Usually, fields are used to insert the whole field value by enclosing the field name in curly brackets e.g. Dear {name}. Sometimes, however, you may need to insert just part of a field's value or to use a particular value in certain circumstances. The composite field feature enables you to set up new fields based on modifications of other fields and/or conditions.

Click to expand/collapse this hidden textTo define a composite field
1.Select New... from the 'Fields' menu to display the Definitions page of the 'Fields' dialog.
2.Enter a name for the field in the Field box then click Refresh.
3.Click the Composite check box to display the "Value" edit box.
4.Enter the composite field definition in the Value box using one of these methods:
oSelect a string from the drop-down list of ready-made 'Components'. The list contains the names of all the fields currently in the document plus many commonly used composite symbols such as _day, _side: see Special fields in composed strings. Or
oClick the More... button to open the Composite field wizard and let EscapeE 'eE' iconEscapeE generate the syntax for a more complicated definition from its setup.
oedit the Value box directly from the keyboard – see Composite field syntax summary for an overview of the syntax.

Value strings are enclosed in curly brackets to mark them as symbols rather than pieces of text.

5.Select the Action tab to specify what EscapeE is to do (start a new set, force a back page etc.): see Setting field actions. When an action criterion is met, the "Action" box is shown ticked.
6.Click OK.
Click to expand/collapse this hidden textExample

The value:

File {_name} page {_page} Inv: {invnum}

would result in a composite field such as:

File TEST page 2 Inv: 073102

Blue diamond bullet Note

A leading underscore character is used to distinguish predefined fields from any defined by the user, but may be omitted if there are no user-defined fields with conflicting names.

Links

More on defining composite fields

Special fields in composed strings