Question

I try to append some data to a dom element using both

$("#slider-hide").append("some text");

and even

document.getElementById("slider-hide").innerHTML += "some text";

but the text is not visible until i perform a browser search for it and once i perform the search it is permanently visible …
It is not a css issue

I have tested in both chrome and safari and it gives me the same issues.

heres the full function

$("#expand").click(
                function()
                {
                    $("#right_arrow").hide();
                    $("#left_arrow").hide();

                    var ht = document.getElementById('graph-div').offsetHeight;

                    $("#graph-div").animate({height:ht*numberOfSlides},"slow");
                    currentPosition = 0;
                    $("#energy_tag").html(orders_arr[currentPosition]);
                    $(".highcharts-legend").hide();

                    var item1 = $("#business-chart").html();

                    $("#slider-hide").append("fasfdsafdsafdsafdsfdsafdsafdsafdsafds");
                    document.getElementById("slider-hide").innerHTML += "some text";
                }
            );

EDIT:
Here’s the concerned html div

<div class="content_boundary" style="background-color:#e3e3e3" >
  <h2 style="text-align:center;font-size:20px;" id="energy_tag" class="tab_first_col">Energy</h2>
  <div style="position:relative;" id="graph-div">
    <a href="#" class="control" id="left_arrow">
      <img  src="stylesheets/images/arrow_side_normal_left.png" style="position:absolute;top:100px;left:10px;"></img>
    </a>
    <div class="slider-hide" id="slider-hide">
      <div id="business-chart" class="orders-by-busines"> </div>
      <div id="business-chart1" class="orders-by-busines"> </div>
      <div id="business-chart2" class="orders-by-busines"> </div>
      <div id="business-chart3" class="orders-by-busines"> </div>
      <div id="business-chart4" class="orders-by-busines"> </div>
      <div id="business-chart5" class="orders-by-busines"> </div>
    </div>
    <div class="clear"></div>
    <a href="#" class="control" id="right_arrow">
      <img  src="stylesheets/images/arrow_side_normal_right.png" style="position:absolute;right:10px;top:100px;" ></img>
    </a>
  </div>

Screen shot

Answer 1

Working code: http://jsfiddle.net/wPdWF

When I first ran your code I was getting undeclared variable errors on numberOfSlides and orders_arr. The exact lines it errors on are:

$("#energy_tag").html(orders_arr[currentPosition]);

$("#graph-div").animate({
        height: ht * numberOfSlides
}, "slow");

When I declared test values for those two variables the append code was working fine. Where do you declare the above variables in your code?