Add a button to reset a tool's annotation text to default

[Thomas_simonet]

When you add a tool in the canvas, the annotation is automatically set (for example the formula, or connection configuration etc). You can then customize the annotation text in the "Annotation" tool's tab. But sometimes it can be useful to revert to the "automatic" annotation, and it doesn't seem possible once you set it to something different.

Apparently there is currently no way to reset a tool's annotation text to the automatic value.

I've found a way to do it by editing the xml content of the file : as far as I know you just have to delete the <AnnotationText>[...]</AnnotationText> tag and reload the file, and the annotation gets back to the default "automatic" value, which is still present in the <DefaultAnnotationText> tag.

I think a simple button in the tool's annotation tab to reset it would be nice.

Thank you!

[IverBand]

It might be good to implement this with a switch labeled "Sync annotation with configuration" or something similar. I find that when I update SQL in the Input Data Tool, for example, I sometimes forget to update the copy of the SQL in the annotation, and I can get misled by obsolete annotation content when I look at complex workflows a while after I change them.

[Thomas_simonet]

@IverBand Exactly, this would be great.

[jpoz]

Thanks for the suggestion! We are going to provide the ability to reset the annotation to the default annotation in the 2019.3 release.

[jpoz]

The ability to clear an annotation and use the default is now available in the 2019.3 release. Download it at http://downloads.alteryx.com

[JessicaS]

Hey All! Just to clarify, you can utilize this feature by deleting your new annotation. After deleting the annotation the tool will reset back to its original annotation (so there is not a reset annotation button). I just tried for a few minutes to find it so thought I'd share in case others are looking for the button.

[ssjl]

This is not what was asked for.  The request was an active action to reset to the default text, not to always apply the default in the absence of a custom annotation.  I frequently remove the annotation for various tools and now, due to this design choice, I need to affirmatively add a space or carriage return to suppress the annotation.  Decouple the logic that No Text == default annotation. 

[KylieF]

Hi @ssjl,

Thank you for your feedback! Based on the information provided above the idea the request on this idea was to be able to return annotations to the default state, which was provided in the functionality outlined by JPoz and JessicaS. It appears you're looking for the ability to leave the annotations blank. If so, I would recommend you to create a new idea for this feature request, as this will allow the community to vote on this functionality and give our product team proper insight into if this functionality would be beneficial.

Thank you!