Under some conditions, renaming components does not mark the file "dirty", so "Save" is not available

Solved Dave ● 10 years ago

Summary

After renaming a large number of widgets by selecting them in the outline, then editing their IDs in the properties editor, the "Save" command is not available — it is as if I have not changed the file at all.

Details

I have a somewhat complex component (consisting of >100 widgets, organized into numerous groups, subgroups, etc) that somehow got resized in such a way that I could not resize it: the contents of the component were still incorrectly sized.

I gave up, grabbed a recent copy of the component from a back-up, and pasted it into my prototype. After making sure that the events attached to the pasted component all worked, I deleted the weirdly resized original.

Of course, all 100+ widgets are now renamed by adding _1 (or other number, if the widget already had an underscore and a number at the end of its ID).

Because I was in for a long and annoying process to fix all the names (because I care — perhaps too much — about things like that), I opted to use Keyboard Maestro to automate some of the process. I created a macro that:

• Clicks roughly in the middle of the ID field of the Properties panel

• Repositions the mouse pointer 30px up to get ready for renaming the next widget

• Types Command-Right Arrow to get to the end of the field

• Types Delete twice to remove the "_1"

To use it, I click on a widget near the bottom of the outline, type the keyboard shortcut to trigger the macro, and watch the renaming happen. Then I can just click (because the cursor is positioned over the next higher widget in the outline) and type the shortcut again. I repeat the process across until I get to the top of the screen, scroll the outline, and go at it again.

For elements that are supposed to end in, say, _2, I manually fix them.

The bug that I'm reporting is that even after changing dozens of IDs, the "Save" command is not available.