Maximum length of value for a variable

[lisadames]

Does anyone know the maximum number of characters you can have in the value of a variable?

[SKamprowski]

Hi,
Why are you asking this question?

[SKamprowski]

Hi,
Why are you asking this question?

[lisadames]

I am creating the page layout for the front cover for PDF documents. One requirement is to have an abstract of the document on the front cover. This abstract can be, but is not necessarily, the same as the first paragraph in the preface for a document using this page layout. The ways of facilitating this that I can think of are:

• Create a snippet for the abstract for each book, insert the snippet into the body text in the topic for the front cover, and insert the snippet into the preface topic (if applicable). If the abstract and the preface don't use the same text, the front cover topic and the preface would each contain plain text.
• Create a variable for the abstract, include the variable on the page layout for the front cover, insert the variable into the preface topic (if applicable), and set the value of the variable to the abstract in the target. This removes the need to modify the front cover topic. If the abstract and preface don't use the same text, the preface would contain plain text. (I haven't tried setting this up, so I don't know that it would work.)

The maximum length for the abstract is still open for discussion, but the current proposal is 400 characters. Using a variable would restrict the abstract to a single paragraph, which may be a requirement. If that's not a requirement, the variable won't work.

[devjoe]

Snippets are going to be much preferable for this:

• Can edit them like a topic, instead of only in a little variable definition field
• Can contain formatting
• Can contain multiple paragraphs if needed (if inserted as a snippet block)