HTML editor is going back to old format while the text is removed from the editor of new knowled

[shivangisharma]

The issue is related to articles where the old styling is showing up on the template editor form.

Steps to replicate:
- Edit an article
- Enter text on the editor form and check the Paragraph field on formatter.

- Delete the text and again check the Paragraph field on formatter
- Check if the styling is showing correctly.

Result: The styling is reverting to the old one.

It seems like the issue is occurring for articles of all database types (HR, IT and Legal).

[danmjunqueira]

This issue is likely related to how the HTML editor or the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) component is handling formatting when content is removed.

Here’s what may be happening and how to address it:

Cause:
When you delete the text in the editor, the editor still retains hidden HTML tags or empty paragraph tags (<p>) from the previous formatting. This causes it to revert to a default or older style, which might not match your expected template formatting.

This behavior may also be due to the default configuration of the HTML editor used in your version of ServiceNow.

Steps to troubleshoot or fix:
Check the editor configuration
Go to the system properties related to the HTML editor.
Example:

glide.ui.html.editor.config

Or specific plugin settings for the Knowledge Editor used

Enable clean HTML output
Enable or configure the editor to remove empty tags when content is deleted. Some versions of TinyMCE or CKEditor (used internally) have options like remove_empty_tags.

Use Source Code view
While editing the article, switch to the source code view in the editor and verify if any hidden <p> or <span> tags remain. If so, manually remove them to confirm the behavior.

Test with different browsers
Sometimes the behavior can vary slightly depending on the browser. Confirm whether the issue is consistent across Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.

Update or patch the editor plugin
If you're on an older version of ServiceNow or using a customized editor, this might be fixed in a later patch or plugin update.

Raise a case with ServiceNow support
If this affects all database types and is reproducible consistently, it might be a known issue. ServiceNow may already have a fix or workaround available.

[danmjunqueira · Accepted solution]

This issue is likely due to how the HTML editor handles empty content when text is removed. When you delete the text from the article, the editor might retain hidden formatting tags like empty <p> or <span> elements. These residual tags can cause the style to revert to a default or previously used format.

Why it happens:
The HTML editor (such as TinyMCE or CKEditor, used in ServiceNow) does not always clear all underlying HTML when the visible content is deleted.

The default style or structure is applied again when the field is empty.

This affects all knowledge bases because it's related to the editor behavior, not the data type.

Suggestions to fix or work around:
Switch to Source Code view
After deleting content, check the source (HTML) view to confirm if tags like <p> or <span> are still present. Manually remove them to test if the style resets properly.

Force the editor to reset formatting
Add a custom script or client script to clear formatting when the field is empty, if allowed in your configuration.

Editor configuration
Check if your instance has custom editor configurations under system properties like:

glide.ui.html.editor.config
You can update the config to clean empty tags automatically.

Upgrade or patch
If this is a known issue with the HTML editor version in your instance, ServiceNow may have released a fix or update in a newer patch.

Raise a support case
Since the issue affects all knowledge bases and is tied to editor behavior, ServiceNow Support can confirm if this is a known product issue or provide a workaround.