Underline functionality is frequently needed in Mattermost to convey things more clearly. We have found many users frequently needing to use underlines to more clearly and visually succinct (to demarcate or differentiate text). For example, sometimes we discuss emails that are sent and many senders prefer to use “inline” replies wherein they will reply just following a question or previous remark. In these cases we desperately need an underline function. To illustrate, here are three examples so you can visually see what :
Original messages often use COLOR to differentiate (but that’s not possible in Mattermost and might be too difficult to implement, especially with themes producing so many potential permutations):
In order to properly resolve the problem with the certification process we need to implement abcdefg, xyz, and 123456. The priority should be on xyz first due to the nature of the vulnerability exhibited by lmnop. Sounds good. Please proceed in the order and implementation you feel is best.
We currently try to CAPITALIZE things, but that’s not very visually differentiating and it is more difficult for many users to do since they don’t have a simple way to flip capitalization:
In order to properly resolve the problem with the certification process we need to implement abcdefg, xyz, and 123456. The priority should be on xyz first due to the nature of the vulnerability exhibited by lmnop. SOUNDS GOOD. PLEASE PROCEED IN THE ORDER AND IMPLEMENTATION YOU FEEL IS BEST.
Bold and/or italics just don’t work good visually and we have gotten many confusing questions when we tried them:
In order to properly resolve the problem with the certification process we need to implement abcdefg, xyz, and 123456. The priority should be on xyz first due to the nature of the vulnerability exhibited by lmnop. Sounds good. Please proceed in the order and implementation you feel is best.
Underlining and/or a combination with other formatting options would be most clear:
The visual differentiation value is further pronounced and made compelling when you consider that many people use dark themes now and that makes this an even more difficult differentiation with clarity being evident when using underlines:
I think it is rather obvious that the additional visual element of the underline helps considerably in differentiating content. It would be very helpful and clearly useful to implement the underline functionality similar to how either:
- Discord does it: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/210298617-Markdown-Text-101-Chat-Formatting-Bold-Italic-Underline-
- Or Gitlab does it with a
<ins>underlined text</ins>(or do something similar with the HTML<u>tag) embed: Handbook Markdown Guide | GitLab