Making text invisible

**Irina Rempt** · Oct 29 '08, 07:35 AM

Re: Making text invisible

On Wednesday 29 October 2008 07:48, Swifty wrote:

<zap!>

At the moment I'm using . The white text
disappears on the white background. This works, but under some
circumstances the background is not white, so not ideal.

[...]

I'm running out of tricks to hide text. Any suggestions?

What about <span style={backgrou nd: #fff; color: #fff;}The only drawback
that I can see is that it will cause a white streak on a non-white
background, but still without any visible text.

Irina

--
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth
should that mean that it is not real?" --Albus Dumbledore
http://www.valdyas.org/foundobjects/index.cgi Latest: 27-Oct-2008

rf · Oct 29 '08, 07:55 AM

Re: Making text invisible

"Swifty" <steve.j.swift@ gmail.comwrote in message
news:5YWdncggFY OqmpXUnZ2dneKdn ZydnZ2d@brightv iew.com...

I'm sending an HTML email to Lotus Notes and I'd like to hide some text
from casual observation.

At the moment I'm using .

Never having seen Lotus Notes I shall treat this as a guessing competition.



But I must ask, if you are sending the emails to yourself then don't you
have control over the background colour?

Further, if you have sent yourself an email that you are causing your email
client to archive without further intervention does it matter if the text is
visible? After all you are not going to read it anyway.

**Ben C** · Oct 29 '08, 09:05 AM

Re: Making text invisible

On 2008-10-29, Swifty <steve.j.swift@ gmail.comwrote:

I'm sending an HTML email to Lotus Notes and I'd like to hide some text
from casual observation. There is nothing sinister in this; the text to
be hidden is simply a 12-digit number that I use to indicate to the
recipient (me!) that the mail can be archived without reading (It is a
"Job ran successfully" note). It makes writing message filters simpler.
>
So the challenge is to find something that Lotus Notes will "see", but I
won't. How browsers respond is not relevant here.
>
At the moment I'm using . The white text
disappears on the white background. This works, but under some
circumstances the background is not white, so not ideal.
>
I played with opacity, but Notes doesn't support this, so the text
doesn't remain hidden.
I tried using visibility:hidd en but Notes doesn't see the hidden text
either, so I can't use this.
>
I'm running out of tricks to hide text. Any suggestions?

CSS3 "color: rgba(0,0,0,0);" Quite likely not to work in Notes.

"position: relative; left: -1000px" works in UAs that disallow left
scrolling. I disapprove of disallowing left scrolling but that doesn't
stop them all doing it.

**Swifty** · Oct 29 '08, 09:55 AM

Re: Making text invisible

Irina Rempt wrote:

What about <span style={backgrou nd: #fff; color: #fff;}The only drawback
that I can see is that it will cause a white streak on a non-white
background, but still without any visible text.

Yes, thanks. That's a step in the right direction.

--
Steve Swift

404 - Page not found - Swiftys

http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html

http://www.ringers.org.uk

**Swifty** · Oct 29 '08, 10:05 AM

Re: Making text invisible

rf wrote:

I'll try this one, thanks.

But I must ask, if you are sending the emails to yourself then don't you
have control over the background colour?

So I must answer: Emails that do not explicitly set the background
colour (some of mine do, some don't) inherit the default mail backgound
colour, which I occasionally change. So trying to set the background
colour is also a guessing game. :-)

Further, if you have sent yourself an email that you are causing your email
client to archive without further intervention does it matter if the text is
visible? After all you are not going to read it anyway.

Ah, an excellent debating point! A "preoccupat ion for detail".
See http://www.swiftys.org.uk/wiz?267 (the HTML is execrable; don't look)
It will be there to annoy me if someone forces me to read one of these
notes. It's in my genes. My father used to paint the inside of the
cistern in our outside lavatory, on the basis that the inside went just
as rusty as the outside. I'm doomed.

--
Steve Swift

404 - Page not found - Swiftys

http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html

http://www.ringers.org.uk

**Swifty** · Oct 29 '08, 11:05 AM

Re: Making text invisible

rf wrote:

Never having seen Lotus Notes I shall treat this as a guessing competition.

You don't know what you are missing...

This looked excellent, and worked perfectly until it came across the
rather... unusual... html rendering in Notes. The "hidden" text appeared
as if the <SPANweren't there. I'm not entirely surprised. But thank
you anyway!

--
Steve Swift

404 - Page not found - Swiftys

http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html

http://www.ringers.org.uk

rf · Oct 29 '08, 11:35 AM

Re: Making text invisible

"Swifty" <steve.j.swift@ gmail.comwrote in message
news:GpmdnWP7BL Uk35XUnZ2dnUVZ8 q2dnZ2d@brightv iew.com...

rf wrote:

>Never having seen Lotus Notes I shall treat this as a guessing
>competition.

You don't know what you are missing...
>

>

>
This looked excellent, and worked perfectly until it came across the
rather... unusual... html rendering in Notes. The "hidden" text appeared
as if the <SPANweren't there. I'm not entirely surprised. But thank you
anyway!

So, you are using an email client that purports to support HTML yet clearly
does not, by ignoring certain attributes and style properties that have been
mentioned in this thread. Best of luck with that "email client" :-)

>Never having seen Lotus Notes I shall treat this as a guessing
>competition.

>You don't know what you are missing...

Now I do know what I am missing. An email client that supports only a little
bit of HTML :-)

Then again the point is moot. I most forcibly deny my email clients form
supporting *anything* exept plain text.

**Harlan Messinger** · Oct 29 '08, 12:05 PM

Re: Making text invisible

Swifty wrote:

I'm sending an HTML email to Lotus Notes and I'd like to hide some text
from casual observation.

Not much reason to expect to get an answer from people in a newgroup
devoted to authoring HTML for the web. Isn't there a Lotus Notes newsgroup?

**David Stone** · Oct 29 '08, 12:15 PM

Re: Making text invisible

In article <CcqdnRBLO7Bor5 XUnZ2dnUVZ8tnin Z2d@brightview. com>,
Swifty <steve.j.swift@ gmail.comwrote:

Irina Rempt wrote:

What about <span style={backgrou nd: #fff; color: #fff;}The only drawback
that I can see is that it will cause a white streak on a non-white
background, but still without any visible text.

>
Yes, thanks. That's a step in the right direction.

Is there some reason why you can't use display: none ?

**David Stone** · Oct 29 '08, 12:15 PM

Re: Making text invisible

In article <no.email-3688FC.07534829 102008@news1.ch em.utoronto.ca> ,
David Stone <no.email@domai n.invalidwrote:

In article <CcqdnRBLO7Bor5 XUnZ2dnUVZ8tnin Z2d@brightview. com>,
Swifty <steve.j.swift@ gmail.comwrote:
>

Irina Rempt wrote:

What about <span style={backgrou nd: #fff; color: #fff;}The only drawback
that I can see is that it will cause a white streak on a non-white
background, but still without any visible text.

Yes, thanks. That's a step in the right direction.

>
Is there some reason why you can't use display: none ?

Come to think of it, is there some reason your code can't be wrapped
inside an html comment? A text filter in your mail client should still
be able to find the code in the body.

**Irina Rempt** · Oct 29 '08, 01:05 PM

Re: Making text invisible

On Wednesday 29 October 2008 12:31, rf wrote:

I most forcibly deny my email clients form
supporting *anything* exept plain text.

Amen, sibling.

Irina
--
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth
should that mean that it is not real?" --Albus Dumbledore
http://www.valdyas.org/foundobjects/index.cgi Latest: 27-Oct-2008

**Scott Bryce** · Oct 29 '08, 02:45 PM

Re: Making text invisible

Swifty wrote:

I'm sending an HTML email to Lotus Notes and I'd like to hide some
text from casual observation. There is nothing sinister in this; the
text to be hidden is simply a 12-digit number that I use to indicate
to the recipient (me!) that the mail can be archived without reading
(It is a "Job ran successfully" note). It makes writing message
filters simpler.

I can't help but think that you are looking for the wrong solution to
the problem.

Set up a new email address for these Job Ran Successfully notes, and
filter on the recipient address.

If you are writing the code that generates these notes, can't you
include wording other than the 12-digit number that you can filter on?

"The following job ran successfully:.. ." or some such?

The hidden 12-digit number can't be the only text that identifies the
email as one of your Job Ran Successfully notes.

I receive Job Ran Successfully notes that are sent by the cron daemon. I
filter on the sender.

**Swifty** · Oct 29 '08, 07:15 PM

Re: Making text invisible

Scott Bryce wrote:

If you are writing the code that generates these notes, can't you
include wording other than the 12-digit number that you can filter on?
>
"The following job ran successfully:.. ." or some such?

The problem is that you cannot come up with any valid English phrase
which we can guarantee will not come from a person who expects me to
read their email. A 12-digit number is sufficiently unlikely that I'm
prepared to take that chance.

--
Steve Swift

404 - Page not found - Swiftys

http://www.swiftys.org.uk/swifty.html

http://www.ringers.org.uk

**Rik Wasmus** · Oct 30 '08, 01:05 AM

Re: Making text invisible

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:48:20 +0100, Swifty <steve.j.swift@ gmail.comwrote:

I'm sending an HTML email to Lotus Notes and I'd like to hide some text
from casual observation. There is nothing sinister in this; the text to
be hidden is simply a 12-digit number that I use to indicate to the
recipient (me!) that the mail can be archived without reading (It is a
"Job ran successfully" note). It makes writing message filters simpler.
>
So the challenge is to find something that Lotus Notes will "see", but I
won't. How browsers respond is not relevant here.
>
At the moment I'm using . The white text
disappears on the white background. This works, but under some
circumstances the background is not white, so not ideal.
>
I played with opacity, but Notes doesn't support this, so the text
doesn't remain hidden.
I tried using visibility:hidd en but Notes doesn't see the hidden text
either, so I can't use this.
>
I'm running out of tricks to hide text. Any suggestions?
>
This is a trivial an unimportant matter, but one of my mottoes is "There
is always a way", so I'm persisting with my attempts to find a better
solution.

Might I offer a possible, totally different, solution to you: add a header
to the mail instead of fiddling with the content (which is quite hackish,
and could possibly tie you not only to the specific program, but even to
the specific version of that program) and make a rule based on that? I
never worked with Lotus Notes, but as filtering on header is quite common
I assume it can, and as it seems it is an automated process mailing these
adding a header shouldn't be all that difficult either.

Something like:
From: "Job Runner" <noreply@exampl e.com>
To: you@example.com
Subject: Job ran successfully
X-My-Header: 123456789012

random content...
--
Rik

Making text invisible

Making text invisible

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment