def on_editing_started(self, cellrenderer, editable, path): # Retrieve comment in original form model = self.get_tree_view().get_model() iter = model.get_iter(path) track = model.get_value(iter, 0) comment = TrackFormatter('$comment').format(track) # Escape newlines comment = comment.encode('unicode-escape') # Set text editable.set_text(comment)