On June 15, 2006, Microsoft released Security Bulletin MS06-27 to fix some vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word. Installation of this update is causing some problems in XML editing products. RAS 2.0 (Rule Authoring System software) is an XML editing product and the ERF Development Team has discovered the update is causing some codes to appear when copying and pasting text in RAS.

The most common code that the ERF Development Team has discovered is that the characters "013f" appear before new text that is copied from another Microsoft Word document and pasted into a RAS document. If your agency has installed this update and you see this code or other technical characters in the text of your rule, use the backspace key to delete the characters. If you do not delete the characters, they will be codified as part of your rule.

You will only experience this problem if your agency has installed this particular Microsoft security update and you cut and paste text from Microsoft Word into RAS. If your agency has installed this update and you have any questions or concerns about RAS performance or if you experience any unusual RAS behavior, please contact the ERF Help Desk at 614-387-2078.

It may be beneficial for you to consult with a member of your agency's IT staff to discuss this issue. We will notify filers if Microsoft releases a solution to this problem.

Thank you,
Julie Hartzell
Rules Unit Administrator
Ohio Legislative Service Commission

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Posted to the Rule Filers Mailing List on Jun 22, 2006