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Apple support communities text widget causes unwanted variations in font size

Typing a simple message into the Apple Support Communities using the built-in rich text widget often results in the published message containing unwanted variations in font size.


At a random place in the published post, the font size gets slightly bigger, then at another point it gets slightly smaller, then slightly bigger and so on. I can't discern any pattern to when these variations occur - it's often in the middle of a sentence.


It is not just me; I've seen the same effect in posts written by other people.


I find these variations in font size are incredibly distracting to read; they really detract from whatever message that the poster is trying to convey.

At first I thought it only happened when I pasted text in from elsewhere, but then I realized it happens even when I compose the message entirely in the web site's rich text widget.


EDIT: You can see the variations happening in this post, even though it was composed entirely by typing and editing text within the site's built-in editor, without selecting any deliberate changes in font type or size. A quick look at the HTML from one of the paragraphs above shows some of the craziness going on:



<p>At a random place in the published post, the font size gets slightly bigger, then at another point it gets slightly smaller, then slightly bigger and so on. <span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">I can't discern any pattern to when these variations occur - it's often in the middle of a sentence.</span></p>

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), Chrome v41.0.2272.118 (64-bit)

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 3:52 PM

Reply
21 replies

Apr 13, 2015 5:13 PM in response to enteq

enteq


I see it too - and your evidence is irrefutable.


What "Editor" *starts* the phenomenon?

  • Create a New Question page's Editor?
  • Simple Editor for a Reply?
  • User uploaded file for a Reply? *
  • All of the above?

    (it clearly persists through a session of Advanced when you Edit the OP)

  • Does this persist throughout a single thread?
  • Did this phenomenon start suddenly? (or did you just notice it one day?)
  • Does it happen EVERY thread?
  • What happens with other browsers? Safari? Firefox? Others?
  • ?? I wonder what would happen if you switched to Advanced > finish up > Select All > choose a Font Size > Save ??

* You know Advanced has a toggle to HTML & back?


Yet another glitch du jour added to the Menu - Menu is getting pretty full, so I think we can just about abandon the "du jour" (but I like the term - thanks Bob)


ÇÇÇ


EDITadded

Mine looks consistent - 10pt - 8pt - 12pt - 14pt - back to 10pt

Apr 17, 2015 7:49 PM in response to ChitlinsCC

Mine looks consistent...


Actually, it doesn't, to my eyes.


"Mine looks consistent - 10pt" looks smaller than "back to 10pt."


Here is a screen shot (slightly enlarged for clarity) in which I've copied both instances of "10pt," and then pasted each under the other example. You can see that although they both line up vertically at the initial "1," neither ending "t" lines up with the other. The "10pt" on the bottom left is larger than the "10pt" on the upper left, and the "10pt" on the bottom right is smaller than the "10pt" on the upper right.


User uploaded file

Apr 17, 2015 8:07 PM in response to Tuttle

[heh heh]


Well... it looked consistent IN the advanced editor! I have been plagued with all kinds of editor failings when [Reply] twanger punched... I am resigned to take what it dishes out - soon to abandon any ' fancy' formatting attempts - the worst is pasting and using the QUOTE tool. Alas, poor Yurick...


ÇÇÇ


EDIT - see what happens this time for grins

8 10 12 14 18 14 12 10 8 = Arial

8 10 12 14 18 14 12 10 8 = Andale Mono

8 10 12 14 18 14 12 10 8 = Arial Black

8 10 12 14 18 14 12 10 8 = Book Anigua

8 10 12 14 18 14 12 10 8 = Colibri

8 10 12 14 18 14 12 10 8 = Helvetica [ Steve Jobs' favorite, it issaid ]

Apr 18, 2015 6:47 AM in response to enteq

I believe this is an artefact caused, in part, when using anything other than 100% zoom. I don't know how to reliably reproduce it, but copying, pasting or moving text within a post is another likely factor.


The hosts are aware of the issue, but as far as I can tell the TinyMCE editor is managed independently of both Apple and the makers of the forum software, Jive, so any fix may not come quickly. If and when I notice in time I will try to correct using the advanced editor, although sometimes the incorrect formatting can be very persistent.


tt2

Jul 3, 2015 2:45 PM in response to turingtest2

turingtest2 wrote:


I believe this is an artefact caused, in part, when using anything other than 100% zoom. I don't know how to reliably reproduce it, but copying, pasting or moving text within a post is another likely factor.


The hosts are aware of the issue, but as far as I can tell the TinyMCE editor is managed independently of both Apple and the makers of the forum software, Jive, so any fix may not come quickly. If and when I notice in time I will try to correct using the advanced editor, although sometimes the incorrect formatting can be very persistent.


tt2


I can categorically say that this issue is not caused by using a non-100% zoom.


That's because I just published a post in another thread using Chrome with zoom set to 100%, and the issue occurred.


However I did copy / paste / move text around within the post while composing it, so I can't rule that out as a possible cause.


I now edit all my posts by hand, using the HTML view, to remove the variations in font size because they annoy me (and I'm probably borderline OCD!)

Jul 3, 2015 3:59 PM in response to turingtest2

Actually I spoke too soon, that only sometimes works.


Remove All Formatting works if the variations in font size are caused by a stray "span" tag, like this:


<span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">...</span>


But sometimes the variations in font size are cause by markup like this:


<p style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">...</p>


...and when that happens, Remove All Formatting fails to remove it 😟


The widget generates both types of markup.

Apple support communities text widget causes unwanted variations in font size

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