[Qgis-user] Unable to add values to text string attributes

[Michael Grosberg]

so, umm, hello, first time here.
First of all, if any of the developers sees this - it's a wonderfull tool
and a joy to use. Now, my question: I have a vector layer (ESRI shapefile) 
and I'm trying to fill some values. numerical values - no problem. I select
some points (this is a point file), type the value I want, press "update all"
and the column is filled with the value. But I tried the same with a text
string (I created a new column and set it to type "string", made it
64 characters long to be safe), and it doesn't seem to work. after creation,
the entire column has the value "null", but try as I might to enter a value
and press "update all", this does nothing. If I do the same using a digit
(and remember, this is a string attribute!), that DOES work for some reason.

Any ideas what's going on? I've just tested it at home and the same problem 
exists, so it's not just my work PC.

Oh, and another question, although I'm pretty sure the answer is no:
I need to outline building outlines, which I currently do using other apps.
But I'd love to switch to working with Qgis fulltime.
Does QGIS have tools / plugins to help with drawing orthogonal shapes?
I'm thinking about something that would let me draw one line freehand and
then the rest of the lines would be constrained to be parallel or orthogonal
to the first line. Alternatively something that would take a freehand-drawn
polygon and straighten it.