Defining a composite field

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 only part of a field's value. The composite field feature enables you to set up new fields based on modifications of existing fields.

1.	Select New... from the 'Fields' menu.

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:

o	Select a composed 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 components such as _day, _side: see Special fields in composed strings. Or

o	click More... to set up component options and let EscapeE generate the syntax; see More on defining composite fields. Or

o	edit 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.	To set other options for the field, select the Advanced tab: see Setting advanced options in field definitions. When an action criterion is met, the "Action" box is shown ticked.

The value:

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

would result in a composite field such as:

File TEST page 2 Inv: 073102

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.

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