I have a document I inherited that I've added some more xml mapping into (thanks Guessed for that help, which is still working really well!)

The original document is a report that has 5 sections in it. These sections were blank, although they do show the statement "This section will auto-populate upon completion of the evidence record" This linked to a later section in the document, the idea being that the evidence record is long and has loads of information in it. The summary statements under each of the 5 sections were copied at the top of the document to make it easier for the reader to see the headline news, as it were.

Our organisation has now pre-populated these sections with standard sentences, but sometimes we don't need these sections to be populated and want to delete these, but we can't. I've checked the properties box and neither of locking options are ticked, yet I still can't delete the standard sentences.

Can anyone tell me if there is a workaround for this (in plain speak please). I don't do VBA or any of that stuff, because I don't understand it!!

Thank you

We are hypothesizing in the dark because we can't see your file. If you posted a sample document it would save a lot of back and forward question/answers.

If your sections are Content Controls and are unlocked, when you click inside the section and start to type, does the text add to the insertion point or completely replace the full section's text.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

I have just PM’d you because I can’t share the form on here, but what I can tell you is that when the user clicks inside the section, the text adds to the insertion point and doesn’t replace the full section’s text.

I don’t know anything about XML mapping, but the document already came to me with some content control boxes in. I added an XML map of my own which is working very well, but I wondered if that has messed up the other, original content control boxes? Am I being naïve with that question?

If your edits happen inside the text then it isn't locked AND it isn't placeholder text that shows when the field is empty. Perhaps someone has grouped content - which prevents edits (except for enclosed CCs) and perhaps prevents deletion of those enclosed CCs.

The instructions "This section will auto-populate upon completion of the evidence record" allude to a piece of information that is missing - is this saying it is a linked CC or is the summary being created by a macro or some other process? Are there links to external data (eg evidence record - is that a separate file/workbook?) in the document?

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

I’ve no idea where the placeholder text "This section will auto-populate upon completion of the evidence record" comes from. Personally, I would like to delete each of these sections and add my own in, but I can’t. I’ve removed the Content Control, deleted all the spaces and then used headings from my own XML mapping but still the old issues remain in the new boxes I create and they behave erratically. If I could find where the controls are for these boxes, I might be able to do something about them.

I can see me having to create a whole new document just to be able to do this!!

First thing is to ensure that there are no macros running which might be causing changes you don't anticipate. Next, you need to ensure that you can see all the 'bounding boxes' of your CCs so you have a chance to see what might be in scope.

Then you need to look at what type each CC is and whether they are linked to the exact same xml element and you haven't duplicated the embedded xml file.

Although you said you don't do VBA stuff, it really is the key to gaining control of what you have in your file. It is hard to audit how your CCs are behaving without using VBA to tell you how their type and xml mapping.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia