Stupid RTF Question

[Peter Wright]

Feel free to put the emphasis where you want in the subject line.  This should be a no brainer, how do I remove protected text in the rtf editor?  I have an ophaned tag and can't seem to get rid of it because its "protected".

[RoyC]

Not sure what you mean by an orphaned tag. Is it a section tag, listed in the Sections panel on the left? Can you deselect the check box for that tag in the Sections panel? If it is a field tag, perhaps there is more to it than you have highlighted; you need to get the whole thing, including the brackets.

I seem to be able to clean up the experimental work in my sandbox template, but as I said, I'm not sure what actual item you are trying to remove.

[Peter Wright]

Actually it's one of each. I have one half of a section tag (closing half if that has any bearing) and one field tag.  I tried de-checking the section on the right but nothing happened.   Tried rechecking and unchecking too.  No change. The field tag is just there.

When I try to highlight and delete either one I get a "protected text" message.  I thought here was a way to turn off the protection, or does that not aaply to the tags?

[RoyC]

Well, the sections are protected, so you can't delete them (or either of the start or end portions thereof). You just turn them off in the Sections panel (deselect the check box). I suspect that the start of your section is a long way in advance of the end, so it just looks as if the end is an orphan.

As for fields, I can delete text with no background, and I can delete text with a grey background as long as I delete the whole string between (and including) the brackets. I don't have 'bits' left floating around.

Perhaps you could tell us exactly which section and which field value you are having problems with.

[Peter Wright]

I had enough and started a new template.  The page was constructed with only element.notes, requirements, constraints and scenarios.  The requirement, constraints and scenarios all worked as expected - including the ability to delete feilds and re-add them at will.  The exception is the element.notes field.  As soon I attempted to deleted it I lost the background gray color, but the brackets and "Element.Notes" text remained with the message that this is protected text.  

My test form only has one page, which only has three sections on it. The section problem has not re-appeared, so for now I am unable to duplicate the problem.  This is however the third form I had created and each one has had the same problem with the Element.Notes field.

Weird.  

[RoyC]

Yes, weird. I have given the Element.Notes field a good workout, adding it, deleting it, shifting it around, saving the template and all that. Whenever I wanted to delete it, it went without a problem.

If you have this problem again, please send a bug report in to sparx support with a copy of the template.  Thanks.

[Peter Wright]

Thanks RoyC,

After much playing I did manage to narrow it down.  It appears to happen when you shift a field tag within a table - the shift being done either by adding spaces or, more commonly, resetting the ruler tabs.  It seems to happen with any field tag once I knew where to look.

I'll refine the exact cause and report it as a bug later as I have work to get to for now.  Thanks again for your help!

[Happy]

Have you tried to assign a different style (like normal) to the tag (select the tag first)?

You should be able to delete it manually then.

But don't ask me what happens to the template then.

[AndyJ]

I'm not sure that it will help, but I've had similar problems, for example trying to set the font within (my copy of) the structured scenario template.

The protected text problem always seems to occur within tables.

Andy

[Peter Wright]

The idea of selecting the tag and changing the style to normal work in that it allows you to delete either section or field tags - this is a very good thing to know.  

Yes, it does appear that there is a problem with tags and formatting within tables.  On occasion I also get all the formatting hidden code showing up along with the actual, desired text. Deleting the tag and re-applying it seems to clear up the problem.  It is annoying though.  

Sparx is kind of between a rock and a hard place here - rtf is a great format as far as acceptance by a variety of other applications goes but it can be a royal pain sometimes.  Anyone who has ever built old school Windows help files can attest to how flakey rtf can be.

Thanks all!

[Su]

Have you tried the key combination Shift+F9.
I haven’t tried this in the current version of EA (once discovered in a 7.x version).

[skiwi]

See also Unable to modify table in RTF template

[skiwi]

I have just had the same problem occur.

The element name has mysteriously duplicated itself when a new line was added after it.

Do you think I can delete the second one?

[Peter Wright]

Try the trick of selecting it and then changing the style to "normal" and then deleting it - it worked like a charm for me every time.