Cannot understand inconsistencies in product info input

[JBICBV]

I am not a seasoned user, I'm just trying to help my boss by cleaning up our products and making them all uniform. I constantly have issues where the description section forces me to have double-spaced lines when changing from bullet points to removing them (many times when I paste in info, it automatically formats as bulleted, which I don't want, so I highlight the lines in question and remove the bullet formatting from the 3 dots at the top of the field). I usually just give up and try another day, and it'll often work again. I'd like to know how to adjust this to my liking (remove bullet points and leave normal lines of text, not with huge spaces between each line)

Can anyone explain this,, and why it seems to change from day to day, even hour to hour? I'll do 50 products with no issue, then it'll act up on any product I try. The next day I try, it's back to normal. So frustrating, I never know how much, if any, I can get done before it decides to be difficult

[Elias · Accepted solution]

Hey, @JBICBV.

Thank you for reaching out and posting this question.

If you're editing an existing product description, then it's possible that there are some hidden codes that could be formatting the description. I'd recommend copying the description onto a word or notepad file and make your edits. Once that's done, simply clear the product description so that there aren't any hidden codes and then paste in the new product description. To get a better understanding of what we're referring to, you can click on the Show HTML button to see any hidden codes. 

If you have any other questions on this topic, then don't hesitate to let us know.

[JBICBV]

Fortunately, this works. Unfortunately, it's another hassle I need to go thru to use this software. Thank You!

[Elias]

Hey, @JBICBV.

Thank you for following up and accepting the solution!

If you're comfortable working with coding, then you can always make your edits using the HTML view and remove any variables that could be affecting the format. On the other hand, you can also erase the old product descriptions completely to remove the hidden codes; however, that would require you to start the product description from scratch. Copying and pasting onto a word or notepad is just a quicker way of removing the hidden codes, and maintaining the desired format. 

Let us know if you have any other questions!

[JBICBV]

Honestly, this editor just seems janky as heck. I've had plenty of days where I'm editing many descriptions, one after another. I'm in one session without a break, and suddenly the line spacing issue starts. I try refreshing the page, closing the tab and open a new one, closing the browser and reopen. I believe each of these solutions worked at least once, but not consistently. I've tried erasing the whole section and starting from clean, and that has worked on occasion, but again, not every time. Sometimes even deleting a line messes up the next lines- it's all screwy.

On top of that, they're always switching around the ui and how you do things, like uploading images. I used to right click from the main screen to add an image from url. Now (after much experimentation, I've found that) I have to go in to  "select existing" (not upload new) to then get the option to add from url. I've tried to get several questions to what seem like basic functionality issues, but there's so much that's confusing, and not that many people that seem to have the time to help. I made another post trying to add sortable fields for things like release date or author, but I guess no one ever tried to add extra fields to manage their products(??!). The best I could find searching the forums were meta-fields, which are basically just tags. For such an established service, with so many users that's been open for so many years, I just expect things not to seem so "beta-testy" and unfinished. It feels more like 2004 than 2024 in here, at least to me. But I'm glad you were here today, so even though I need to do extra steps(lots of extra troubleshooting and workarounds add up), at least I hope this will solve the issue going forward.

[Elias]

Hey, @JBICBV.

Thank you for sharing this feedback.

We can appreciate the frustration regarding how some parts of Shopify can be confusing, and it's definitely not an easy task to blend a platform designed for new users and developers that prefer coding. However, rest assured, Shopify is always looking to improve and we consistently release new updates as well as refinements to the platform. 

If you're interested in learning more about the new features or platform changes, then feel free to take a look at our Shopify Changelog.