blank space at beginning of textareas ?

I can understand their being default formats but surely if i just type the word test in it should be passed as plain text or at the very most it should be within a paragraph i.e. <p>test</p> but in fact it shows as

<p>
test</p>

i.e. <p> followed by a carriage return then a tab then the word test and then finally the end of paragraph </p>

how "exactly" do i remove the carriage return and tab indent for any text entered ?

my existing code is along the lines of the following:-

      echo "<tr><td width=\"150\" valign=\"top\"><b>"._NUKECADSDESC ." <font color=\"red\">*</font> \n";
    $_SESSION[ckfinder_baseUrl] = "http://www.mysite.com/modules/Motorhome_Sales/uploads/";
     $_SESSION[ckfinder_baseDir] = "/home/admin/public_html/modules/Motorhome_Sales/uploads/";
    echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"includes/wysiwyg/ckeditor/ckeditor.js\"></script>";
    echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"includes/wysiwyg/ckfinder/ckfinder.js\"></script>";         
      if($featured=='1') {
         echo "<BR>($FeaturedDescLength "._NUKECADSMAXCHARS.")</b></td>\n";
         echo "<td><textarea class=\"ckeditor\" id=\"editor1\" name=\"cdesc\" cols=\"80\" rows=\"8\" style=\"width:=400\"></textarea>";
      } else {
         echo "<BR>($DescLength "._NUKECADSMAXCHARS.") </b></td>\n";
         echo "<td><textarea  class=\"ckeditor\" id=\"editor1\" name=\"cdesc\" cols=\"80\" rows=\"8\" style=\"width:=400\"></textarea>";
      }
      
        ?>   
      <script type="text/javascript">

// This is a check for the CKEditor class. If not defined, the paths must be checked.
if ( typeof CKEDITOR == 'undefined' )
{
   document.write(
      '<strong><span style="color: #ff0000">Error</span>: CKEditor not found</strong>.' +
      'This sample assumes that CKEditor (not included with CKFinder) is installed in' +
      'the "/ckeditor/" path. If you have it installed in a different place, just edit' +
      'this file, changing the wrong paths in the &lt;head&gt; (line 5) and the "BasePath"' +
      'value (line 32).' ) ;
}
else
{
   var editor = CKEDITOR.replace( 'editor1' );
   editor.setData( '' );
   
   // Just call CKFinder.SetupCKEditor and pass the CKEditor instance as the first argument.
   // The second parameter (optional), is the path for the CKFinder installation (default = "/ckfinder/").
   CKFinder.SetupCKEditor( editor, '/includes/wysiwyg/ckfinder/' ) ;

   // It is also possible to pass an object with selected CKFinder properties as a second argument.
   // CKFinder.SetupCKEditor( editor, { BasePath : '../../', RememberLastFolder : false } ) ;   
}

      </script>           

Do i have to change this code, or is there a ckeditor file that i can change to change the settings sitewide ?

Another question unrelated to the above is there any way of counting up the number of characters that the source html is using and displaying them as the user types in the textarea ? I used to have this working with code for a plain textarea but obviously this doesn't work when used in conjunction with ckeditor ?