Add style to text before writing it

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

To add style to text, first it has to be written.

Describe the solution you’d like

Using the already existing keyboard shortcut (for example CTRL+B )before writing should make the typed text bold until I press the shortcut again.

33 Likes

Describe the bug

I am unable to format the text while or pre typing

Context

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Say I want to bold a sentence,

in other platforms I can ctrl + b on a blank screen to toggle bold mode on

then plainly write the wanted sentence,

ctrl + b to turn off bold mode.

but it is not the case for Anytype.

Here, I have to drag to select then change the format, building extra step and being counterintuitive.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

  • OS: Windows10
  • Device: Lenovo
  • Version: 0.17.2
8 Likes

That’s weird, I could have sworn formatting hotkeys worked this way at some point…

2 Likes

@Oshyan Agreed, I’m almost sure it used to work before. Strange.

2 Likes

@BGray

@Oshyan

Just wanted to add that I’m on the Windows version of AnyType and I’ve been unable to pre-format text since I downloaded it.

1 Like

I asked for this in october https://community.anytype.io/t/-/1002

It has never worked for me.

2 Likes

@marcoccio Oh yeah, this post reminded me of yours, which I had liked earlier. That’s why I guess I thought it used to work. This post is a duplicate then.

2 Likes

@Eleanor Hey! This feature not implemented in Anytype yet

2 Likes

Describe the bug

Bold, Italics and Inline Code block shortcuts are not working unless a text selection is made

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

    1. Open a page
    1. Start a text block and Press <CTRL+B> to toggle bold

Expected behavior

Within a text block, the shortcuts should work with or without a text selection to toggle the formatting

Desktop (please complete the following information):

  • OS: Linux
4 Likes

It would be awesome if it works like word processor. We have to have the word selected to make bold or italic or otherwise.

1 Like

Happy (belated) birthday to this feature request! I also miss this when writing in Anytype.

2 Likes

Title says everything, for more screenrec:
screenrecorder-2021-07-31-04-27-07-598.mp4

This would help to create easy workflows like

ENTER, design, write text

4 Likes

I can replicate the issue and only seem to be able to set an empty block to align differently but not other formating.

It indeed is a little quality of life fix that should be possible.

2 Likes

@wemiprog Thank you for your notice! It has been added to the bug tracker

2 Likes

Feature request for the desktop version requesting the same

2 Likes

I’m having the same issue; this is particularly problematic when one is write a link or inline code. If you ever get the cursor back to the end of the link or inline code, the formatting becomes “sticky”; whatever you will write will be a link or an inline code.

The only way that I’ve found as a workaround is to select the last character you wrote, then use a keyboard shortcut or the formatting menu to un-format it, and then continue writing. Which is pretty slow, unfortunately !

2 Likes

I’d like to be able to format text “in advance”. When I hit ctrl+B without selecting text, this should lead the text I write next to be bold. It’s annoying to always go back to format text.

9 Likes

Just got into the alpha today and couldn’t figure out why the cmd+i/cmd+b etc. weren’t doing anything till I found this. I’d really hope that gets added/fixed soon; I can’t think of a word processor/text edit without it. Even this comment box I’m typing this in supports it. It’s also really annoying that I can’t un-format the text following the formatted text till after it’s been typed.

1 Like

+1 this also confused me and I thought it was a bug, since it’s so ubiquitous amongst word processors. For me the more important use case is headers (e.g. Ctrl-Shift-1) for quickly outlining sections in new pages, but yes there should be shortcuts for all formats.

1 Like

WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND

Currently, Notion allows you to select a text and then use keyboard shortcuts to format a piece of text as bold (Ctrl+B) etc. However, let say that as you are typing you know that you have to underline, bold or italicize the next word/phrase, I should be able to hit Ctrl + B (Ctrl + U Ctrl + I) and as I type it formats it as such. See attached video of demonstration.

HOW COULD IT BE DONE

REAL WORLD USE CASES

Easy and efficient to format and as you go rather than waiting till you finish your thought and going back
to apply the proper formatting

RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVES

Notion has this feature.

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

Keyboard shortcut to underline text

1 Like