And if there are elements of design (developer specifically left them) that are not in the new template?

@1: Vlad, as I see it; an absolute replace design should remove ALL design elements and replace with only those found in the template.

Yes - I like this idea!

Vlad, the idea is "Absolute Replace". What don't you understand about Absolute?

Disagree. When you mark items as prohibit refresh/replace or specify a different template, you make a conscious decision for that specific design element. An absolute replace ignores those decisisons without examining each. I see allowing someone to do an absolute replace as more risk of ruining an implemented design than saving time for the administrator in not having to un-check those design elements. If there were some kind of interface that identified which specific elements were being replaced with an "Are you sure", I might be more comfortable with it.

How common a problem is this? Usually the only time we've had such design elements, they belonged to specific developers who needed an agent to do maintenance on the data and the agent wasn't in the template.

So, since it's absolute, would it also remove private design elements that are not included in the template?

@4: yeap. that's why the idea is called Absolute Replace. It would allow a person to make a conscious decision to absolutely replace.

I'll buy a beer for anyone that has never accidentally let notes mark an element as 'do not replace', or fully understands the dialog that pops up when you paste design elements from a template, or into a template, or has had to deal with multiple elements with the same alias because a replace does not replace, but does a special interesting replace. Which is good if you use element level inheritance (don't know anyone personally), but is mostly a pain in the backside. re: beer: Liars will be banished to a desk job at Microsoft in the next life.

I absolutely don't understand the dialog when I paste elements. The outcome seems almost random sometimes.

As a developer, I don't want administrators just deciding to always use that option and absolutely replace every time. When I mark something as prohibit, I mean it (because I do check after I paste, since it invariably does not do what I wanted).

Mark (5)
To a man made a conscious decision, it should check everything, so there the idea (Absolute) is no sense.