[ARCHIVED] Why is part of my post invisible?

[DylanHunter]

Hello,

I was just typing a discussion post and while I was finishing the last section, (roughly 35 words) the text appeared red on my screen. I attempted to use the tools to highlight it and change the font color back to black. Instead it only changed one letter and the rest stayed red. I tried two or three times before I decided to just submit the post.

Upon reviewing the post, the text that had turned red was invisible. I am assuming it was colored white because I am able to view the text when I highlight it.

I believe this to be some sort of bug since I was unable to make the text appear correct before posting.

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Hi Dylan,

Usually when something like that happens and parts of the text don't display, it is because of some stray/broken formatting codes.  Maybe you cut and pasted text and got the opening code but not the closing code, or in the process of editing the text also deleted part of the formatting.

The text being marked red is the editor trying to say "There's something wrong with this text!" but it's not very specific with a solution.

However, the RCE (editor) has a very useful "Clear formatting" tool, and if you select all the text and then click that, it will clear out any existing formatting:

[megj3331]

you just saved my life thank you

[JeffW]

@mzimmerman 

This is a great response, and in my experience the cause that is most often observed. 

@DylanHunter If you have any HTML experience, you can view your post via the HTML editor and check there for issues such as extra </span> or div lines (I am not an HTML expert).

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @DylanHunter ...

@mzimmerman has a great solution here...and the clear formatting option is one I often forget about.  One thing that I often use when I need to clean up HTML code is a HTML cleaner website.  I've written a blog posting here in the Community on one such example: HTML Cleanup.  You might want to check it out some time.  Hope it will be of help to you.