Can you insert a registered trademark symbol in a variable?

[AmyColannino]

Wondering if there is a way to insert a registered trademark (as a symbol) in a variable? For example, ProductName (R). I can copy and paste the symbol into the variables editor but I cannot figure out how to make it appear as a superscript symbol in the output.

Thanks,
Amy

[LTinker68]

The trademark symbol (™) by default is superscript, so that appears to work when you use the ALT sequence to insert the TM into the variable. The registered trademark (®) and copyright symbol (©) don't, so they won't be superscript.

What you might want to do is not include the mark in the variable, but instead create a snippet. Insert the variable in the snippet then insert the mark and apply a span class to that mark that is set to superscript the text. Instead of inserting the variable throughout the project, you insert the snippet. If you ever need to change the contents of the variable, you just change the value in the variable -- the snippet will pick it up automatically and the topics will pick up the changes to the snippet (so long as you don't convert the snippet to text in the topic). If you need to change the mark (say going from trademark to registered trademark), then you change the mark in the snippet file to have it filter throughout the project (again, so long as the snippet wasn't converted to text in a topic).

[AmyColannino]

Great idea! I will give it a try...

Thanks very much,
Amy

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

What you might want to do is not include the mark in the variable, but instead create a snippet. Insert the variable in the snippet then insert the mark and apply a span class to that mark that is set to superscript the text.

I've used snippets in this manner for several years now to address the challenge. It works quite well! I went the route of creating two snippets, however (not a variable and a snippet). One snippet contains my plain old product name (without the registered trademark symbol), and the other snippet contains the first, along with the superscripted ® symbol.

The only real difference here is that I've got a snippet within a snippet, as opposed to a variable in a snippet. Something to be aware of if you "nest" snippets in this manner is a bug which I reported a while ago concerning a limit on the number of "nested" snippets which will evaluate in older versions of Flare (it appears to have been resolved in V6). I can't find that bug report at the moment, but I seem to recall that after 3 snippet layers the "deepest" of the snippets would stop evaluating in output.

Example:

Code: Select all

Snippet01 contains: MyProductName
   Evaluates to: MyProductName

Snippet02 contains: <MadCap:snippetText src="Snippet01.flsnp" /><span class="Sup">®</span>
   Evaluates to: MyProductName®

Snippet03 contains: <MadCap:snippetText src="Snippet02.flsnp" /> is great!
   Evaluates to: MyProductName® is great!

Snippet04 contains: <MadCap:snippetText src="Snippet03.flsnp" /> It only costs $1.
   Evaluates to: ® is great!  It only costs $1.
   (Snippet01 ceases to evaluate in output)

As I mentioned, this seems to be a non-issue in V6 and it may even have been resolved in V5 (tho I can't test it since uninstalling V5). If you happen to be using an older version, at least you won't be caught unawares, as I was!

[kristil]

><span class="Sup">®</span>

I don't know why, but this code didn't superscript it for me. I had to use this: ^®

[TheGreatAndPowerfulOz]

><span class="Sup">®</span>

I don't know why, but this code didn't superscript it for me. I had to use this: ^®

Kristil,

If you use a class of "Sup", you'll need to define it explicitly in your stylesheet. For example:

Code: Select all

span.Sup
{
	vertical-align: 15.00%;
	font-size: 0.75em;
}

[kristil]

Yep, it was defined in the default stylesheet.

[benjimenez]

Helpful thread! Thanks. Is there a Like button or Rating feature on this forum? Should be if there isn't one. Like to give credit where credit is due.