How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

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bbuchko
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How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by bbuchko »

Hey folks, I have a step that appears in several different procedures in my help file. The problem is, it's not always the same step #. I've successfully edited the snippet code to make it appear at the beginning of a list in a topic (step #1), but that's it. It contains formatting, so I cannot create a variable, unfortunately.

Any thoughts?
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by NorthEast »

First off, the snippet itself should not contain any list formatting, so remove that if it does.

To put the snippet in the list, try this:
1. Create your list.
2. On the line in your list where you want the snippet, right-click the li tag and select Make paragraph item(s).
3. Select Insert > Snippet.

Hopefully that should do the trick.

(If you didn't do step 2, you'd lose the li tag and therefore the list number too.)
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by KevinDAmery »

There's another option as well. Snippets can be inserted two ways: as blocks, or inline. If you insert them inline, they take on whatever formatting exists for the block they are part of.

So an option would be to create a list item, add some dummy text to it (a letter or two is plenty) then insert the snippet AFTER the dummy text. This will make the snippet part of the li block. Then delete the dummy text, and you're done.
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by bbuchko »

Works like a charm. Thanks!!
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by mkitegeo »

Cool trick! This will work great for repetitive steps across similar but slightly different procedures (e.g. "Click the Next button.").

One word of caution, though.

When I tried this, I selected the text of a list item in an existing list and it created the entire list as the snippet instead of just taking the text I selected. It seems to work OK if the text for the snippet is NOT part of a list.
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by KevinDAmery »

mkitegeo wrote:Cool trick! This will work great for repetitive steps across similar but slightly different procedures (e.g. "Click the Next button.").

One word of caution, though.

When I tried this, I selected the text of a list item in an existing list and it created the entire list as the snippet instead of just taking the text I selected. It seems to work OK if the text for the snippet is NOT part of a list.
Yes, this is a good point. It works best if the snippet is a p block (or even just text between opening and closing Body tags). The ramification of this is it requires each list item to be its own snippet - which can be a pain.
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by forfear »

Is there ascreenshot with topic and span blocks to show how all the list and snippets would look stacked up?

i am not sure if i am doing the right thing. I still can't insert a snippet with continuous numbering in an existing list.
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KevinDAmery
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by KevinDAmery »

The code would look a little like this:

Code: Select all

<ol>
<li>Here's some text</li>
<li><MadCap:snippetText src="Resources/Snippets/Contained.flsnp" /></li>
<li>Here's some more text</li>
</ol>
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by forfear »

Now I understand. Thanks Kevin!
I was thinking more along the lines of

1 Step
2 Step
3 Step
4 Step
5 Step
6 Step
7 Step

Where step 3 to step 6 came from one block of a snippet and the list autonumebered it from 3 to 6. So it looks like the snippet is for line by line of a step not a chunk of steps then. Thanks anyway.
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tbean
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Re: How to create a list item snippet with variable numbering

Post by tbean »

Hi all --
Check out this thread:
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... %3E#p26698

It has a very clear explanation (including code samples) from doc_guy about what happens in the code when you create a and then insert a snippet and tells you, in nice numbered steps, how to achieve the desired results.

I follow doc_guy's suggestion when I insert <li> snippets and have no problems. The suggestion is basically this: create the snippet, open the snippet file in the Internal editor, remove everything within the <body> tags EXCEPT the <li> tags and their text. The resulting numbering you see in the XML Editor is wrong, so don't let it distress you. Go to Preview or build the project and you will see the numbering the way it ought to be.
Tracey
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