User story

A user inserts a numbered bullet list, types in one item, then presses ENTER.

The RTE at this point produces:

1. first point
2. CURSOR HERE

What they want is to continue adding text and content after the first bullet. They aren't ready for the second yet.

In wiki markup they would just:

# first point
keep typing more stuff here which would be part of the first point

The solution of course is SHIFT + ENTER. However, a majority of users aren't aware of this. One example.

We could adopt the stance that we need to train / educate users. But I think there's a still better way, and MS Word has implemented it, and I think its brilliant.

Suggestion

When the RTE shows:

1. first
2. CURSOR IS BLINKING HERE - second
3. third

If the user hits backspace, they get:

1. first
   CURSOR IS BLINKING HERE - second
2. third

Note:

1. numbering has been restored (so (3) becomes (2))
2. the contents of second bullet has been moved to the first.
3. the user doesn't have to know about SHIFT + ENTER. Backspace is what I've seen a few people doing intuitively to remove the bullet style. Lets give them that instead.

Technically the DOM should be:

<ol> 
    <li>first<br/>second</li>
    <li>third</li>
</ol>