The variable phrase element

About

When you use the same content file in many publications (each representing a product model), it is likely that certain words, such as product names must be different across the different publications. In such a case, you use a variable phrase instead of the product name.

The variable phrase acts as a placeholder in your content file, and the actual text to use instead is defined in the configuration file.

What you can do

You can do the following tasks on the variable phrase element:

The tasks you can do depends on your user role.

Working with attributes

You can add metadata to the variable phrase element to distinguish it from other variable phrase elements. You might, for example, want to style the content of a specific variable phrase element differently compared to other variable phrase elements.

To add metadata, you add a value for an XML attribute, such as the class or type attribute.

The available XML attributes in Skribenta are class, type, label, id, condition, xml:lang, data-emoji and data.

Classifying the variable phrase element

You can add a value to the class attribute to specify what purpose an element has. Furthermore, you can, for example, set the class attribute value to spare-part-list for a table to say that the table contains spare part components.

A number of elements in Skribenta has a value for the class attribute when you create them. For example, the wrapper element.

class = note: Makes a note wrapper containing information that is important to highlight.
class = warning: Makes a warning wrapper to inform about dangerous aspects of handling a product.
class = figure: Makes a figure wrapper often containing an image with a title.

Skribenta can be configured to let you select attribute values from a predefined list, which can be specific for a given element.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Classifying content

Typing the variable phrase element

Various values can be added to the type attribute for an element to specify that it belongs to a specific type.

A specific type on, for example, a table element allows to style the table differently in a PDF compared to other tables. For example, setting the attribute type to Big is a common way to allow a table span across side margins in a PDF to make the table bigger.

The type attribute can have one or more values. The type attribute is often used in conjunction to the class attribute to specify different types of element of the same class.

Skribenta can be configured to let you select attribute values from a predefined list, which can be specific for a given element.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Typing content

Labelling the variable phrase element

You can put a label on an element to make the content of the element, for example, context-sensitive (the behavior depends on the style sheet). To label the element, you set a value for the label attribute on the Attributes > Label tab.

Making the variable phrase element unique

It is possible to make an element uniquely identifiable in the content file or configuration file. An element ID is represented by a unique value for the id attribute on the element.

An element ID is unique since several elements in the same content file or configuration file cannot have the same element ID.

To make a link to another target element, the target element must have an element ID.

The first character in the element ID must be a letter or an underscore.

It is possible to let Skribenta generate element IDs automatically on certain elements (maintitle, section, table, figure wrapper and block wrapper), in content files and configuration files.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Setting an element ID to make an element unique

Topic: Enabling and disabling automatic element IDs

Conditionalizing the variable phrase element

It is possible to conditionalize an element, and thereby all the content in the element, by adding a Condition attribute to the element.

By using a variable in the condition, the condition can be evaluated differently depending on the variable value defined in the publication's configuration file. You can then use the same content file in multiple publications, and let the variable value control the published output.

Setting a condition on the include element is not recommended. Instead, set the condition on the included file's maintitle if the condition applies to all places the file is included. If the condition do not apply for all the different places an included file is reused, wrap the include element in an if-wrapper element.

Setting language on the variable phrase element

You can set an explicit language on elements containing content written on another language compared to the language in the rest of the content file.

Content in elements having a set language are ignored when translating. Thus, when publishing translations, the content in elements having a set language is always kept as is.

Select the explicit language for the element on the Attributes > Language tab.

Adding an icon on the variable phrase element

You can add an icon on an element to make it visually stand out in your content file to, for example, locate it easily when editing many elements.

Select an icon for the element on the Attributes > Icons tab.

Setting a user-specific attribute value on the variable phrase element

You can add custom metadata to an element to process it in some specific way. Apart from the standard XML attributes in Skribenta, it is possible to set user-specific attribute values using the data attribute.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Setting user-specific attribute values

Viewing all attribute values set on the variable phrase element

On the variable phrase toolbar, click Attributes > All to display the list of all attribute values on the variable phrase element.

Deleting an attribute value set on the variable phrase element

It is possible to delete an attribute from an element in your file.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Deleting an attribute

Formatting the variable phrase element

You can format the content of the entire variable phrase element to, for example, bold. Or, define a font family, size, color and background.

Setting bold, italic, and underlined is visible both in Skribenta and in the published result.

Setting font family, size, color and background affect the presentation of content in Skribenta. Whether font family, size, color and background is visible in the published output depends on the stylesheet.

When formatting the variable phrase element using the Format tab in the toolbar, you set a style attribute on the variable phrase element. This is different from using Format in the top toolbar, as you then insert an inline format element.

Bold

It is possible to make text in bold. You can make certain words bold or all make all content in an element bold.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Creating bold text

Italic

It is possible to make text italic. You can make certain words italic or all make all content in an element italic.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Creating italic text

Underline

It is possible to make text underlined. You can make certain words underlined or all make all content in an element underlined.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Creating underlined text

Family

To set a font family for the entire variable phrase element, select Family on the Format tab.

Size

To set a font size for the entire variable phrase element, select Size on the Format tab.

Color

To set font color for the entire variable phrase element, select Color on the Format tab.

Background

To set a background color for the entire variable phrase element, select Background on the Format tab.

Hiding the variable phrase element

It is possible to hide and unhide inline content, such as single inline words, in a file without applying conditions. The content set to hidden is not visible in the final published publication. Hiding content is useful in cases you need to publish a draft version for someone else, and you do not want to show content that is not ready for others.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Hiding and unhiding inline content

Transforming the variable phrase element

It is possible to change an element from one type to another. This is called to transform the element. The content of the element is not affected by the transformation.

You can transform the variable phrase element to a:

Another phrase element of a certain class.
superscript element.
subscript element.

You can also remove the variable phrase element, which is called unwrap. When unwrapping, the variable phrase element the content in the variable phrase element is preserved.

On the variable phrase toolbar, click Transform.

For instructions, see:

Topic: Transforming an element from one type to another

Topic: Unwrapping an element