The Crazy Triangles™

Content controls behave differently if they are placed by themselves in a line or if there is other content in the same line.

If the control is by itself in a line, triangles will appear and the control will work for both single-paragraph content and multi-paragraph content.

Yes, those tiny grey triangles close to the edge of the content control are The Crazy Triangles ™.

If other content has been added to the line (e.g. a full stop, or a prefix) or if you manipulate the control within Word, it may lose the triangles. A control without triangles will only work for single-paragraph content, not for multi-paragraph content.

Notice that there are no small grey triangles near the edges of the content control shown below:

If you attempt to export multi-paragraph content from a project into a content control in a report template that does not have the triangles, you will get something like the following error on export:

└─ Cannot populate "MyControlName" inline content control with multi-paragraph content

Fix the triangles for multi-paragraph content

If you have a control like a Description that needs to be multi-paragraph but it has lost the triangles, delete the control and re-add it while keeping an eye on the triangles.

This example uses a Description control within an Evidence control but the steps apply to any scenario with nested controls.

1. On your report template, hit Enter before and after the Description control so that it is on its own line, but still nested within the Evidence control.
   
2. Delete the Description control and the trailing space.
   
3. Re-insert the Description control and give it the Description title. Make sure that the triangles still appear!
   
4. (optional) Go to the end of the line and delete the carriage return so that the closing tags for the Description and the Evidence controls are on the same line.
   

5. If you have a title or text before this content control, remember that the content control will lose the triangles if you include it on the same line. Make sure to leave a carrige return between titles or text and the Description control as shown above.

   If you don't have a title or text before this content control, go back to the beginning of the line and hit backspace so that Evidence and Description controls are on the same line.

   

6. Check the triangles one more time to make sure they didn't disappear! If they do, try to undo your command with CRTL + z or go back to step 1 and work through the process again.