too_long error message when copy and pasting in a page

[jfrugaletti]

Each week I copy and paste a previous agenda onto the top of the same page (so I have one page with a running list of agendas.)  Often, I get an error message of "too_long" and the page will not save. After researching possible issues here in the Community, I found a couple replies that indicated it had to do with posting images. I have since removed all images, but I still get the message.  I also chatted with a Canvas help person to specifically ask if there was a maximum file size for a page, or max length - to which he replied there was no max.  

Any ideas how to stop this from happening??

[mzimmerman]

Hi @jfrugaletti 

If you're cutting and pasting from another source like MS Word, my guess is that there is a lot of hidden formatting code that is being included in what you are pasting.

The first thing I would do is take a look at the page in HTML view (see https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-use-the-HTML-view-in-the-Rich-Content-E... ) to see how much excess formatting code is there.  If there appears to be a lot--more hidden formatting code than actual text, for instance--I would look at using the "Clear formatting" option in the text editor to see if you can get rid of the excess formatting codes.:

[jfrugaletti]

Thank you for your help.  Unfortunately, that isn't the issue. I am copy and pasting from the Canvas page, into the Canvas page - then editing the copied version.  They are just tables with text and links.  

[JeffW · Accepted solution]

Hi @jfrugaletti 

I am sorry to hear you are still looking for an answer. There actually are some limitations depending on what kind of content you are working with in Canvas. What you may be running in to is a character limit. Generally this is a very large value for pages, a lot of HTML can take up that space. This can be things like <span> and <div> tags. I would advise checking the HTML view to see what it looks like. If you have tables and such that can really add on to the character count. 

Check out the limits here - https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Resource-Documents/Canvas-Character-Limits/ta-p/529365

[jfrugaletti]

Thank you - this is the info I was looking for.  😃