The recent update to eM Client has included quite a few issues in the formatting of text in the Description fields of Calendar Events and Contacts, and it would not surprise me to discover similar issues in Task Descriptions as well.
Two significant format issues are arising;
Carriage returns are not being supported as expected
Typeface changes are occurring when there are edits outside of eM Client
It has become apparent since investigating the impact of the recent change is the inclusion of a large block of CSS in the aforementioned Description fields;
This is ignored by some applications, and possibly being stripped away by others, which may explain the typeface change that occurs after data has been edited outside of eM Client.
For observation, I used eM Client on the Desktop, Google Calendar on a browser, Calengoo on an Android Phone and Business Calendar on an Android Tablet (Business Calendar does not appear to support CSS so it displays it as text as part of the Description content).
After creating an Event on eM Client which contained a multi-line Description.
eM Client shows the formatting as expected.
Google calendar shows the formatting as expected.
Calengoo does not show the Carriage Returns.
Business Calendar shows the Carriage Returns.
After editing this event in Google Calendar
eM Client no longer shows Carriage Returns and the Font is stripped down to “Times New Roman”.
Google calendar show the formatting as expected.
Calengoo now shows Carriage Returns (Google must have fixed them).
Business Calendar shows the Carriage Returns and the CSS is no longer displayed (Google must have removed it).
Creating a new Event on eM Client which contained a multi-line Description, and then edit in Calengoo.
eM Client no longer shows Carriage Returns.
Google calendar show the formatting as expected.
Calengoo did not display the Carriage Returns, but were added during the edit process, but subsequent viewing of the event displayed all the CSS thus rendering the Description field useless as the required content was pushed out of view by the volume of inserted code.
Business Calendar no longer shows Carriage Returns and the content is outnumbered 10 to 1 by CSS code.
Prior to the last update, this issue did not exist, so it would appear that the Description field processing has been updated. The inclusion of CSS, and subjective CR/LF support seems to have been effected as well.
Given a choice, in the aim of maintaining compatibility with non-eM Client applications, something like an option to allow the Description Fields to be either HTML-CSS or Plain Text with proper CR/LF support would be best.
Certainly Calengoo, which I have been using for many years now, has a switch for HTML or Text for Description fields which serves very well.
I have to consider the bulk of CSS which eM Client is adding to data records to be a burden.
Has any progress been made on this issue? I’m experiencing many of the same problems with html suddenly appearing in the description field. It’s becoming a real pain because I manage a shared calendar and sometimes edit from emClient, sometimes from my phone.
As this issue is of interest to me too, I just tried this version upgrade to see if the issue was resolved with version 7.2.34208.0.
But No.
A Task had a Description of;
And after editing the Description on my phone;
Change of Font to “Times New Roman” again (awful!), and of course, all the Line feeds are gone as well.
Right clicking on the Description field and selecting “Edit source” tells an interesting story…
No HTML/CSS or anything else, just the text, exactly as required and formatted.
I think the Rich Text formatting on Description fields is a hindrance more than an asset when you are using multiple platforms.
I guess that since somone else has tried the latest and the problem persists there is little point in me doing the same, but when I get a moment I will try and post back what happens.
Well I’ve just done a check for updates and it says there is no update available. Hence I’m editing this post now. So it would seem that 7.2.34062.0 is the latest one I can get. How come the link you provided points to a more up to date version?
That link points to the current release containing known fixes. I think eM Client only picks up certain releases, not all of them, otherwise it would be getting updates every few days.
I’ve communicated with the author in regards to markup used in description fields, it supports various modes, but in all cases, no font information is used.
… additionally, as mentioned earlier in this post, the web interface for Google Calendar also apparently strips out much of the excessive markup out of the Description field.
When I first saw all the CSS code being added to every Description field across Calendar events, Tasks, Contacts too I would suspect.
I had to wonder, why is it being added to the data in the first place?
You add just 1 character to the description, and eM Client then adds about 500 characters of formatting instructions, none of which is well supported outside of eM Client (Google deletes it!).
Surely it makes more sense to only employ basic markup inside the Desciption (or none at all if a Text only option was supported; all I have ever needed is CR/LF to be supported, and eM Client can’t even manage that), and leave all the CSS for outside of the Description to give it that eM Client “look”.
Also the CSS is a burden to the database, so much replicated data! And it is also a burden to data transfers to other clients, part of the sync process many rely on.
Indeed, this feature, is a troublesome addition to the application.
go back to the previous version without the richt text format. I think there will be an update coming as you are not the only one that has this issue. (7.1.33101.0)
Hi, The problem (or very similar) has resurfaced. I had this issues (below) some time ago but it was cured (presumably by an update to Em Client) but it is back again since the latest update. I am currently on 7.2.36908
For me this is what I observe:
I create a calendar event in Em Client with some text in the description but only one line with no carriage returns or anything. In this case the text is “This is a description” -> Displays just fine in Google Calendar Online -> Displays just fine on android Stock Calendar App.
If I then create a calendar entry (or modify the above entry) in em Client with multiple Lines e.g.
This is a description
The event is going to happen soon
Hello world
then the text is displayed fine in emClient and fine in Google Calendar online but on the android phone stock calendar app it is preceded by a load of HTML formatting code and looks like this:
blockquote.cite { margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right:0px; border-left: 1px solid #cccccc }
blockquote.cite2 {margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right:0px; border-left: 1px solid #cccccc; margin-top: 3px; padding-top: 0px; }
a img { border: 0px; }
li[style=‘text-align: center;’], li[style=‘text-align: right;’] { list-style-position: inside;}
body { font-family: Segoe UI; font-size: 12pt; }This is a description
The event is going to happen soon
I have tried setting all my defaults back to vanilla in emClient (by renaming the settings.dat in roaming folder. If I use TB or another program on the PC to create the event it is fine. It is definately emClient that is causing the problem.
I am on G suite for work so I need the HTML formatting, is there any way to include the HTML without the description field looking like the code for a webpage?
