Power Geopak SS10 - When placing a cell that contains text, it has a number and a tick mark in it.

Check your View Attributes. That sounds suspiciously like a text node symbol. Those can be turned off in your view attributes (Text Nodes).

If that doesn't solve your issue, can you post a picture?

Back in the olden days, one of the ways to create "placeholder text" was to create empty text nodes as needed. Those could be filled in with the proper text at a later time. Since a text node without text wouldn't be visible, there were text node symbols that could be turned on or off for any given view. I saw them a lot on tables; we knew we would have data in there eventually, so we had empty text nodes sitting in there, waiting to be filled. I would have my "printing view" with the text nodes turned off, and I would have a "working view" with the text nodes turned on so I could fill them in. I'm sure some people still use them because they worked pretty well.

Check your View Attributes. That sounds suspiciously like a text node symbol. Those can be turned off in your view attributes (Text Nodes).

If that doesn't solve your issue, can you post a picture?

Back in the olden days, one of the ways to create "placeholder text" was to create empty text nodes as needed. Those could be filled in with the proper text at a later time. Since a text node without text wouldn't be visible, there were text node symbols that could be turned on or off for any given view. I saw them a lot on tables; we knew we would have data in there eventually, so we had empty text nodes sitting in there, waiting to be filled. I would have my "printing view" with the text nodes turned off, and I would have a "working view" with the text nodes turned on so I could fill them in. I'm sure some people still use them because they worked pretty well.

That did it Mary. Text node. GEEESH! Thank you! 

Mary:

Those of us who have worked with various versions of MicroStation over the DECADES have become all too used to dealing with turning off the text node view attribute. However... I had no idea that the intent of the nodes was to do exactly as you have described.

Thanks for dropping a knowledge bomb!

Best Regards,

Mark

There used to be a tool that could bulk load paragraphs of text into previously placed text nodes. And there may still be a lock called text node lock that when on, only allows you to add text to existing text nodes.

I do not recall when that bulk text tool was last delivered with MicroStation.

You're welcome, Mark!

When "pre-generating" tables, the options were usually text nodes, data fields or literal bits of placeholder text like periods. You could always place text into the table regularly on the fly, but using some kind of placeholder ensured that the text would always have the correct attributes. Especially in the days before text styles, when you had to set it all up by hand.