Note : This issue does not change the different behaviour of IE. I think that doing so is beyond the scope of this issue as it involves writing a polyfill for the browser behaviour for a single browser. As a result, IE will have the following differences: when unlinking a part of a link, the whole link will be unselected; only the word that was selected within the link will be selected after that whole link is unselected. Test in all supported browsers: Open a page with the atto editor Turn on HTML mode and copy/paste in the following content <a href="http://www.google.com">This is a link with some long content</a>&nbsp;This is content without a link&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.com">This is a link with some long content</a><br></p> turn off HTML mode, and select the content of the editor and copy it to your paste buffer (pro tip) place the cursor inside the first link (without a proper selection) click the unlink button Confirm that the whole link was unlinked Confirm that the whole link was selected Select all and replace the content with your paste buffer place the cursor inside the second link (without a proper selection) click the unlink button Confirm that the whole link was unlinked Confirm that the whole link was selected Select all and replace the content with your paste buffer Select part of the first link click the unlink button Confirm that the selection was unlinked Confirm that the selection was still selected Select all and replace the content with your paste buffer Select part of the second link click the unlink button Confirm that the selection was unlinked Confirm that the selection was still selected Select all and replace the content with your paste buffer Select all of of the first link Click the unlink button Confirm that the selection was unlinked Confirm that the selection was still selected Select all and replace the content with your paste buffer Select all of of the second link Click the unlink button Confirm that the selection was unlinked Confirm that the selection was still selected Select all and replace the content with your paste buffer Select a range which encompasses both links but not all of them Click the unlink button Confirm that only the selection was unlinked Confirm that the selection was still selected Rejoice, for unlinking works