Mark Variable Text

You can replace names, dates, amounts, and other variable text throughout a document with variable fields. A variable field consists of a name and type, separated by a semicolon and enclosed in square brackets. For example, the document text:

The client, Jane Doe, hereby rescinds all previous claims.

is marked up as:

The client, [ClientName;te], hereby rescinds all previous claims.

In this example, ClientName is the variable name and te (which stands for text) is the type.

Variable names:

• Can include letters, numbers, and underscores but they cannot contain spaces or other special characters.
• Are case-sensitive (meaning that GiftAmount and giftamount are different names).
• Must not be composed entirely of capital letters.
• Must be 50 characters or less in length.

In general, a variable name consists of at least two words that identify the subject and the aspect of the field. Best practice is to capitalize the first letter of each word in a variable name, regardless of its part of speech. Some examples:

Variable field types are specified using the first two letters of the word that represents the type:

• te for text fields
• nu for number fields
• da for date fields

When no type is specified in a field (for example, [ClientName]), text is assumed as the type.

Variable fields may optionally include a format following the field type. For example, if you want the client’s name to be inserted into the document in all uppercase letters, use:

The client, [ClientName;te;format=upper], hereby rescinds all previous claims.

Such markup would produce the following in a completed document:

The client, ANNA JAMES, hereby rescinds all previous claims.

In the example field above, notice the semicolon between the field type and the word format. Two commonly used formats are:

• upper forces alphabetic characters to uppercase
• alpha spells out a number instead of using digits

For a complete list of Markup formats, see Format Answers in the Document.