VFE onItemChange event

System

I have to set a flag in the DCR if a user updates a VFE-inlined textarea. I am using an onItemChange event, but it fires when the user does not change the content. Apparently the VFE field has the focus when the form loads, then they click on some other item and the onChange happens even though they didn't make a change. I figured I could take a copy of the value onLoad and compare it to the current value in the event handler, but again, even though the user did not make a change it appears that the value of the field has changed (some linefeeds and such). The DCRs were written from an import process and VFE seems to be reformatting the HTML. If I make the external-editor-inline f, then the onChange only happens when they press "OK" in the callout (even if they didn't actually make a change). Lame, but acceptable I guess, but making it a callout might not be acceptable to the users (there's only one VFE in the template, and that's basically all the users work with).

How can I execute logic only when the user has changed the value of a VFE-enabled field, whether inlined or callout?

Migrateduser

Or alternatively, onLoad can I fire off the VFE scrub process, then take a copy of the data? That way I should be able to detect user changes. How can I logically trigger the VFE scrub or whatever it's doing?