In the linked jsfiddle on chrome 23 and safari 5.1.7, if you delete all the text in the orange section, then start typing again, the text appears to be styled the same, but rather than having a <span> with the appropriate class, it has the computed style that makes up that class. Expected Behavior: The span that was there to begin with should remain, or a clone of it that has the same classes and attributes. Actual Behavior: Computed style is used, rendering explicit styles surrounding the text, making the use of a rich text editor that allows for custom formatting a bit difficult to parse (if it's looking for the classes that were originally there).