SharePoint Designer

When a SharePoint Highlighter column is added to a view, it uses functionality also used by SharePoint Designer. Due to this cross over, sometimes conflicts can arise between the two applications.

SharePoint 2007

Using SharePoint Designer 2007 to alter a List View Web Part (for example, to add conditional formatting) requires the web part to be converted into a different type of web part (an XSLT Data View Web Part).

Unfortunately this type of web part prevents many Custom Field Types (including Highlighter) from working. If you wish to revert the view back to a Highlighter compatible version open it in Designer, right-click the view, select Revert to SharePoint list view and save.

SharePoint 2010

In most circumstances SharePoint Designer 2010 and Highlighter will work together side-by-side with no problems. The only issues arise around the fact that Designer 'freezes' the method Highlighter uses to display itself (also known as 'unghosting'). This means that if you upgrade from a previous version of Highlighter, any changes we have made to its display method will not be shown on Designer-edited pages.

If the version you have upgraded from is prior to 1.3.5, then this means auto-updating web parts will not work correctly (as mentioned under Troubleshooting - Web Part Errors). In 1.3.5 onwards there are unlikely to be any issues.

In order to 'unfreeze' the views, you will need to perform the following steps:

Open SharePoint Designer, and click the Options link

From the Options form, choose Application Options

Near the bottom of the Application Options form, deselect Cache site data ... and click Ok. This prevents Designer from storing the old Highlighter display method, and can be re-enabled once the fixes have been made.

For each view that needs fixing, open it using the Modify in SharePoint Designer option under the List tab.

Unfortunately the next step removes any Designer changes from the view, so be sure to make note of any changes that need to be re-added. Select the view, and under the Design tab choose Revert Entire View and save.

Any changes can then be safely reapplied.