The Editable Fields Now Look Editable, and the Rest Doesn't

The NDA goes out to every new contractor before their first day. Last month, one of them opened the confidentiality clause instead of the blank next to it, and changed the notice period from 30 days to 5.

The Clause a Contractor Wasn't Supposed to Touch

An HR coordinator sends the same one-page NDA to every new contractor. It gets filled out on the contractor's own laptop, before their first day.

The form has four blanks: name, start date, department, manager. Below them sit two clauses, confidentiality and IP assignment, that are not supposed to change.

Last month, a contractor clicked into the confidentiality clause instead of the blank beside it. The notice period changed from 30 days to 5. Nothing on the page told them they had landed in a clause instead of a blank.

Why Does the Toolbar Look the Same Everywhere?

The confidentiality clause and the name blank look the same on screen. Both sit in the same font, on the same page, with no border or shading between them.

The toolbar does not change either. Every formatting and insert button stays available, whether the cursor sits inside a clause or inside a blank. A contractor clicking into the confidentiality clause sees the same bold, italic, and insert options they would see in the name field.

There is nothing in the editor, visually, that marks the clause as different from the blank. The contractor types wherever the cursor lands.

An Editor That Marks Its Own Boundaries

Synap Editor can mark the boundary between a locked clause and an editable blank, so the two no longer look alike. A line runs around the restricted region, visible the whole time someone works in the document.

The toolbar can change with the cursor too. Inside a locked clause, formatting and insert controls disappear. Inside a blank, they stay, as usual.

The editor can also decide where the cursor starts. Instead of landing wherever the page happens to load, it opens inside the first region a contractor is allowed to edit.

Filling In the NDA in Synap Editor

The same NDA, the same contractor, with the boundary turned on. A dashed border now runs around the confidentiality clause and the IP assignment clause. The four blanks, name, start date, department, manager, have no border at all.

When the contractor clicks into the confidentiality clause, the toolbar goes quiet. No bold, no italic, no insert button. Click into the department field instead, and the toolbar is back, with every option needed to fill in that blank.

The page opens with the cursor already resting in the name field. The contractor does not need to find where to start. They type a name, then a start date, then a department, then a manager, without ever landing inside a clause.

[[shot: The NDA form with a dashed border around the confidentiality and IP assignment clauses, four open blanks for name, start date, department, and manager, and the cursor resting in the name field]]

How to Turn On the Boundary

Three settings in synapeditor.config.js turn on what the HR coordinator now sees.

// synapeditor.config.js
{
  'editor.guide': true
}

Shows the dashed border around the confidentiality and IP assignment clauses.

// synapeditor.config.js
{
  'editor.ui.disableUIOnLockedElement': true
}

Hides the toolbar and insert buttons when the cursor sits inside a locked clause.

// synapeditor.config.js
{
  'editor.initFocus': true
}

Places the cursor in the name field when the page loads. It is the default.

How the confidentiality and IP assignment clauses get marked as locked in the first place is a separate feature, called partial edit restriction, and it is not covered here. See the manual for that and for the rest of these settings.

Common questions

What still shows up inside a locked clause if I leave editor.ui.disableUIOnLockedElement at its default (false)?

At the default of false, balloon popups and direct insert buttons still appear inside the restricted clause. Setting it to true is what removes them.

Does the editing guide also show up on tables and layers that aren't restricted at all?

Yes. The editing guide also marks borderless layers and tables, not just locked clauses. It shows the boundaries of those too, whether or not anything inside them is restricted.

If I set editor.initFocus to false, does the cursor land anywhere?

editor.initFocus controls whether focus is set on the editing area when the page loads. The material describes the true case: focus lands so input is immediately possible. It does not describe where the cursor lands, or whether it lands at all, when this is set to false.

Which release do I need for editor.ui.disableUIOnLockedElement?

editor.ui.disableUIOnLockedElement, which hides the toolbar and insert buttons over a locked clause, requires release 3.2.2507 or above.