Feature Request: a format preview mode that supports text preview for a table with multi-line cells

[mrducky4]

DRAFT

This comes from a request in the forum: Feature request for format preview table markup

When multi-line table cells include inline markup, the preview pane can detect this as an error, and it shows red highlighting for errors but does not attempt to show the format preview, even though there is no error. This feature would allow a way for the formatter to see a text preview despite the analyser thinking there is an error. Like in normal "text mode," <sc> tags would be suppressed, and <i> and <b> tags would be shown with _ and = respectively. Unlike the normal text mode, though, the marked up text wouldn't be highlighted. This means the parser wouldn't need to figure out what opening tag goes with what closing tag.

Proposed solution When entering preview mode in the formatting interface, enable the radio buttons for Tags, No Tags, Text, and a new button for Table Text, even if the text analyzer detects errors. (Currently these buttons are hidden if errors are detected.) For Tags, No Tags, and Text modes, do not change the current behavior. Just show the red error highlighting. For the new Table Text mode, show an actual format preview as described above. For all cases, continue to show the analyzed issue count in the Issues and Poss. Issues boxes.

It would be nice if the lack of highlighting for marked up text applies only within /* */ no-wrap tags. Outside of these tags, the format preview should be able to highlight marked up text in Table Text mode just as it does for Text mode.

The new Table Text mode should not be a configurable option for "Initial view mode", because that would risk a formatter not noticing real errors.

Out of scope This feature does not attempt to make the analyser smarter, to figure out that inline markup for multi-line table cells is not really an error.