This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Toolbar button behavior broken in WYSIWYG in latest version of desktop Firefox

more options

We use a WYSIWYG editor for adding and editing content to certain websites that we support. With the latest update of Firefox, the toolbar buttons for sanitizing clipboard content as rich text or plain text become grayed out when the cursor is placed inside of the editable text area. This bug is not exhibited in any other browser, and did not occur in the previous version of Firefox.

---

MORE INFORMATION

  • The toolbar buttons do not disappear on page load; they can still be clicked to sanitize clipboard contents before the cursor is placed inside of the editable text area. While this would not break our editing experience if we could be guaranteed that our site editors were always pasting content into empty text areas, we cannot make this assumption. Therefore, the ability to place the cursor inside the editable region before clicking on the toolbar buttons is essential and the disappearance of the buttons is a bug.
  • As enumerated above, this behavior has been isolated as only occurring in the Firefox browser and only on the latest version of Firefox. Attached is a screenshot of the correct behavior, toolbar buttons not disappearing upon clicking into the editable text area, in Google Chrome.
  • When there are multiple WYSIWYG text areas on a single page, they are impacted independently of one another. That is, clicking in one editable text area only grays out the toolbar buttons for that particular text area, and the others remain clickable until the cursor is placed inside their respective editable text areas. Clicking outside of an editable text region does not "restore" the buttons to a clickable state. Once they become grayed out, they appear to stay that way unless and until the page is reloaded.
  • Other toolbar buttons, such as those for inserting/removing hyperlinks, or making text bold or italicized, are not impacted by this bug.
  • Error has been replicated on OSX Yosemite, OSX El Capitan, and Windows 7 Enterprise

---

SCREENSHOT DESCRIPTIONS

  • chrome_latest_noerror.png - Shows that the error does not take place on the latest version of Google Chrome
  • firefox_latest_error.png - Shows that the buttons vanish when the cursor is placed in the editable text area
  • firefox_latest_noclick.png - Shows that the buttons remain clickable in Firefox when the cursor is not placed in the editable area

Image addition appears not to be working right now. Here's the URL for an imgur gallery: https://imgur.com/a/dHp8Y

We use a WYSIWYG editor for adding and editing content to certain websites that we support. With the latest update of Firefox, the toolbar buttons for sanitizing clipboard content as rich text or plain text become grayed out when the cursor is placed inside of the editable text area. This bug is not exhibited in any other browser, and did not occur in the previous version of Firefox. --- MORE INFORMATION * The toolbar buttons do not disappear on page load; they can still be clicked to sanitize clipboard contents before the cursor is placed inside of the editable text area. While this would not break our editing experience if we could be guaranteed that our site editors were always pasting content into empty text areas, we cannot make this assumption. Therefore, the ability to place the cursor inside the editable region before clicking on the toolbar buttons is essential and the disappearance of the buttons is a bug. * As enumerated above, this behavior has been isolated as only occurring in the Firefox browser and only on the latest version of Firefox. Attached is a screenshot of the correct behavior, toolbar buttons not disappearing upon clicking into the editable text area, in Google Chrome. * When there are multiple WYSIWYG text areas on a single page, they are impacted independently of one another. That is, clicking in one editable text area only grays out the toolbar buttons for that particular text area, and the others remain clickable until the cursor is placed inside their respective editable text areas. Clicking outside of an editable text region does not "restore" the buttons to a clickable state. Once they become grayed out, they appear to stay that way unless and until the page is reloaded. * Other toolbar buttons, such as those for inserting/removing hyperlinks, or making text bold or italicized, are not impacted by this bug. * Error has been replicated on OSX Yosemite, OSX El Capitan, and Windows 7 Enterprise --- SCREENSHOT DESCRIPTIONS * chrome_latest_noerror.png - Shows that the error does not take place on the latest version of Google Chrome * firefox_latest_error.png - Shows that the buttons vanish when the cursor is placed in the editable text area * firefox_latest_noclick.png - Shows that the buttons remain clickable in Firefox when the cursor is not placed in the editable area Image addition appears not to be working right now. Here's the URL for an imgur gallery: https://imgur.com/a/dHp8Y

Chosen solution

Wow, you have a lot of scripts in that page... I see the behavior you see, testing on Windows. (By the way, I had to use HTTP instead of HTTPS.)

Edit: No errors appear in the Browser Console to indicate a problem when clicking in the editing area, so the disabling appears to be by design in the editor, perhaps caused by a version detection or object/property/method detection glitch.

Your CKEditor version is quite old now, it appears to be 3.6.6 from early 2013; that series had its last update on July 15, 2014 (3.6.6.2).

The current release is 4.5.4 and when I use the demo, the button works normally: http://ckeditor.com/demo

I don't know how to tease out the difference and patch your current CKEditor. The change log mentions fixes for pasting from Word several times: http://ckeditor.com/whatsnew

Can you update?

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (5)

more options

Is there any page online where a volunteer could put hands on this editor, or could you post a link to a simplified test case?

more options

Hang on, let me create a Drupal role for you.

more options

--this problem has been resolved and the demo account has been closed--

Please let me know if you encounter any errors.

Note: This account will be closed when this post is twenty-four hours old.

Modified by dartwebservices

more options

Chosen Solution

Wow, you have a lot of scripts in that page... I see the behavior you see, testing on Windows. (By the way, I had to use HTTP instead of HTTPS.)

Edit: No errors appear in the Browser Console to indicate a problem when clicking in the editing area, so the disabling appears to be by design in the editor, perhaps caused by a version detection or object/property/method detection glitch.

Your CKEditor version is quite old now, it appears to be 3.6.6 from early 2013; that series had its last update on July 15, 2014 (3.6.6.2).

The current release is 4.5.4 and when I use the demo, the button works normally: http://ckeditor.com/demo

I don't know how to tease out the difference and patch your current CKEditor. The change log mentions fixes for pasting from Word several times: http://ckeditor.com/whatsnew

Can you update?

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

more options

The problem appears to be resolved by using an updated version of CKEditor. Thank you for pinning it down.