Why are the Control Settings fields Rich Text?

N
Badge +8

Why are so many Control Settings set as Rich Text? I can understand it for the Default Value of a textbox. 

But why are so many others the same? The Client ID JavaScript variable name, for example. 

It just makes it that much more difficult when I have to type each and every single variable, when I've already got them typed up in the code I'm using. Every time I have to hand-type something I've already typed correctly is one more instance of a higher chance of incorrect information. It just seems like a poor choice, but maybe there's a reason for it and I just don't know. Can someone enlighten me?

10 replies

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

I do not know why they are designed as reach text, but you need not care about that.

once you save configuration it's converted to plaintext.

N
Badge +8

Does that work for everyone else? They don't convert for me when I copy and paste something into it. You'll notice that there's line breaks and extra space in the variable name still. This is when copy and pasting from Excel.

L
Badge +9

Instead of Excel, can you try from a Notepad, it will help.

N
Badge +8

That defeats the purpose of why I was using Excel. I love Notepad and Notepad++ as much as anyone else, but it's functionality is lacking in this case. The problem isn't the source material, it's that the fields are rich text and/or failing to convert entered information(if even designed to do so). 

This is what I'm doing with Excel. Keeping track of all the variables I'm using in a form with a lot of controls and a heavy workflow. I concatenate different columns to make sure everything keeps the same structure and there aren't any typos or forgotten prefixes. 

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

to be honest I've never copied anything from excel into designer...

but I experienced the same behavior when I tried it.

anyway, from excel you can copy just plain text as follows

- select cell

- dobleclick into formula bar

- ctrl-C

it's one doubleclick more, but I believe it's manageable happy.png

N
Badge +8

Close. That only works if you're not actually using a formula. If I was to copy the formula bar from my Excel sheet I would have "=CONCATENATE("var",C9)".

There's a few ways to work around this(like copy and pasting the cell contents into N++ and then copy pasting from N++ to Nintex), but my question really was why would it be designed in a way that requires a workaround. I'm no guru in any of the subjects we're talking about but I can't think of a single reason why they would be rich text fields. It doesn't seem to serve a purpose at all and if it doesn't serve a purpose, generally, it shouldn't be in there. I believe it actually increases the usefulness of Nintex by removing the "feature" of rich text control fields(except for those that make sense, like label and textbox contents).

MegaJerk
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

You should be able to solve this by using Ctrl + Shift + V (paste as plain text) instead of just Ctrl + V (paste) in Chrome (and Firefox.. I think), assuming that you're using 2016. 

Otherwise you could get a little hacky and make your own hotkey that just copies the contents of your clipboard (as suggested here : LifeHacker - Comment 29242702 ) 


N
Badge +8

We're using SharePoint 2013 so we get this when trying anything except IE.

E
Userlevel 5
Badge +14

I do not know either why it is reach text capable. that' should be answered by nintex.

maybe ‌ could investigate and enlighten that.

then maybe some small macro could copy current cell in plain text to clipboard

N
Badge +8

Well, I got an answer from Support.

"

This is a valid question unfortunaltey we will not be able to fix this in the near future. We will create a backlog item for this suggestion. Please as a workaround copy and paste your data into notepad so it removes any formatting code."

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