HELP Character Limit Problem

[Leandra]

I am trying to add a description to a product that I created and no matter how many characters I type in (1 or 100) I am getting a message that I have exceeded the character limit of 1000. My description is certainly not close to 1,000 characters.

Is this a known bug?

[CnP.Support]

Good day!

Sorry for the trouble you are having. Not knowing more about your product's description it is not possible to determine if this is a bug or just a misunderstanding of how it should work.

Please see the following example:

The following image shows the description as it is typed in the WYSIWYG editor: The text seen is a simple bullet red italicized "This is a test" as seen below:



Clicking on the the source view shows an entirely different story. The HTML source code added to make the text bold <b></b>, Italic <i></i>, etc. shows a lot more text than what appears at the top.



The total character count is based on what needs to be saved in the database and it is 1000 characters. The characters include HTML code - simply the count is what is in the source.

We typically see people type their descriptions in Microsoft Word and then paste it in the editor. Word creates a lot (& I mean a lot) of code for a simple text since it adds its own formatting. For example see the same text typed in word and then copied and pasted in the editor:



I am sure you see how much additional code is being added by simply typing the same code in Word and then pasting it to the editor. I am hoping you find that interesting if you did not know this already.

What we recommend is for all texts to be first copied to NOTEPAD or any other TEXT editor (not word processor such as Word) and then copied from Notepad to the editor and formatted in the editor. This will minimize the size of the code tremendously.

If the above is not the issue please let us know which product in your account you are editing and what is the text being added so we can review it.

[Leandra]

I first tried copying from Word and experienced the problem but figured it was a coding problem. I think deleted it, logged out, logged back in and typed it directly into the Click & Pledge page. With one word or the entire description I got the error message.

I was attempting to update all the products in account 28129. I just tried again and it seems like the problem has resolved itself overnight. Thanks for the quick response

[CnP.Support]

Aha!

Let me show you this:

Step 1: MS Word text copied:



Step 2: Copy the content into the editor



Step 3: Review the code by clicking on the code


Step 4: Delete the content through the editor (NOT the source code)


Step 5: View the source code after the editor's content has been deleted



As you clearly see even though you have deleted the "content" of the editor the residual code still remains. Unfortunately this is a feature of these editors and there is nothing we can do about it. Next time you do this try the above and you will see what is going on. The more you copy and paste the more residual code will be added and all that counts towards your character count.

Regardless of what platform you use we always recommend that you first type in Word or any other editor with spell check and then copy and paste it in a notepad to make sure all formatting has been removed and then from notepad copy and paste it in the editor. This is the safest way to deal with WYSIWYG editors.

I hope the above helps.