ARCHIVED: Using Firefox, why are line breaks lost when I copy multiple lines of example text from the IU Knowledge Base and paste them into another file?
Using Firefox, if you copy multiple lines of example text from an Indiana University Knowledge Base document, the line breaks will be lost when you paste the text into another file (e.g., an email message, a Word document, or a Unix file), converting the multiple line example into a single line of text. This is a confirmed, long-standing bug (see Bugzilla@Mozilla - Bug 116083) regarding how Firefox treats pre-formatted text on some web pages, including IU Knowledge Base documents.
For example, using Firefox, you cannot copy the following example and paste it as it appears here into an HTML file:
<html>
<title>Hello world</title>
<body>
<p>Hello world!</p>
</body>
</html>
The copied text will not retain the line breaks when pasted into another file; instead the example will be converted into a single line of text:
<html> <title>Hello world</title> <body> <p>Hello world!</p> </body> </html>
Likewise, copying a sample TORQUE script from an IU Knowledge Base document in Firefox will also be problematic; for example:
#!/bin/bash #PBS -k o #PBS -l nodes=1:ppn=1,walltime=30:00 #PBS -M username@indiana.edu #PBS -m abe #PBS -N JobName #PBS -j oe ./a.out
Copying the above example from Firefox and pasting it into a Unix file will convert the example into a single line of text:
#!/bin/bash #PBS -k o #PBS -l nodes=1:ppn=1,walltime=30:00 #PBS -M username@indiana.edu #PBS -m abe #PBS -N JobName #PBS -j oe ./a.out
As a workaround, use another browser, such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Safari. Mozilla, the designers of Firefox, have not yet provided a solution or a reliable workaround for this bug.
Related documents
This is document bdkf in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2023-09-22 17:22:09.