Have you seen strange behavior when copy\pasting text into online forms?

  • URL's or text being cut off
  • A form showing an error that does not make sense. E.g.:
  • SMS character count incorrect
  • Unable to save an SMS template


What is they cause?

Some word processing software will insert hidden characters in a document, which it uses for formatting.

For example, in some versions of Microsoft Word, you can press the Show\Hide Editing Marks button to see these characters:


When viewing, editing, printing or saving the document in that program, there are usually no problems with these characters. However if you open the document in another program, or copy and paste the contents somewhere else, such as into a Burst SMS message, problems can occur.


These errors are extremely rare, as most programs will automatically remove the special characters when text is copied.


What can you do to fix this?

The simplest way to fix this is to manually type out the text that you want to copy paste


If this is not practical, such as typing out a long URL, you can try copy pasting into Windows Notepad, or Mac's TextEdit (go to Menu > Format > Make Plain Text).

These programs do not support most of the hidden characters that can cause the errors above. Once converted to plain text you can then copy the text into Burst.


Lastly, you can use our SMS character counter:

https://www.burstsms.com/sms-character-counter/

This online tool may help to show where the hidden character is, thus allowing you to make a small edit to the text.


Still experiencing issues?

The support team is here to help. Please send an email to helpdesk@burstsms.com and be sure to include the text that you are copying and your Burst SMS login (not password).