The problem in the original thread was fixed in Firefox 37.

I cannot replicate the problem with a similar table cells example in Firefox 41.0.2. (Screen shot attached)

I tested in my normal setup and also in Safe Mode (extensions disabled).

If you have Firefox 37 or higher, could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

I should note that I tested using an actual HTML table but if the "table" in that message is made up of blocks of text assembled into a grid using CSS rules that are outside the selection, then Firefox normally can't handle that because it doesn't look for anything outside the selection.

Hi yes I have tested with safe mode and also with every single FF version (including the latest one 41.0.2) since FF 35, which is the last one that it does work on. Could I forward the email to you with the content that I wish to format and then you can replicate the problem on your end as well?

Also if it is a css issue, was this then support in older versions of FF and now it is not? And if so is there an extension or modification to fix it?

The CSS issue has been forever. You'll notice it any time you copy from a web page and paste it into another program, only direct formatting and style rules within the selection apply in the destination program (e.g., MS Word).

You can email me using my username jscher2000 at gmail.

I sent you an email with the content that I wish to be able to copy and paste. The email Subject is Dimension Clothing Order 119. Please check it out and let us know your thoughts. Thanks

Thanks, when I paste that table I only get the rows, not the actual table tag, so like the list in the older bug, it collapses. Other sites don't behave like this, it seems to be something special in the scripting on Gmail. But... how to work around it.

(45 minutes later)

I give up. Google has defeated me.

This is very hacky, but if you paste into a table, Firefox then handles the paste reasonably well (there is some ugly cellspacing but...).

The easiest way to insert a table is to click in the new message and use a bookmarklet with code like this to insert a table after at the insertion point:

javascript:var t=document.createElement("table"); t.innerHTML="<tbody><tr><td>TABLECELL</td></tr></tbody>"; var s=window.getSelection(); s.anchorNode.appendChild(t); void 0;

Then double-click the word TABLECELL and paste your copied table rows.

Thank you. Your method does work, but yes it is a bit hacky. I didnt even know what bookmarklets were lol Inserting that table cell is key in order to successfully copy the table. Another way that works is also to copy the contents into MS Word and then copy and paste into the gmail new message. But again this also does not solve the issue, just circumvents it. As I stated before, this copy and paste was not even an issue in FF 35 and lower. Wish there was a way to just edit the FF configs to fix this issue. Anyway, thank you again and I will use your bookmarklet code until the fix get implemented, if ever....

I added information about this problem and a simplified test case to the following bug:

#1164884 – Problem copy and paste table from web page to web page

That research also leads me to a simpler workaround: if you copy a table and you can see it isn't pasting correctly, then go back to the source document and inject line breaks before all the tables using this bit of script:

javascript:var tbls=document.querySelectorAll("TABLE"); var br=document.createElement("br"); for(var i=0; i<tbls.length; i++) tbls[i].parentNode.insertBefore(br.cloneNode(false), tbls[i]); void 0;

Then you should be able to copy the table in full by selecting from the blank line before it to the blank line (or beginning of the text) after it. Still inconvenient, I know, but the fidelity should be better than with the previous workaround.