unable to edit table

Report · Jan 31, 2013

Have to hand it to him, my predecessor's FM files are leading me a merry dance! Opened another one this morning, which appears what looks to be a table. Indeed, the table designer recognises it and tells me what definition has been applied. But like the graphic I mentioned in my "anchored frame" post, the table appears to be in an anchored frame and I can't get into the content.

I managed to retrieve it by saving the page as a .pdf, which recognised the content as text – but following my usually semi-automatic steps (and using my own :anchor and :ttx styles) to paste the tabbed text in and create a table, I end up with … a new table, uneditable and apparently in a frame. In the meantime, FM has detected a serious error and must quit: now I feel guilty.

Starting from scratch is alluring, if I can get the go-ahead for bringing the layout in line with other pubs instead of trying to recreate the anomalies – I'd just like to know what's going on!

Report · Jan 31, 2013

Yes, your predator - ooops, predecessor - is giving you strength with every challenge you resolve!

I'm not sure if simply putting the table in an anchored frame is causing the problem.

IIRC, a table on a rotated page is uneditable; the clue is that the entire table is fully highlighted when clicked upon. One fix is to rotate the page - back to its original orientation, edit, then re-rotate. Another fix is to create a master page, if needed, that's oriented like the rotated page, with headers, footers, etc, repositioned if needed, and with the main text frame resized and rotated to fit the rotated page. IOW, the text frame is rotated on an un-rotated page. The copy/paste the table into the text frame. [EDIT]This method is permanent - the table will be editable ever after.

As to the crash, perhaps a MIF wash will help avoid it in the future.[/EDIT]

Niels Grundtvig Nielsen wrote:
Have to hand it to him, my predecessor's FM files are leading me a merry dance! Opened another one this morning, which appears what looks to be a table. Indeed, the table designer recognises it and tells me what definition has been applied. But like the graphic I mentioned in my "anchored frame" post, the table appears to be in an anchored frame and I can't get into the content.
I managed to retrieve it by saving the page as a .pdf, which recognised the content as text – but following my usually semi-automatic steps (and using my own :anchor and :ttx styles) to paste the tabbed text in and create a table, I end up with … a new table, uneditable and apparently in a frame. In the meantime, FM has detected a serious error and must quit: now I feel guilty.
Starting from scratch is alluring, if I can get the go-ahead for bringing the layout in line with other pubs instead of trying to recreate the anomalies – I'd just like to know what's going on!

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Report · Jan 31, 2013

I presume you will have already tried MIF washing these rogue documents.

Since that creates a MIF, examine it, and search for:

<PgfLocked Yes>

Content inside such tags cannot be edited.

Normally, only Text Insets get this tag, but the tag can get left behind if the inset is deleted.

Report · Feb 01, 2013

I'll check for rotation, though it seems at first sight unlikely: it's just the first of several tables in this chapter, and the others (which look the same) behave as expected. No, I hadn't got as far as MIF washing yet – but I have now. No locked paragraphs, unfortunately, and the table behaviour is just the same in the .mif