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Internet Explorer 9 or a later version may generate invalid HTML in design mode

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Warning

The retired, out-of-support Internet Explorer 11 desktop application has been permanently disabled through a Microsoft Edge update on certain versions of Windows 10. For more information, see Internet Explorer 11 desktop app retirement FAQ.

This article provides a workaround to solve the invalid HTML that's created by Internet Explorer 9 or a later version in design mode.

Original product version:   Internet Explorer 9 and later versions
Original KB number:   2667114

Symptoms

A user loads the following code in Internet Explorer 9 or a later version and renders it in Internet Explorer 9 Standards mode:

ASP.NET (C#) 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
        <title>HR</title>
    </head>
    <body contentEditable="true" onload="document.body.focus()">
        <hr>
    </body>
</html>

In this scenario, it is possible that the typed text in the editable element is included in the <hr> element, which is invalid. The problem can occur under the following circumstances:

  • No mouse click is performed in the editable element that receives the focus.
  • If the text is typed after the <hr> element, it is possible to type text inside the <hr> element, being positioned there by using the arrow keys.

Workaround

To work around this problem, use one of the following options:

  1. Insert a mouse-click inside of the element before typing.
  2. Place another element, such as a <div> or a <span>, directly before the <hr> element.
  3. Render the page using any other document mode besides Internet Explorer 9 or a later version Standards mode.