Instructional text remains as such even after deletion
Asked by Jennifer Hemmens:

Hello!

So apparently you can't just report a bug all willy-nilly, which I understand. However, I've been having trouble with the instructional text in templates. It's a recent development and I haven't been able to find any bugs/issues regarding the problem.

Lately, the editor seems to (randomly) remember where instructional text was placed. So - even if it's deleted completely - when a user starts typing, it's formatted as instructional text. Sometimes to correct the issue I have to open the source code and remove the placeholders, as delete and backspace don't work.

Many of our users don't notice - the text is visible after publishing the page (albeit in light grey), so it's not the end of the world. However, we use a lot of page properties tables in our templates. Usually, these will have a date field for which the calendar picker is used (and instructional text saying 'Type "//" to open the calendar picker'." If the date takes on the formatting of instructional text, I can no longer sort the page properties report - all "instructional" dates find themselves a bit lost at the top of the table...

Has anyone else experienced this problem, if so, what's causing it and how can I fix it? As I said, this is random. I can't find a pattern to it at all, it's not always the same place in the same template, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all (thankfully!)


Answers:
author: Stephen Sifers
body: Hello Jennifer,

First of all, thank you for taking the time to report this possible defect to us. This does not sound correct in how the instructional text is interacting while editing. We would like to see if the issue persists while in safe mode (add-ons disabled). Using safe mode will ensure all add-ons are disabled and ensure this is not an add-on issue. Document for Safe mode [Disabling and enabling apps \| Disabling or enabling all apps (using Safe Mode)](https://confluence.atlassian.com/upm/disabling-and-enabling-apps-273875716.html#DisablingorEnablingaPlugin-Disabling/Enablingalluser-installedplugins(safemode))

Can you please test Confluence in safe mode and let us know if this issue still persist?

If the issue persists while in safe mode then it is most likely not an add-on issue. I would like to then attempt to recreate this issue on our end in this case. If we can recreate this issue then I will open a bug request for this.

In order for us to recreate this issue, we need the following:

* Confluence Version
* Browsers used
* Screenshots of where you're seeing this issue (if we recreate the issue we can attach your screenshots to the bug request)

We look forward to your response to help find a solution to this issue.

Regards,  
Stephen Sifers

comments: author: Jennifer Hemmens
body: Hi Stephen,

Thanks for replying! I'll make sure to try this out this evening (disabling apps might cause a bit of trouble here while everyone is still busy in Confluence).

In the meantime:

* Our Confluence version is 6.7.2;
* For me, this happens in Google Chrome, but I know many of my colleagues use Microsoft Edge and/or Firefox.

***Screenshots***

Below is an example of how the table cannot sort properly by date when it's written in instructional text (I've hidden my colleagues' names)

++Most recent:++

![Date sorted to latest.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/43357i316405AD99514189/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Date sorted to latest.png")

++Oldest:++

![Date sorted to oldest.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/43358i4649401F539C98A8/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Date sorted to oldest.png")

As you can see, the page with the date still in instructional text floats to the top of the page properties report. It also remains in italics and is a lighter colour of grey than the regular \<p\> text, just as the instructional text is.

***Source code***

The strange one with this case is the type of code that is generated for the text. All other instructional texts seem to be placed in an \<ac:placeholder\> which I can simply remove from the source code if necessary (although this does seem to defeat the purpose of even using instructional text...). This instructional text, however, is placed in a \<span\>.

Below is the source code for the instructional text date when a date has been selected and it remains formatted as instructional text.

```
<tr>
  <th>Datum</th>
  <td colspan="1">
    <div class="content-wrapper">
      <p>
        <span style="color: rgb(51,51,51);">
        <span style="background-color: rgb(245,245,245);">
          <em>
            <time datetime="2019-01-16"/>?<br/>
          </em>
        </span>
        </span>
      </p>
    </div>
  </td>
</tr>
```

The same area of the page, but with the date and instructional text "removed", retains the \<span\> used to generate the instructional text. Using backspace or delete don't work to completely remove it, so as soon as I try picking a date or even typing, it takes on the instructional text format. Once I delete *\<span\>...\</span\>* from the source code, the instructional text is removed.

```
<tr>
  <th>Datum</th>
  <td colspan="1">
    <div class="content-wrapper">
      <p>
        <span style="color: rgb(51,51,51);">
        <span style="background-color: rgb(245,245,245);">
          <em>?<br/>
          </em>
        </span>
        </span>
      </p>
    </div>
  </td>
</tr>
```

If you need any more information (other than the results from the test I'll be doing later after having disabled our add-ons) please let me know.

Kind regards,

Jen


author: Stephen Sifers
body: Hello Jen,

Thank you for providing great detail into the configuration. I did do some testing and was unable to recreate the issue you're experiencing. The main hurdle I ran into is you're not able to add the date picker into a template without creating a custom blueprint for Confluence.

With this said, is the template you use to create a page a custom template or blueprint?

Also, can you please let us know which add-ons you're using so we may test against those?

Regards,

Stephen Sifers


Tags: bug

confluence-server

instructional-text

server

template