Formatting rules in EDDs

[Adam Schweitzer]

Hi all,
I'm having a problem with formatting rules in an EDD - particularily,
with the combination of two character formats acting on the same text.
We use a tag called "emphasis" to indicate when text should be bold,
italicized, superscript, etc. and another called "change" to indicate
when text has changed since the last release of the manual.  In the EDD,
text formatting rules apply a character format to these elements.
 
All works well, except when there is an "emphasis" element within a
"change" element.  In this case, it seems as if the two formatting rules
conflict, and we lose the emphasis formatting.  
 
We were able to get around this in the past by simply re-applying the
tag (ie. highlight the emphasis or change, select the same from the
element catalog and choose "change"), which would apply the proper
formatting.  This is no longer possible, as we're now using conditional
text, and each time we change what is shown in the document, the
formatting reverts, and we again lose the emphasis formatting.  
 
I'm a bit puzzled here - because when we re-apply the tag manually, it
is my understanding that the formatting comes from the EDD.. and the
same for when we change conditional text settings.  To have the same EDD
produce different results doesn't make a lot of sense - unless (for some
reason) the rules are applied in a different order in these cases,
leading to the emphasis rules being overwritten.
 
The only solution I can think of is a framescript which would go and
reapply these tags everytime conditional text settings are changed - but
that seems to be a "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like
a nail" type solution.
 
Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks,
Adam Schweitzer
Orenda Aerospace Corporation