Variables can't have formatting?

[beagley]

I can't seem to have a word in the middle of a variable that has a certain style attached to it.

Like... if I wanted one of the words in the variable to be bold, for example, can I do that?

Actually, right now I can't seem to assign a style (like bold) to a variable inline, either. Tried adding tags for it with tags showing, because I couldn't seem to select the variable by itself in the editor, but they didn't read. Weird.

Advice on formatting variables?

[Richard Ferrell]

Variables will take the formating of the Text around them, Its not possible to format a Variable, you can Format a snippet and instert the snippet instead.

[beagley]

Yep, I reckon I'll use snippets...

1. Incidentally, would you say that the need for variables, in addition to snippets, is largely conceptual as opposed to functional? Seems like the USE of snippets and variables is a bit like rectangles and squares... though the conceptual difference would be handy for organizational purposes. Or is there some key functional difference or advantage with variables?

2. We have about 30+ program names that I write documentation for. Variables would seem to make perfect sense to store the official program name... since how we market/spin the program name is slowly changing. I would definitely want to assign a style to that text wherever it appears... I mean, right now we BOLD all program names everywhere, but in the future we might want to italicize or whatever. So my inclination is to create a style called "programname" or "command" and apply that style and use variables. But I guess I can't do that with a variable, and I have to use a snippet? Kinda odd...

[LTinker68]

You can always submit a feature request to allow for formatting of a variable as part of the variable. Make sure you mention that if the variable contains several words that you want to be able to format part of the variable phrase and not necessarily the whole thing.

Using snippets is a way to get around the current limitation.

Submit your feature request to http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.

[LTinker68]

Incidentally, would you say that the need for variables, in addition to snippets, is largely conceptual as opposed to functional? ... Or is there some key functional difference or advantage with variables?

Depends on how you use it. For instance, if I want the same topic to appear in two places in the TOC, but I want the breadcrumbs to associate the book in the TOC where the user clicked, then I'll use snippets. So I create two topics that have just a title and the snippet inserted into the topic, and the snippet contains all the content for that topic. That way, no matter which instance in the TOC the user clicks on, the breadcrumbs will match the location in the TOC. (Normally, if you put a topic in the TOC twice, the TOC will jump to the first occurrence of that topic in the TOC, regardless of which instance in the TOC the user clicked.)

I'll also use snippets for short, repeating phrases or notes (warnings).