I haven't bothered to mention it before but when I add a link, then type in my comments I cannot see what I type. Nothing. Yet if I check preview my words are there. Very odd. I seem to be able to see all pics that are posted.
Always? Can you highlight where you typed and then see the text? If yes, if you then click the Tx button at the upper right, that would remove formatting that came from the link (if you're typing after the link, where something like font colour white was happening). Or what happens if you click the Y button at the upper right? Can you see the text in the BB Code editor? I do a lot of removing formatting, particularly line breaks after pasted text, in the BB code editor, then click the link to Use Rich Text Editor, which is under the text area on the left, not where you click the button to get into the BB Code Editor.
He he! This is me you are talking too. Are we speaking English.? Sounds like double dutch. Remember I am a Luddite!
I've noticed the 'disappearing text' quirk as well. It happens when I copy-paste from a web page. The solution, as mentioned, is to toggle between editors.
Honestly, I remember! :) That's why I tried to use what I see on the buttons instead of what they're really called. Maybe I left out a step. I'll try again. I assume you're freaking out about the BB Code Editor. Never mind the code parts. Next time it happens: 1. Try what I said about highlighting the area where you typed and can't see anything. If that doesn't do what I said (click the Tx button upper right, that says "Remove Formatting" when you mouse over it), then 2. Click the button in the top right of the entry panel. Doesn't it look like a Y? Does it say "BB Code Editor" when you mouse over it? Click it anyway. 3. In the BB code editor, ignore everything in brackets. Can you see the text you typed? Type whatever else you want to say after the text you can see. If you see some line breaks that don't make any sense, you can position your cursor and hit delete to put stuff back on one line. 4. Click Use Rich Text Editor, which is under the entry panel. That takes you back to the normal entry screen. 5. Add line breaks and insert any links where you want them to go. I'm assuming you can see the text now, or is that not so? You then might want to also paste the links in when you're in the code editor. Silver surfer, and @Junglekeeper, next time that happens, could you try to make it happen in The Test Bed with the same link, and don't to into BB Code Editor, and send me a note to have a look? Or Junglekeeper, you could send me the code from the BB Code Editor, maybe with a screen print of what you're seeing when you're typing.
Some text from document http://phys.org/news/2016-09-microbes-survive-severe-drought.html: plants can better tolerate drought and other stressors with the help of natural microbes, University of Washington research has found. Specifically, plants that are given a dose of microbes stay green longer and are able to withstand drought conditions by growing more leaves and roots and using less water. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-microbes-survive-severe-drought.html#jCp
Junglekeeper said in a PM: Did I understand correctly? Paste it right here? The following line was in quotes in the article. plants can better tolerate drought and other stressors with the help of natural microbes, University of Washington research has found. Specifically, plants that are given a dose of microbes stay green longer and are able to withstand drought conditions by growing more leaves and roots and using less water. I haven't ever seen this problem, though, and I'm not seeing the problem now, am seeing the pasted text. The colour is rgb 0,0,0 which should be black, font is Arial - it's hard to understand why that should cause a problem. Don't all computers have the Arial font? Is "COLOR=rgb(0,0,0)" non-standard coding in some way? I see some website says it should be "color:rgb(0,0,0)", with a colon instead of an equal sign. Do some browsers not recognize it with the equal sign? Junglekeeper, was it you who said you are using an old browser? @Junglekeeper, is that the same coding you see? And can you select the hidden text? Do you see it when you select it? Can you remove the formatting using that Tx button at the upper right, and then does that reveal the text?
Or did you mean I had to put the text into a quote? No, I can still see it. I'm still going with my first theory.
The problem does not occur when pasting into the BB code editor - only the rich text editor. It should be noted that when the text becomes hidden the cursor also disappears and ctrl-A to select all does not work since there is nothing in the text box. I wonder if @Silver surfer is also using an older browser. Edit (2016/09/21): ctrl-A then Backspace does remove all text from the text box and the cursor reappears. I repeated the test using three up-to-date browsers in Android. The operation seemed to work properly in Firefox and Android browsers. Chrome also seemed to work but with a quirk. After the test, if I then enter 'j.' into the text box, it is automatically converted to 'waterj.'. Very strange. The test: 1. Copy the above mentioned text from the article. 2. Paste the text into an empty quick reply text box. 3. Press ctrl-A to select all, then press Backspace to clear. I'm not seeing BB code for color or font so I can't comment on that.
OK, why would you enter j. ? No surprise that I did not get waterj. when I entered j. doing your test in Chrome or Edge. Thanks for the description of what happens when you tried to select the text. I'm surprised that there is nothing in the text box, yet it's in the BB code. I can understand that there is nothing displayed, but don't understand that there is nothing.
You normally wouldn't. Stumbled upon it purely by accident while mashing keys during testing. What it shows is, even though the text box had been cleared there was still some hidden text in its buffer. As to why 'j.' brings it out, your guess is as good as mine. However it also ties in with the problem I have with the desktop browser. That is, there is hidden information in the text box buffer that cannot be seen or selected. Here's something interesting. There isn't a problem when I copy+paste the following 99 characters. The information is displayed as is in the text box. However when I copy+paste one extra character for a total of 100, extra information is automatically appended to it (via Javascript in the article page I think) resulting in the following being pasted into the text box. My theory is this auto-generated attribution message or the method in which it is injected is the cause of the problem. Edit (2016/09/21): The attribution text did not show up during the Android tests.
I'm adding a link to the posting that started this investigation: Feedback on new Forum Software That doesn't explain the original problem, though. @Junglekeeper, after you have been to the BB code editor, when you go back to normal view, is the text still hidden? And another question: if you change the code: "color=rgb(0,0,0)" ( or whatever colour codes) to: "color:rgb(0,0,0)", does that make any difference?
The circumstances of @Silver surfer's problem may be different. We need more information on what actually took place. In my case, the hidden text is revealed after toggling between editors. I'm not seeing this sort of coding at all. Okay. My theory just went out the window. I encountered the same problem while composing this reply. I opened a new tab by clicking on the Reply link in your previous post, then copy+pasted the quoted information into the quick reply box and, voila, the pasted information was hidden along with the cursor. The problem happened again while editing a prior post in this thread using the 'quick' editor. This is all very strange. However I'm not too concerned as the problem can be sidestepped by toggling between editors. It could just be the consequence of using an outdated browser. I don't think it makes much sense to pursue this further in my case. @Silver surfer's problem may be different though and may required further investigation. By the way, I've edited a couple of my earlier posts with new information acquired after further testing. Also, the link back to the Feedback thread does not open to the desired post but displays the entire thread from the beginning. [Edited by wcutler: this discussion has been moved to Linking to a posting in a multi-page thread - is posting order always a problem?
Almost forgot. As noted in the above correction, all the text in the text box can be selected with ctrl-A but the hidden portion remains hidden and it is not apparent that it has been selected. In fact if there was nothing else other than the pasted information, it is not apparent that ctrl-A did anything. Pressing on Remove Formatting after ctrl-A has no effect.
And you're also saying that you don't see any color codes, so at least that makes sense that Remove Formatting has no effect. And it takes my theory out the window too.
I appreciate your help trying to solve this mystery. However when it comes to technical stuff I am completely and utterly incompetent and useless...remember I am a very senior citizen. Brain immediately goes into melt down and panic mode. If it helps my computer is a desk top. HP and is due to have its 5th birthday on 8th Nov! I need a big memory to store all my 1,000's of named pic..my library...my aide memoir of plants. I use Firefox for looking/answering UBC questions. Hope Jungle keeper can assist..which with your help will cure my very minor problem.
A similar problem was reported in 2008 to Mozilla, the developers of Firefox: 451009 – after paste text field disappears. However that involved a much older version of Firefox. Therefore, there's a good chance it has been fixed in recent versions of the browser. What we need is for someone to try this with an up-to-date desktop version to confirm this is the case. As I mentioned earlier the problem does not occur in Firefox for Android v48.0. @Silver surfer, determine the version of Firefox you're running by clicking on Options -> About Firefox. What is it?
Give me a chance to find a few hours to update the software to the latest version -- possibly this is a known bug with the software that has already been resolved.
I think the sooner those annoying bugs are fixed the better. Many strange things are happening when posting. The difficulties have a potential to discourage new, as well some old, users from participating in the forums. I am afraid, however, that the application is simply not well suited for working with the older operating systems which many of us still keep using and the bugs resulting from that may never be fixed. Hopefully I am wrong.
I've not encountered this problem since the recent update: Software Update / Style Change. It looks like it has been fixed.
