Tiny text when replying to thread

[edcayton]

What it says, except it doesn't seem to be happening in this one!

 

I'm used to text being underlined, bold , italic or crossed out, and having to correct it, but the last couple of replies I have made or tried to make have had tiny text and I can't change it.

 

I see that some other replies suffer from this and I am sure the posters don't choose it, so does anybody have an answer to this?

 

Ed

[martin_wynne]

Hi Ed,

 

A possible explanation is that you are inadvertently clicking the superscript or subscript buttons:

 

 

It's necessary to click in the Reply box below the topic before typing in there, and if you accidentally double-click or fumble the mouse, you may be clicking the exact location of one of the formatting buttons. I have done it myself a few times.

 

This is superscript text: ^{small text above the normal text.} This is subscript: _{small text below the normal text.}

 

They are normally used for maths equations and chemical formulae: e=mc² or H₂O

 

If you find yourself typing small text, see if those buttons are selected and unclick them.

 

It's also possible to change the text size by clicking the Size combo, but in that case you would see the drop-down list of sizes.

 

edit: if that is the explanation, the obvious way to avoid it is to click near the bottom of the Reply box before typing.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[BG John]

Here's one I've just spotted that proves it.

 

^{Working inside motion in steam loco's}

 

^Ed

 

[quote name='edcayton' timestamp='1346917746' post='778383']
[size=4][sup]Working inside motion in steam loco's[/sup][/size]
[size=4][sup]Ed[/sup][/size]
[/quote]

[edcayton]

Thanks for that Martin. The size thing didn't work which makes me think you are right about the subscript text. I'm pretty sure it's not me selecting it though because I often get bold, italic etc without selecting them.

 

There have been several other replies with the tiny text, as well as the poor souls who seem to get a sentence of gibberish when they want a ' !

 

ED

[edcayton]

Thanks to John too.

 

Ed

[martin_wynne]

I'm pretty sure it's not me selecting it though because I often get bold, italic etc without selecting them.

 

Hi Ed,

 

You can accidentally select any of them if you double-click in the reply box to begin typing. It depends exactly where you click. To be safe, click near the bottom of the box.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[edcayton]

^{see what it's done!} I did NOT double click, but my single click to start typing was over the superscript box. I shall watch this in future but, hopefully, you have provided the solution to a problem that has been bugging me for a long time,

 

You have also replied in a language I can understand

 

Many thanks

 

Ed

[martin_wynne]

I did NOT double click, but my single click to start typing was over the superscript box.

 

Hi Ed,

 

Glad to help. But a single click should not cause this. Which device/browser are you using? Alternatively you may have a faulty mouse, or its batteries may need changing.

 

Or you may, like me, be able to fumble a mouse for England.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[AndrewC]

I see this happening when ever I click into the reply box within the top half inch or so. What ever is underlying the mouse click gets selected. (same is true for the finger on a touch screen or tablet) (font, bold, smilie, super or subscript, etc) It has nothing to do with the mouse, batteries or fumble fingers. I can recreate this in IE8, IE9, Safari, and Chrome. Its down to the way the page is rendered as it pre-loads the buttons but hides them until the reply box receives focus from a mouse click, that click gets carried through to the control button.

 

The simple solution is to click on the bottom half of the reply box before typing.

[edcayton]

trying this now

[edcayton]

_{it is def}initely where you click in the reply box. You can't see the symbols for bold etc, but it's down to having the cursor over that place.

 

Deffo not double clicking, threw away battery mouse years ago as too expensive and always running out of battery at inconvenient times.

 

Ed

 

Like this

 

But click in the bottom half of the box and no problem!

 

Thanks all

 

Ed

[martin_wynne]

I can recreate this in IE8, IE9, Safari, and Chrome. Its down to the way the page is rendered as it pre-loads the buttons but hides them until the reply box receives focus from a mouse click, that click gets carried through to the control button.

 

Hi Andrew,

 

I'm not seeing this in Firefox. The onclick event should be destroyed after the browser has focused the editor. If that's not happening in all those browsers it's a definite IPB bug and needs referring to IPS.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[AndrewC]

Martin, I first saw this behavour way back in html 1.1. For example you had a link on a page and the page it called had another link at the same screen location as the first, the second page would click straight through to the third. That was down to the mousedown event on the page not cancelling when the new page was loaded. Same sort of thing. I think you're right, the onclick event isn't being destroyed or cleanly exited when the code on the page makes the controls visible. One more for the IPS bug featurelist.

[Miss Prism]

Not sure whether it's relevant to this thread or not, but there does seem to be a cookie that remembers a user's last setting of the 'toggle edit' button. Might the cookie also be remembering some previous font size formatting as well?

[BG John]

It doesn't happen for me in Firefox either. I tried clicking in the area above the box, and slowly moving down closer and closer to the edit box, and nothing happened. Clicking as close to the top of the edit box as I could worked properly.

[edcayton]

Sorry Martin and Andrew, but you're back to using that funny language again! Thanks for the help though. It's still a pain, but at least I know what is happening and why, and can avoid it.

 

Ed

 

Is this worth bringing to the attention of the wider community, because other people do seem to have the same trouble at times?