before.. I'd also agree that it doesn't seem very likely, but you never know :)

I guess we could give HEs a quick heads-up, tentatively remove the format, see what happens, and revert if folks have really strong opinions about it.

This sounds like a good plan to me. It shouldn't be that impactful, and if it turns out to be, it's an easy one to revert. I'd leave the decision to you though or if you want to ping more people about it.

[Copons]

Works as advertised!

@ntsekouras, as discussed separately, please give a heads-up to Dotcom HEs about this change. It might not cause any problem, but in the off-chance, they should know who to contact and that it's easily reversible if needed. 🙂

[ntsekouras]

Deployed r303912-wpcom