As per https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/309, can we also add in this functionality: Field Word Boundary? This module allows trimming to word boundaries, not just sentences or paragraphs. Seems like a logical addition to core...
(I think the problem this solves is most often seen when the trim length is quite short (e.g. 100 characters) and the first sentence is longer than this - this means that nothing gets output).
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If you are talking about the progress bar shown by batch processes (for example, the one shown when you update your site), that seems to be themed by theme_progress_bar() and the css is defined...
How to change the width of the progress bar
In case anybody comes back to this, I think I found the problem. The dropdowns disappear only on pages that do not have any images in the image gallery field. That's because mosaic_grid's JS was...
Vanishing dropdown in primary navigation
Some themes have a dedicated spot in the settings that you can add a few bits of custom CSS for the element you want or you could use CSS Injector I'm not sure which progress bar you mean...
How to change the width of the progress bar