diff --git a/inception/inception-external-editor/src/main/java/de/tudarmstadt/ukp/inception/externaleditor/xhtml/XHtmlXmlDocumentViewControllerImpl.java b/inception/inception-external-editor/src/main/java/de/tudarmstadt/ukp/inception/externaleditor/xhtml/XHtmlXmlDocumentViewControllerImpl.java
index 477b0d603fb..e06dbf1d75b 100644
--- a/inception/inception-external-editor/src/main/java/de/tudarmstadt/ukp/inception/externaleditor/xhtml/XHtmlXmlDocumentViewControllerImpl.java
+++ b/inception/inception-external-editor/src/main/java/de/tudarmstadt/ukp/inception/externaleditor/xhtml/XHtmlXmlDocumentViewControllerImpl.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 import static java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles.lookup;
 import static java.util.Optional.ofNullable;
+import static javax.xml.XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX;
 import static org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger;
 import static org.springframework.http.HttpStatus.OK;
 import static org.springframework.http.MediaType.IMAGE_GIF;
@@ -26,14 +27,11 @@
 import static org.springframework.http.MediaType.IMAGE_PNG;
 
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.security.Principal;
 import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Optional;
 
-import javax.xml.XMLConstants;
-
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.uima.cas.CAS;
 import org.dkpro.core.api.xml.type.XmlDocument;
@@ -64,7 +62,6 @@
 import de.tudarmstadt.ukp.inception.externaleditor.policy.DefaultHtmlDocumentPolicy;
 import de.tudarmstadt.ukp.inception.externaleditor.policy.SafetyNetDocumentPolicy;
 import de.tudarmstadt.ukp.inception.externaleditor.xml.XmlCas2SaxEvents;
-import de.tudarmstadt.ukp.inception.io.xml.dkprocore.Cas2SaxEvents;
 import de.tudarmstadt.ukp.inception.support.wicket.ServletContextUtils;
 import jakarta.servlet.ServletContext;
 
@@ -87,6 +84,7 @@ public class XHtmlXmlDocumentViewControllerImpl
     private static final String BODY = "body";
     private static final String HEAD = "head";
     private static final String P = "p";
+    private static final String SPAN = "span";
 
     private final DocumentService documentService;
     private final DocumentStorageService documentStorageService;
@@ -160,12 +158,8 @@ public ResponseEntity<String> getDocument(@PathVariable("projectId") long aProje
             // If the CAS contains an actual HTML structure, then we send that. Mind that we do
             // not inject format-specific CSS then!
             if (casContainsHtml) {
-                var xml = maybeXmlDocument.get();
                 startXHtmlDocument(rawHandler);
-
-                var serializer = new XmlCas2SaxEvents(xml, finalHandler);
-                serializer.process(xml.getRoot());
-
+                renderXmlContent(finalHandler, maybeXmlDocument.get());
                 endXHtmlDocument(rawHandler);
                 return toResponse(out);
             }
@@ -173,31 +167,35 @@ public ResponseEntity<String> getDocument(@PathVariable("projectId") long aProje
             startXHtmlDocument(rawHandler);
 
             rawHandler.startElement(null, null, HTML, null);
-
             renderHead(doc, rawHandler);
 
-            rawHandler.startElement(null, null, BODY, null);
             if (maybeXmlDocument.isEmpty()) {
                 // Gracefully handle the case that the CAS does not contain any XML structure at all
                 // and show only the document text in this case.
+                var atts = new AttributesImpl();
+                atts.addAttribute("", "", "class", "CDATA", "i7n-plain-text-document");
+                rawHandler.startElement(null, null, BODY, atts);
                 renderTextContent(cas, finalHandler);
+                rawHandler.endElement(null, null, BODY);
             }
             else {
+                rawHandler.startElement(null, null, BODY, null);
+
                 var formatPolicy = formatRegistry.getFormatPolicy(doc);
                 var defaultNamespace = formatPolicy.flatMap(policy -> policy.getDefaultNamespace());
 
                 if (defaultNamespace.isPresent()) {
-                    finalHandler.startPrefixMapping(XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX,
-                            defaultNamespace.get());
+                    finalHandler.startPrefixMapping(DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX, defaultNamespace.get());
                 }
 
-                renderXmlContent(doc, finalHandler, aEditor, maybeXmlDocument.get());
+                renderXmlContent(finalHandler, maybeXmlDocument.get());
 
                 if (defaultNamespace.isPresent()) {
-                    finalHandler.endPrefixMapping(XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX);
+                    finalHandler.endPrefixMapping(DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX);
                 }
+
+                rawHandler.endElement(null, null, BODY);
             }
-            rawHandler.endElement(null, null, BODY);
 
             rawHandler.endElement(null, null, HTML);
 
@@ -229,27 +227,34 @@ private void renderHead(SourceDocument doc, ContentHandler ch) throws SAXExcepti
         ch.endElement(null, null, HEAD);
     }
 
-    private void renderXmlContent(SourceDocument doc, ContentHandler ch, Optional<String> aEditor,
-            XmlDocument aXmlDocument)
-        throws IOException, SAXException
+    private void renderXmlContent(ContentHandler ch, XmlDocument aXmlDocument) throws SAXException
     {
-        Cas2SaxEvents serializer = new XmlCas2SaxEvents(aXmlDocument, ch);
+        var serializer = new XmlCas2SaxEvents(aXmlDocument, ch);
         serializer.process(aXmlDocument.getRoot());
     }
 
     private void renderTextContent(CAS cas, ContentHandler ch) throws SAXException
     {
+        var lineAttribs = new AttributesImpl();
+        lineAttribs.addAttribute("", "", "class", "CDATA", "data-i7n-tracking");
+
         var text = cas.getDocumentText().toCharArray();
         ch.startElement(null, null, P, null);
+        ch.startElement(null, null, SPAN, lineAttribs);
+
         var lineBreakSequenceLength = 0;
         for (int i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
             if (text[i] == '\n') {
                 lineBreakSequenceLength++;
+                ch.endElement(null, null, SPAN);
+                ch.startElement(null, null, SPAN, lineAttribs);
             }
             else if (text[i] != '\r') {
                 if (lineBreakSequenceLength > 1) {
+                    ch.endElement(null, null, SPAN);
                     ch.endElement(null, null, P);
                     ch.startElement(null, null, P, null);
+                    ch.startElement(null, null, SPAN, lineAttribs);
                 }
 
                 lineBreakSequenceLength = 0;
@@ -257,6 +262,8 @@ else if (text[i] != '\r') {
 
             ch.characters(text, i, 1);
         }
+
+        ch.endElement(null, null, SPAN);
         ch.endElement(null, null, P);
     }
 
diff --git a/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorEditor.scss b/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorEditor.scss
index 0edb54a802e..a8afa8b72a3 100644
--- a/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorEditor.scss
+++ b/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorEditor.scss
@@ -74,6 +74,10 @@ html > body {
   cursor: col-resize; 
 }
 
+.i7n-plain-text-document {
+  white-space: pre-line;
+}
+
 .i7n-wrapper {
   position: relative;
   line-height: 1.8;
diff --git a/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorVisualizer.ts b/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorVisualizer.ts
index 3e0a58c9c51..b414ac986e8 100644
--- a/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorVisualizer.ts
+++ b/inception/inception-html-apache-annotator-editor/src/main/ts/src/apache-annotator/ApacheAnnotatorVisualizer.ts
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@ export class ApacheAnnotatorVisualizer {
       const startTime = new Date().getTime()
       this.renderHighlight(span, begin, end, attributes)
       const endTime = new Date().getTime()
-      console.debug(`Rendering span with size ${end - begin} took ${Math.abs(endTime - startTime)}ms`)
+      // console.debug(`Rendering span with size ${end - begin} took ${Math.abs(endTime - startTime)}ms`)
     } else {
       // Try optimizing for long spans to improve rendering performance
       let fragmentCount = 0
@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ export class ApacheAnnotatorVisualizer {
         fragmentCount++
       }
       const endTime = new Date().getTime()
-      console.debug(`Rendering span with size ${end - begin} took ${Math.abs(endTime - startTime)}ms (${fragmentCount} fragments)`)
+      // console.debug(`Rendering span with size ${end - begin} took ${Math.abs(endTime - startTime)}ms (${fragmentCount} fragments)`)
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/inception/inception-js-api/src/main/ts/src/util/ViewportTracker.ts b/inception/inception-js-api/src/main/ts/src/util/ViewportTracker.ts
index 9701f78d998..b197e095805 100644
--- a/inception/inception-js-api/src/main/ts/src/util/ViewportTracker.ts
+++ b/inception/inception-js-api/src/main/ts/src/util/ViewportTracker.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ export type ViewportTrackerOptions = {
 }
 
 export const NO_TRACKING_CLASS = 'data-i7n-no-tracking'
+export const TRACKING_CLASS = 'data-i7n-tracking'
 
 export class ViewportTracker {
   private _visibleElements = new Set<Element>()
@@ -68,6 +69,10 @@ export class ViewportTracker {
   }
 
   private shouldTrack (element: Element): boolean {
+    if (element.classList.contains(TRACKING_CLASS)) {
+      return true
+    }
+
     if (this.options?.ignoreSelector && element.matches(this.options.ignoreSelector)) {
       return false
     }