Quickfix doesn't wok reliably within tables

[andreas]

I've noticed that sometimes Quickfix does not work. E.g. I have "-->" replaced by a proper arrow and *sometimes* this does not work inside a table. In the same document it works outside the table.

I couldn't find any regularity yet. Any ideas?

[martin]

We have a bug filed that using the keyboard (eg: tab) to navigate to other cells doesn't trigger QuickFix or glossary expansions. Do you think that could be the problem in your case?

[andreas]

No, I trigger using the space bar which does not work.

It seems that the problem occurs mainly from the second document in a session onward. So it would work in the first document I open from a template but when I open another one, it stops working.

[martin]

That's odd. The order in which the document was opened seems unlikely to affect the functioning of QuickFix, but it's possible I suppose. Next time you come across an instance of the problem, can try to and trigger QuickFix in that spot again? If it fails, relaunch NWP and try the expansion one last time. If it fails consistently then perhaps you can send us the document for examination so we can see what the problem is. Thanks for any help on this matter.

[andreas]

You're right - it does NOT have anything to do with the order. The problem just occured in the first document of today's session.

Here's a file in which the problem occurs. To test make a rule to replace --> (hyphen, hyphen angled bracket) with a proper arrow in Quickfix.

Then try to do the replacement both inside and below the table.

At my end, it only works below the table.

By the way, why is an RTF file with only some text inside a table almost 3 MB large?

[martin]

Thanks andreas, I've reproduced the problem over here and we'll take a look at fixing it. It's strange that it only happens with certain QuickFix typos like your "-->", I tried some other typos like "teh" and it works fine.

The large file size is in this case triggered by your little "AK" logo in the footer. Even though it's tiny the original image data is upwards of 700K. Saving that data inside RTF balloons the image size even more, as the data is encoded using an inefficient method that allows less robust/modern RTF readers to access the image.

[andreas]

Thanks. Hadn't thought of the image file. I'll have to shrink that, it seems.

[martin]

Mystery solved! It's an easy answer actually, I feel silly having missed it in the first place. The language applied to your table cells is British English, while the document itself is US English. QuickFix entries are language specific, so if you're like me you added the "-->" abbreviation to the US English QuickFix list and not the British list.

It would be nice if we had an "all languages" QuickFix list, but for right now you'll have to add symbols like "-->" to every language you want them to be available in. Either that or put the abbreviation in a glossary file, although those behave slightly differently as they can add attributes to the expanded text.

[andreas]

Thanks, I'll try that.

How would I make a glossary file?

[martin]

You should see controls in your QuickFix preferences for manipulating glossary files. Once you've created a file, you add entries to it, each one separated by a glossary break inserted via the menu Insert > Glossary Entry Break. Each entry is an abbreviation followed by a tab character and then the text to expand to. You may want to look it up under NWP's help file for more details.

[andreas]

Thanks. I had overlooked that box above the quickfix list. I'm going to give it a try.