diff --git a/AppKit/Platform/DOM/CPPlatformString.j b/AppKit/Platform/DOM/CPPlatformString.j
index 96c1dccb2..592a3b332 100644
--- a/AppKit/Platform/DOM/CPPlatformString.j
+++ b/AppKit/Platform/DOM/CPPlatformString.j
@@ -22,9 +22,10 @@
 
 #include "../CoreGraphics/CGGeometry.h"
 
-var DOMSpanElement      = nil,
-    DOMIFrameElement    = nil,
-    DefaultFont         = nil;
+var DOMFixedWidthSpanElement    = nil,
+    DOMFlexibleWidthSpanElement = nil,
+    DOMIFrameElement            = nil,
+    DefaultFont                 = nil;
 
 @implementation CPPlatformString : CPBasePlatformString
 {
@@ -37,25 +38,30 @@ var DOMSpanElement      = nil,
 
 + (void)createDOMElements
 {
+    var style;
+
     DOMIFrameElement = document.createElement("iframe");
     // necessary for Safari caching bug:
     DOMIFrameElement.name = "iframe_" + FLOOR(RAND() * 10000);
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.position = "absolute";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.left = "-100px";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.top = "-100px";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.width = "1px";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.height = "1px";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.borderWidth = "0px";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.overflow = "hidden";
-    DOMIFrameElement.style.zIndex = 100000000000;
     DOMIFrameElement.className = "cpdontremove";
 
+    style = DOMIFrameElement.style;
+    style.position = "absolute";
+    style.left = "-100px";
+    style.top = "-100px";
+    style.width = "1px";
+    style.height = "1px";
+    style.borderWidth = "0px";
+    style.overflow = "hidden";
+    style.zIndex = 100000000000;
+
     var bodyElement = [CPPlatform mainBodyElement];
 
     bodyElement.appendChild(DOMIFrameElement);
 
     var DOMIFrameDocument = (DOMIFrameElement.contentDocument || DOMIFrameElement.contentWindow.document);
-    DOMIFrameDocument.write("<html><head></head><body></body></html>");
+    DOMIFrameDocument.write('<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">'+
+                            '<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"><head></head><body></body></html>');
     DOMIFrameDocument.close();
 
     // IE needs this wide <div> to prevent unwanted text wrapping:
@@ -65,18 +71,39 @@ var DOMSpanElement      = nil,
 
     DOMIFrameDocument.body.appendChild(DOMDivElement);
 
-    DOMSpanElement = DOMIFrameDocument.createElement("span");
-    DOMSpanElement.style.position = "absolute";
-    DOMSpanElement.style.visibility = "visible";
-    DOMSpanElement.style.padding = "0px";
-    DOMSpanElement.style.margin = "0px";
+    DOMFlexibleWidthSpanElement = DOMIFrameDocument.createElement("span");
+    style = DOMFlexibleWidthSpanElement.style;
+    style.position = "absolute";
+    style.visibility = "visible";
+    style.padding = "0px";
+    style.margin = "0px";
+    style.whiteSpace = "pre";
 
-    try {
-        DOMSpanElement.style.whiteSpace = "pre";
+    DOMFixedWidthSpanElement = DOMIFrameDocument.createElement("span");
+    style = DOMFixedWidthSpanElement.style;
+    style.display = "block";
+    style.position = "absolute";
+    style.visibility = "visible";
+    style.padding = "0px";
+    style.margin = "0px";
+    style.width = "1px";
+    style.wordWrap = "break-word";
+    try
+    {
+        style.whiteSpace = "pre";
+        style.whiteSpace = "-o-pre-wrap";
+        style.whiteSpace = "-pre-wrap";
+        style.whiteSpace = "-moz-pre-wrap";
+        style.whiteSpace = "pre-wrap";
+    }
+    catch(e)
+    {
+        //some versions of IE throw exceptions for unsupported properties.
+        style.whiteSpace = "pre";
     }
-    catch (e) {}
 
-    DOMDivElement.appendChild(DOMSpanElement);
+    DOMDivElement.appendChild(DOMFlexibleWidthSpanElement);
+    DOMDivElement.appendChild(DOMFixedWidthSpanElement);
 }
 
 + (CGSize)sizeOfString:(CPString)aString withFont:(CPFont)aFont forWidth:(float)aWidth
@@ -92,44 +119,23 @@ var DOMSpanElement      = nil,
     if (!DOMIFrameElement)
         [self createDOMElements];
 
-    var style = DOMSpanElement.style;
-
+    var span;
     if (!aWidth)
-    {
-        style.width = "";
-
-        try {
-            style.whiteSpace = "pre";
-        }
-        catch (e) {}
-
-        style.wordWrap = "normal";
-    }
+        span = DOMFlexibleWidthSpanElement;
     else
     {
-        style.width = ROUND(aWidth) + "px";
-        try
-        {
-            style.whiteSpace = "-o-pre-wrap";
-            style.whiteSpace = "-pre-wrap";
-            style.whiteSpace = "-moz-pre-wrap";
-            style.whiteSpace = "pre-wrap";
-        } catch(e)
-        {
-            //some versions of IE throw exceptions for unsupported properties.
-        }
-
-        style.wordWrap = "break-word";
+        span = DOMFixedWidthSpanElement;
+        span.style.width = ROUND(aWidth) + "px";
     }
 
-    style.font = [aFont cssString];
+    span.style.font = [aFont cssString];
 
     if (CPFeatureIsCompatible(CPJavascriptInnerTextFeature))
-        DOMSpanElement.innerText = aString;
+        span.innerText = aString;
     else if (CPFeatureIsCompatible(CPJavascriptTextContentFeature))
-        DOMSpanElement.textContent = aString;
+        span.textContent = aString;
 
-    return _CGSizeMake(DOMSpanElement.clientWidth, DOMSpanElement.clientHeight);
+    return _CGSizeMake(span.clientWidth, span.clientHeight);
 }
 
 @end
diff --git a/AppKit/_CPImageAndTextView.j b/AppKit/_CPImageAndTextView.j
index c611c4c0a..e17e86de1 100644
--- a/AppKit/_CPImageAndTextView.j
+++ b/AppKit/_CPImageAndTextView.j
@@ -386,6 +386,7 @@ var HORIZONTAL_MARGIN   = 3.0,
             shadowStyle.font = [_font ? _font : [CPFont systemFontOfSize:12.0] cssString];
             shadowStyle.position = "absolute";
             shadowStyle.whiteSpace = textStyle.whiteSpace;
+            shadowStyle.wordWrap = textStyle.wordWrap;
             shadowStyle.color = [_textShadowColor cssString];
 
             shadowStyle.zIndex = 150;
@@ -394,7 +395,6 @@ var HORIZONTAL_MARGIN   = 3.0,
             if (document.attachEvent)
             {
                 shadowStyle.overflow = textStyle.overflow;
-                shadowStyle.wordWrap = textStyle.wordWrap;
             }
             else
             {
@@ -447,9 +447,7 @@ var HORIZONTAL_MARGIN   = 3.0,
                 case CPLineBreakByClipping:         textStyle.overflow = "hidden";
                                                     textStyle.textOverflow = "clip";
                                                     textStyle.whiteSpace = "pre";
-                                                    
-                                                    if (document.attachEvent)
-                                                        textStyle.wordWrap = "normal"; 
+                                                    textStyle.wordWrap = "normal"; 
                                                     
                                                     break;
                 
@@ -459,26 +457,23 @@ var HORIZONTAL_MARGIN   = 3.0,
                 case CPLineBreakByTruncatingTail:   textStyle.textOverflow = "ellipsis";
                                                     textStyle.whiteSpace = "nowrap";
                                                     textStyle.overflow = "hidden";
-                                                    
-                                                    if (document.attachEvent)
-                                                        textStyle.wordWrap = "normal"; 
+                                                    textStyle.wordWrap = "normal"; 
                                                                      
                                                     break;
                      
                 case CPLineBreakByCharWrapping:                               
-                case CPLineBreakByWordWrapping:     if (document.attachEvent)
-                                                    {                                            
+                case CPLineBreakByWordWrapping:     textStyle.wordWrap = "break-word";
+                                                    try {
                                                         textStyle.whiteSpace = "pre";
-                                                        textStyle.wordWrap = "break-word";
-                                                    }
-                                                    
-                                                    else
-                                                    {
                                                         textStyle.whiteSpace = "-o-pre-wrap";
                                                         textStyle.whiteSpace = "-pre-wrap";
                                                         textStyle.whiteSpace = "-moz-pre-wrap";
                                                         textStyle.whiteSpace = "pre-wrap";
                                                     }
+                                                    catch (e) {
+                                                        //internet explorer doesn't like these properties
+                                                        textStyle.whiteSpace = "pre";
+                                                    }
                                                     
                                                     textStyle.overflow = "hidden";
                                                     textStyle.textOverflow = "clip";
@@ -490,7 +485,6 @@ var HORIZONTAL_MARGIN   = 3.0,
             {
                 if (document.attachEvent)
                 {
-                    shadowStyle.wordWrap = textStyle.wordWrap;            
                     shadowStyle.overflow = textStyle.overflow;
                 }
                 else
@@ -499,6 +493,7 @@ var HORIZONTAL_MARGIN   = 3.0,
                     shadowStyle.overflowY = textStyle.overflowY;
                 }
 
+                shadowStyle.wordWrap = textStyle.wordWrap;
                 shadowStyle.whiteSpace = textStyle.whiteSpace;
                 shadowStyle.textOverflow = textStyle.textOverflow;
             }