diff -ru typo3_src-4.2.0RC1.orig/typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/class.tslib_content.php typo3_src-4.2.0RC1.new/typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/class.tslib_content.php
--- typo3_src-4.2.0RC1.orig/typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/class.tslib_content.php	2008-04-01 23:36:30.000000000 +0200
+++ typo3_src-4.2.0RC1.new/typo3/sysext/cms/tslib/class.tslib_content.php	2008-04-10 11:56:05.000000000 +0200
@@ -3667,25 +3667,96 @@
 	 * @access private
 	 * @see stdWrap()
 	 */
-	function crop($content,$options)	{
+	function crop($content,$options) {
 		$options = explode('|',$options);
 		$chars = intval($options[0]);
-		$afterstring = trim($options[1]);
-		$crop2space = trim($options[2]);
-		if ($chars)	{
-			if (strlen($content)>abs($chars))	{
-				if ($chars<0)	{
-					$content = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset,$content,$chars);
-					$trunc_at = strpos($content, ' ');
-					$content = ($trunc_at&&$crop2space) ? $afterstring.substr($content,$trunc_at) : $afterstring.$content;
+		$replacementForEllipsis = trim($options[1]);
+		$crop2space = isset($options[2]) ? trim($options[2]) : 0;
+
+		// split $content into an array (even items in the array are outside the tags, odd numbers are tag-blocks)		
+		$tags= 'a|b|blockquote|body|div|em|font|form|h1|h2|h3|h4|h5|h6|i|li|map|ol|option|p|pre|sub|sup|select|span|strong|table|td|textarea|tr|u|ul|br|hr|img|input|area|link';
+		$tagsRegEx = "
+			(
+				(?:
+					<!--.*?-->
+				)
+				|
+				</?(?:". $tags . ")+
+				(?:
+					(?:
+						\s+\w+ 
+						(?:
+							\s*=?\s*
+							(?>
+								\".*?\"
+								|
+								'.*?'
+								|
+								[^'\">\s]+
+							)
+						)?
+					)+
+					\s*|\s*
+				)
+				/?>
+			)";
+		$splittedContent = preg_split("#" . $tagsRegEx . "#ux", $content, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
+		// reverse array if we are cropping from right
+		if ($chars < 0) $splittedContent = array_reverse($splittedContent);
+
+		// crop the text (chars of tag-blocks are not counted)
+		$strLen = 0;
+		$croppedOffset = NULL; // offset of the content item which was cropped
+		for ($offset = 0; $offset < count($splittedContent); $offset++) {
+			if ($offset%2 === 0) {
+				$thisStrLen = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->strlen($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset, html_entity_decode($splittedContent[$offset],ENT_COMPAT,$GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset));
+				if (($strLen + $thisStrLen > abs($chars))) {
+					$croppedOffset = $offset;
+					$cropPosition = abs($chars) - $strLen;
+					if ($crop2space) {
+						$cropRegEx = $chars < 0 ? '#(?<=\s).{0,' . $cropPosition . '}$#ui' : '#^.{0,' . $cropPosition . '}(?=\s)#ui';						
+					} else {
+						$cropRegEx = $chars < 0 ? '#(.(?![^&\s]{2,7};)|(&[^&\s;]{2,7};)){0,' . $cropPosition . '}$#ui' : '#^(.(?![^&\s]{2,7};)|(&[^&\s;]{2,7};)){0,' . $cropPosition . '}#ui';
+					}
+					if (preg_match($cropRegEx, $splittedContent[$offset], $croppedMatch)) $splittedContent[$offset] = $croppedMatch[0];
+					break;
 				} else {
-					$content = $GLOBALS['TSFE']->csConvObj->substr($GLOBALS['TSFE']->renderCharset,$content,0,$chars);
-					$trunc_at = strrpos($content, ' ');
-					$content = ($trunc_at&&$crop2space) ? substr($content, 0, $trunc_at).$afterstring : $content.$afterstring;
+					$strLen += $thisStrLen;
 				}
 			}
 		}
-		return $content;
+
+		// close cropped tags
+		$closingTags = array();
+		if($croppedOffset !== NULL) {
+			$tagName = '';
+			$openingTagRegEx = '#^<(\w+)(?:\s|>)#u';
+			$closingTagRegEx = '#^</(\w+)(?:\s|>)#u';
+			for ($offset=$croppedOffset-1; $offset >= 0; $offset = $offset-2) {
+				if (preg_match('&/>$&', $splittedContent[$offset])) continue; // ignore empty element tags (e.g. <br />)
+				preg_match($chars < 0 ? $closingTagRegEx : $openingTagRegEx, $splittedContent[$offset], $matches);
+				$tagName = isset($matches[1]) ? $matches[1] : NULL;
+				if ($tagName !== NULL) {
+					// seek for the closing (or opening) tag
+					$seekingTagName = '';
+					for ($seekingOffset = $offset + 2; $seekingOffset < count($splittedContent); $seekingOffset = $seekingOffset + 2) {
+						preg_match($chars < 0 ? $openingTagRegEx : $closingTagRegEx, $splittedContent[$seekingOffset], $matches);
+						$seekingTagName = isset($matches[1]) ? $matches[1] : NULL;
+						if ($tagName === $seekingTagName) { // we found a matching tag
+							// add closing tag only if it occurs after the cropped content item
+							if ($seekingOffset > $croppedOffset) $closingTags[] = $splittedContent[$seekingOffset];
+							break;
+						}
+					}
+				}
+			}
+			array_splice($splittedContent, $croppedOffset + 1);	// drop the cropped items of the content array
+		}
+		$splittedContent = array_merge($splittedContent, array($croppedOffset !== NULL ? $replacementForEllipsis : ''), $closingTags);				
+		// reverse array once again  if we are cropping from the end
+		if ($chars < 0) $splittedContent = array_reverse($splittedContent);
+
+		return implode('', $splittedContent);
 	}
 
 	/**