Yes I do see what you have explained (though I don't have to delete the space to see all code is at the very beginning).
My point was that this is unnecessary if a placeholder is a graphic object rather than text. Grouping his text was to allow gpholman to retain the WYSIWYG effect he may have wanted to keep

However, there is a circumstance where a text character can be used as a HTML placeholder.. But I will leave you guessing on this one until the WD6 tweaks thread is ready