Error pasting HTML,Microsoft's mshtml.dll refuses to paste

Question

Sent: Mar 09, 2007, 10:34:21
Subject: SuperMemo error: Error pasting HTML,Microsoft's mshtml.dll refuses to paste:,"Rini and Cresswell's Book: "World-Time Parallel" ,,,Is there a world ...",,Unpositioned element for this operation

"Error pasting HTML Microsoft's mshtml.dll refuses to paste: "Rini and Cresswell's Book: "World-Time Parallel"

Unpositioned element for this operation"

Explanation:This was a copy from an rtf file, using ctrl+alt+N. I can't provide any more help. As far as I know, it was plain text, maybe using bold and indent, nothing fancy.

--------------------DETAILS--------------------
SuperMemo 2006 (Build 13.01, Mar 5, 2007)
Time: Mar 09, 2007, 03:03
--------------------ELEMENT DATA
Element: 170: Rini and Cresswell's Book: "World-Time Parallel".. .. .. Is there a world-time parallel? ...
Type: Topic
ComponentPtr: 25209
MaxCompSize: 77
Reps: 1
Laps: 0
Interval: 1
AFactor: 1.3
UFactor: 1
Postpones: 0
FI: 10
ComPtr: 0
TempPtr: 0
RepHist: 206
LastRep: 3
Today: 3/8/2007
LastDate: 3/8/2007
--------------------ELEMENT CONTENT
Rini and Cresswell's Book: "World-Time Parallel"
Is there a world-time parallel? Are time and modality logically similar?
Assume no metaphysics, but do the logic first. Then, if the case has been made,
explore the metaphysical implication.
We will take issues in the metaphysics of time and look at the equivalent in modality.
And we will take issues in modality and look at the equivalent in time.
--------------------SYSTEM DATA
Windows XP 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 7.0 (0)
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
User language: English (US)
System language: English (US)
Browser language: English (US)
Memory Used: 2.63 MB
Active Code Page: 1252
OEM Code Page: 437
Host: hk
Host HD: 09ED-71AC
Network installed

Answer

This error is documented here: http://www.supermemo.com/help/faq/errors.htm#1041-7785

Not all combinations of HTML elements can be pasted over (replaced). E.g. partial selections in tables. You may need to change the selection and repeat the operation. Most practical solution though is to use HTML filters (F6) to get rid of troublesome HTML code (e.g. tables that serve nothing more than the formatting of the flow of text)

Second part of this error message displays the exact error returned by mshtml.dll (here "Unpositioned element for this operation"). You can Google for more information on that particular error in Microsoft documentation

>>>This was a copy from an rtf file, using ctrl+alt+N. It was plain text, maybe using bold and indent, nothing fancy

RTF can carry "invisible tables" and these could be a problem here. However, this is nearly always solved with F6. Once you clean up the code with SuperMemo's filter, all paste and extract operations should be easy (remember that filter may remove some formatting information that carries a meaning, you can, for example, open the file with Ctrl+Shfit+F6 and keep it open until you can inspect the results of filtering; if not, save the open HTML source file and it will undo the operation)