This task involves the work of introducing a new edit suggestion within the VisualEditor Suggestion Mode that makes people aware when heading levels are "bolded"

Deployment plan

#TODO

Requirements

Meta

Default configuration
- maximumEditcount:
- minimumEditcount:
- Type: Suggestion
Detection heuristic: a heading, of any level, is wrapped in '''

User experience

Card design
- Title: #TODO
- Description (≤2 sentences): #TODO
- Calls to action
  - Button name: #TODO
  - Button name: #TODO
Success toast: #TODO

Instrumentation
As with all Edit Checks and Suggestions, we will want to know:

Any time a Suggestion of this type is activated within an edit session
Any time someone views a Suggestion of this type within an edit session
Any time someone engages with a Suggestion and how they engage with it

Original ticket description

Environment- beta

1> insert a table
2> click on the Header cell.
3> Now select Annotations sub menu.
4> Bold is shown as one of the style elements.

Text typed in a header cell is already bold. So, activating/deactivating it from the sub menu list doesn't change anything.

Version: unspecified
Severity: trivial
OS: Windows XP

Details

Reference: bz72949

Related Changes in Gerrit:

	Subject	Author	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	Experimental DoubleBoldEditCheck	Esanders	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	master	+72 -0

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects
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Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
Open		None	T360489 [EPIC] Offer edit suggestions as a service
Open		None	T414853 [MILESTONE] Deploy Suggestion Mode as a default-on feature.
Open		Quiddity	T430878 Publish Suggestion Mode controlled experiment findings on-wiki
Resolved		ppelberg	T404600 [MILESTONE] Run controlled experiment of Suggestion Mode MVP
Open		None	T265163 Create a system to encode best practices into editing experiences
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Esanders	T74949 [Suggestion] Detect bold in headings

Event Timeline

• bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Lowest.Nov 22 2014, 3:45 AM

• bzimport added projects: Browser-Support-Google-Chrome, VisualEditor-EditingTools.

• bzimport set Reference to bz72949.

Swainr created this task.Nov 4 2014, 3:13 PM

This depends on a particular visual concepts, and I'm not sure it makes sense. What are others' thoughts?

We already have this issue with headings. The text is not actually annotated as bold and they would produce different wikitext (==Bold== vs =='''Bold'''==). Depending on local CSS wikitable headers / H2 tags may not even be render as bold by default, so I think semantically they're different but with our WYSIWYG editor, there's no visual cue for 'double bold'.

(In reply to Ed Sanders from comment #2)

but with our WYSIWYG editor, there's no visual cue for 'double bold'.

CSS has that concept, but few browsers and fonts support it. There are reports of users seeing "double bold" on VPT from time to time and getting confused.

Jdforrester-WMF renamed this task from VisualEditor: Annotations can conflict with local CSS rules, e.g. bold text in headings to Annotations can conflict with local CSS rules, e.g. bold text in headings.Nov 24 2014, 12:29 AM

Jdforrester-WMF added projects: VisualEditor, VisualEditor-Tables.

Jdforrester-WMF set Security to None.

Jdforrester-WMF moved this task from To Triage to Freezer on the VisualEditor board.Nov 24 2014, 1:17 AM

• Phabricator_maintenance removed a parent task: T41596: [DO NOT USE] Support tables (tracking) [superseded by #VisualEditor-Tables].Jul 29 2016, 8:25 PM

• matmarex merged a task: T129774: Provide some way to make duplicate annotations visible to users whilst editing (e.g. bold headings).Nov 18 2019, 5:46 PM

• matmarex added a subscriber: Aklapper.

Aklapper changed the subtype of this task from "Task" to "Bug Report".Feb 5 2022, 2:33 PM

Aklapper removed subscribers: • rmoen, • TrevorParscal.

ppelberg added a parent task: T265163: Create a system to encode best practices into editing experiences.Nov 25 2024, 10:18 PM

This might be a suitable candidate for an edit check (T265163).

In T74949#10357025, @Esanders wrote:

This might be a suitable candidate for an edit check (T265163).

Good spot, Ed. I've updated the task description to act on this idea.

ppelberg moved this task from Inbox to Needs Scope (PM) on the Editing-team (Scheduled) board.Dec 23 2025, 6:18 AM

Change #1235104 had a related patch set uploaded (by Esanders; author: Esanders):

[mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor@master] Experimental DoubleBoldEditCheck

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1235104

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Jan 29 2026, 7:38 PM

ppelberg edited projects, added: Editing-team (Editing-2Feb-17Feb-2026); removed: Editing-team (Scheduled).Jan 30 2026, 7:19 PM

ppelberg added a parent task: T404600: [MILESTONE] Run controlled experiment of Suggestion Mode MVP.

ppelberg moved this task from Decisions to be made to Ready to Be Worked On on the Editing-team (Editing-2Feb-17Feb-2026) board.Jan 31 2026, 12:13 AM

Detection heuristic: a heading, of any level, is wrapped in '''

The check as implemented checks for bold inside any of the following bold-by-default contexts:

Heading levels of h3 ("Sub-heading 1") or higher (h4, h5, ). nb h2 and h1 are not bold by default
Definiton terms in a definition list
Table headings

It's sort of the inverse of T413124, and I think we might need to make sure that the two are consistent in how they talk about things -- that one is "I noticed you had a non-heading that's entirely-bolded, should it really be a heading?"

Esanders claimed this task.Feb 4 2026, 2:07 PM

Esanders moved this task from Ready to Be Worked On to Code Review on the Editing-team (Editing-2Feb-17Feb-2026) board.

Change #1235104 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor@master] Experimental DoubleBoldEditCheck

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1235104

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 9 2026, 9:31 PM

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.15; 2026-02-10).Feb 9 2026, 10:00 PM

DLynch moved this task from Code Review to QA on the Editing-team (Editing-2Feb-17Feb-2026) board.Feb 9 2026, 10:18 PM

DLynch added a project: Editing QA.

In T74949#11573549, @Esanders wrote:

Detection heuristic: a heading, of any level, is wrapped in '''

The check as implemented checks for bold inside any of the following bold-by-default contexts:

Heading levels of h3 ("Sub-heading 1") or higher (h4, h5, ). nb h2 and h1 are not bold by default

Definiton terms in a definition list

Table headings

The check seems to be working correctly for these scenarios.

However, there is something that need some clarification on:

When a real heading of "Heading" (or any format) is bolded, it is showing "Use real headings" check. Isn't it a real heading..and not a text that was bolded in an attempt to create a heading ? When I click on "Adjust heading" it seems to be unnecessarily adjusts it to sub-heading 1 format.