Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

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Sarah Kaye
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Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Sarah Kaye »

Hi Tim and everybody else,
I have a very large Word document which contains tons of code. Each bit of code is in a one-cell table without a border and shaded in grey.
BUT when I copy and paste them into H&M - H&M puts a border round the table - and I have to go into each table in H&M and right-click on Properties and remove the border. And we are talking hundreds of little tables!!
Tim - I know there must be a better way!!! What is it?
Thanks very much, Sarah Kaye
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Tim Green
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Sarah,

Hmm... that sucks. This appears to be an error on pasting the table; a border property is being added on insertion. I'm going to get our developers onto it right away but it may be tomorrow afternoon before I get a reply because they're at a workshop this afternoon. :|
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Winsteps
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Winsteps »

Sarah, really fast for this type of problem is a global replace in the HM XML files.
1. Remove the border from one table. Leave the others.
2. Save your HM project as a new project folder of XML files.
3. Locate the table without the border. What is its XML border code?
4. Locate a table with a border. What is its XML border code?
5. Global replace border 4. with border 3. (PowerGREP is great for this.)
6. Load the new project folder into HM - if all OK continue, if not back to 2. and try again.
Sarah Kaye
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Sarah Kaye »

Thanks Tim! Always exciting to find a bug!
Winsteps - thank you very much for your practical advice. I don't have PowerGrep or the other tool recommended by the H&M Help so although I can see what the XML differences are - I don't see how I can search and replace within the XML.
Thanks, Sarah
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Tim Green
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Sarah,

The issue has been located, it's in the editor engine and hopefully a fix will be coming soon. 8)

For searching and replacing in multiple XML files, the problem is that you need to do "complex searches" for searching and replacing text with variable content. In this case you need to be able to find table tags that have a border set and replace only the border setting without changing the other attributes and settings, which may be different in each table. PowerGREP is really a great tool for this, but only if you feel comfortable with regular expressions, which seem to be a black art before you get used to them. Another alternative is Rob Chandler's great FAR HTML toolkit for help authors, which has a complex search and replace tool that, while not exactly simple, is still much easier to learn than regular expressions.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Sarah Kaye
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Sarah Kaye »

I didn't realize FAR was free! OK - I've downloaded it now. Wish me luck!
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Tim Green
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by Tim Green »

FAR isn't free (or wasn't the last time I looked) but it is inexpensive and has a very generous fully-functional free trial period. 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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John Waller
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Re: Copied Table from Word (H&M adds border) - help!

Unread post by John Waller »

Sarah Kaye wrote:I didn't realize FAR was free! OK - I've downloaded it now. Wish me luck!
The FAR Trial is free for 30 days only.

After that you must pay for a license - starting at US$72 for a single copy.
Regards

John Waller
v.6.2.2 Build 2636
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