Editor: Auto-continuing lists

Contribute Feature

AI-generated summary

Users requested that the Discourse editor auto-continue lists when pressing Enter after creating a list item, similar to Gmail and other editors downey. This feature was implemented in pull #27563 Moin. Users also suggested enhancing the list button to convert selected multi-line text into a list, matching the behavior of quote and code buttons Tom_Newsom, a sentiment echoed by davemaxwell. Concerns were raised about handling nested lists when selecting lines Tom_Newsom, and one user recalled a previously working keyboard shortcut (option + return) for continuing lists alttext. An iPad user Jagster joked that the feature ruined their workflow, preferring manual list markers like *, especially since list items rarely start with capital letters. Moin clarified the feature can be disabled in user preferences, which Jagster appreciated — though they initially couldn’t find the option, suspecting their forum version might be outdated and planning to investigate further.

1

A feature request from one of our users:

  1. Write a post in the editor. Start with an introductory paragraph.
  2. Click the ordered list (or unordered list) button.
  3. Replace the highlighted “List item” text with your first list item.
  4. Press enter to move to a new line.
  5. The editor should pre-populate a second list item.

According to this user, this is how they expected the editor to behave (similar to Gmail and other editors).

7 Likes
2

+1 Feels weird having to do it manually

Would also be nice to select text that’s already got line breaks and click the button to make it a list (ie. to match the behaviour of the code and quote buttons)

4 Likes
3

Since I can’t like it again, I’ll just quote and say YES, PLEASE!

2 Likes
4

I suppose the difficulty comes with nested lists. Does clicking the button while lines are selected de-list the items, or indent them further?

1 Like
5

I swear there used to be a key combo I could use to continue a list - something like option + return but that hasn’t worked in a while.

3 Likes
6

This was added :tada:
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/27563

1 Like
7

Totally off topic, but that ruined my life as an iPad user :joy:

For me it is easier to remember list marks as * than to remember to change to lowercase in the beginning of every row; lists are quite rarely independent sentences, and if those are, then the first list item starts with a small one anyway.

1st word problem? Definitely yes :joy:

8

You can disable it in your preferences

4 Likes
9

I’ve missed that option totally. Thanks!

And now the 1st world is little bit better place again.

Edit: except it isn’t there on my forum :thinking: Have to start dig deeper and start a new topic if needed.

Edit2: that option is relatively new, perhaps I should rebuild first. This seems to be one of those days…

1 Like