Primary Text Manager

What it is and why it exists

The text of an artifact often has to change in the same way for many artifacts at once: a status mark such as "DRAFT:" at the start, a note such as "(TBC)" at the end, the same standard sentence everywhere, or no text at all because it was moved into attributes or new artifacts after an import.

DOORS Next can only do this one artifact at a time in the rich text editor. Primary Text Manager does it for a whole module or a selection in one run, and changes only the primary text: the artifacts keep their IDs, attributes, links and place in the module.

Problems it solves

• Editing the text of hundreds of artifacts one by one to add the same mark, note or sentence.
• Template or placeholder text ("TBD", text copied from an old specification) that stays in a new module.
• Duplicate text after an import that copied the content into attributes or other artifacts.
• No record of what a bulk text change did, and no easy way back.

Benefits

• Four changes in one widget: empty the text, add a prefix, add a suffix, or replace it with your own text.
• Only the text changes. Name, attributes, links and the module structure stay exactly as they were.
• One click for a whole module: confirm once, and every artifact that needs the change gets it; the rest are skipped.
• Never twice: a prefix or suffix that is already there is not added again, and headings are safe by default.
• Whole modules in one run, without the limit of 200 artifacts that selections have, and an Excel change report with every text before and after.

How to use

1. In Settings, click Change, pick under What to do Empty, Add prefix, Add suffix or Replace text, type the text and click Done.
2. Open a module. Under Apply, keep Whole module and click the action tile, for example Add prefix. Read the confirmation, which says what will be written, and confirm with the red button.
3. The widget changes the whole module in one pass. The run shows its progress and you can stop at any moment; at the end the result block shows how many artifacts were processed, changed, needed no change or failed, and Log downloads the change report.
4. To change only some artifacts, select them in DOORS Next and choose Selection: the line under the tile says how many will change and which are left alone. Click the tile and confirm.

Good to know

• Run Primary Text Manager in a change set, so you can discard the change set if the result is not what you wanted.
• A prefix or suffix is added exactly as typed, spaces included, and keeps the formatting of the first or last paragraph. Artifacts without text get no prefix or suffix.
• To add a prefix or suffix again where it is already there, or to empty texts too, tick Change even if no change is needed in Settings.
• Pictures and other files are never changed. Clear Leave headings as they are in Settings only if headings should change too.