added a note with some copy and paste from a website and got this
WARNING:System.err:Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Path not allowed
WARNING:System.err:at genj.gedcom.Gedcom.doUnitOfWork(Gedcom.java:1040)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.gedcom.Gedcom.doMuteUnitOfWork(Gedcom.java:971)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.edit.AdvancedEditor$Paste.actionPerformed(AdvancedEditor.java:540)
WARNING:System.err:at javax.swing.SwingUtilities.notifyAction(SwingUtilities.java:1662)
WARNING:System.err:at javax.swing.JComponent.processKeyBinding(JComponent.java:2879)
WARNING:System.err:at javax.swing.JComponent.processKeyBindings(JComponent.java:2926)
WARNING:System.err:at javax.swing.JComponent.processKeyEvent(JComponent.java:2842)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6293)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2229)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4872)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2287)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4698)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager.redispatchEvent(KeyboardFocusManager.java:1887)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.dispatchKeyEvent(DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.java:762)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.preDispatchKeyEvent(DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.java:1027)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.typeAheadAssertions(DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.java:899)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.dispatchEvent(DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.java:727)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4742)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2287)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2719)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4698)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:747)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue.access$300(EventQueue.java:103)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:706)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:704)
WARNING:System.err:at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
WARNING:System.err:at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
WARNING:System.err:at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:87)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:720)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:718)
WARNING:System.err:at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
WARNING:System.err:at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:717)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:150)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:146)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:138)
WARNING:System.err:at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:91)
WARNING:System.err:Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Path not allowed
WARNING:System.err:at genj.gedcom.Property.getProperty(Property.java:636)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.io.PropertyReader.addProperty(PropertyReader.java:184)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.io.PropertyReader.readProperties(PropertyReader.java:163)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.io.PropertyReader.read(PropertyReader.java:94)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.io.PropertyReader.read(PropertyReader.java:86)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.edit.AdvancedEditor$Paste$1.perform(AdvancedEditor.java:545)
WARNING:System.err:at genj.gedcom.Gedcom.doUnitOfWork(Gedcom.java:1006)
WARNING:System.err:... 38 more
and now the note is no longer editable. my guess is that it's a character encoding issue