Initial protected placeholders in xliff lost in Trados

Question

If I open an xlf in Trados and if this xlf has protection tags around placeholders and this happens to be in an initial position, Trados just drops the placeholder altogether, which means I need to post-edit the xlf elsewhere to re-insert them. I can't post the file but the header is and a sample string is %1 wants to send you notifications. which results in this:

Nora Díaz · Accepted Answer

Hi Michael, 
 To display all content, go to the Review tab, then Display Filter - All Content 
 Here's a screenshot:

Paul · Answer

Not copy/paste or you'll duplicate the tags. You drag and drop the tag from its external position to an internal one. 
 
I don't think this is a bug... because it's behaving as intended to give you a cleaner translating environment. But I do think there should be an option to not move these tags externally if you prefer. 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

It's because it's not formatting that Studio does this. If it was formatting Studio would know exactly what to do with it. There are often many tags (placeholder tags like this... formatting tags are not placeholders unless it's a legacy TTX for example) that sit at the start or end of the segment and when this happens they are assumed to be external. Most of the time this is probably correct, but sometimes it's not as you have experienced. This is why it should be an option. If these tags were always brought into the segment then you would find your documents a lot more taggy than they are now and you wouldn't be happy about that. 
 I believe we added something into the TTX fileytpe to deal with this possibility, but it's clearly not there for XLIFF. So maybe need the same or similar solution there. 
 
 So I think it should be optional, particularly because I think your usecase happen less than not needing to so this. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

In fact as I'm looking at this... don't know why I didn't see this before... the XLIFF filetype also has this option. So perhaps you can handle the problem with this option set?

Paul · Answer

Can you use the display filter to show all content as opposed to all segments? You can probably drag these tags into the segment and use them in a different position. I know this isn't ideal, but hopefully this doesn't a happen a lot throughout your document? 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Michael, 
 
No, I mean use the display filter to show all content and not just all segments. These tags are moved outside the segment because Studio doesn't think they need to be handled so tries to make it a cleaner experience. But as you have explained this is not always desirable. If you use the display filter you can probably show these "external" tags and even move them into the segment so they can be placed somewhere else. 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

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Initial protected placeholders in xliff lost in Trados