Element Preferences
There are a number of options that you can choose to manage the behaviour of each Element in a Paragraph.
Open any element and go to the Preferences tab:
Data Formatting
In this area you can specify the styling and formatting of the Element.
Character Style:
If you want a particular Element styled differently to the rest of the Paragraph, you can choose a Character Style. For example, let's say you want to create a "price" line like this:
Price: $123.55
Note that the word "Price:" is set in bold, and the actual price is not. We'll assume that the Paragraph Style selected for this Paragraph sets the text in Arial 12 pt, plain. You would choose a bold Character Style for the "Price:" text element. To create a new Character Style, click the pencil icon next to to the Character Style dropdown. (See the Character Styles tutorial for more info.)
Number Format
If the Element will publish numeric data, you can specify how the number will be formatted. Click the Number Format button to see the options:
In this example, the currency symbol is a £ sign. To change the default currency symbol, go to Admin->Preferences->Localisation, and enter the desired symbol ($, €, etc.) into the Monetary Unit field.
Date Format
If the Element is a Date type of field, you can choose the format for the data from this dropdown:
XML
Element Name:
When data is published from CatBase to an XML file, each XML Element must have a name. CatBase automatically creates a default name for each Element; you can modify it if you wish, but be sure to stick to XML naming conventions (no spaces allowed).
Lists
Use the List Item Description
"Lists", in this context, refer to your custom Choice Lists. Each list item has a name and can also (optionally) have a Description. For example, a list item may be "N AMERICA" and the Description might be "USA and Canada". Select t hios checkbox if you want top publish the Description rather than the list item name.
See the Choice Lists tutorial for more info about Lists.
Options
There are lots of additional options for publishing Elements in this area:
Omit Paragraph if this Element is blank
This option provides a very easy way to manage Paragraphs that may or may not contain content. A typical example might be a "Special Offer" option. For some products, there is a special offer - eg "Buy two, get one free". If the SPecial Offer field is populated, you want to include that text; if it isn't, you do not want to publish an empty paragraph. So select this checkbox and if there's no Special Offer for a product, that Paragraph will be omitted when it is published.
Omit Paragraph if it is otherwise empty
Similar to the Omit Paragraph is this Element is blank option, but it depends on all other Elements within the Paragraph being unpopulated.
Index this Element
Most publishing destinations support indexing. Select this option to add an index tag to the Element when it is published. You'll then be able to quickly build an index in the final publication. See the Building Indexes tutorial for detailed info about creating simple and complex indexes - this example uses InDesign, but the principles are similar for other publishing destinations.
Unique Group Entry
This option provides an easy way to organise data into groups with headings. For example, if you're publishing a directory you may want to group the listings by their first letter, so that you have a heading for each letter followed by the listings that start with that letter. To accomplish this, you'll have a field that contains the first letter of each listing, add that as the first Element in the first Paragraph, and select the Unique Group Entry option for that Element. For a detailed description of how this works, please see this Blog post.
Replace spaces with non-breaking spaces
If you want to make sure that the contents of a field do not get split across lines or (worse!) pages, select this option. Any space characters within the text will be replaced with the appropriate non-breaking space code or character for the particular publishing destination. This is especially useful for things like post codes and phone numbers.
Replace hyphens with non-breaking hyphens
Similar to non-breaking spaces, a non-breaking hyphen will prevent the text from breaking across lines at a hyphen.
Replace Returns with Soft Returns
What's the difference between a Return character and a Soft Return character? A regular Return character causes a break in the paragraph. A soft return is a line break that occurs within a paragraph or text block without starting a new paragraph. It's a formatting option that allows text to flow onto the next line while maintaining the continuity of the paragraph.
Delete Return characters from beginning and end of text
Extra Return characters can spoil the formatting of your document by adding white space where it isn't wanted. They often creep in when text is copy-pasted from another source such as a word processing document. Use this option to make sure they are removed at publication time.
Omit this element if it is the same as the previous record
If the contents of the Element currently being published are the same as the contents of the same Element in the previous record, this Element will be omitted. As an example, suppose you're publishing a list of businesses sorted by Country and County. You only want each County to be shown once - like a subheading.
Omit this record if it is the same as the previous record
If this option is selected, the entire record will be omitted if thie Element has the contents as the same Elment in the previous record.
Create an Xcatalog/InCatalog link for this Element
Xcatalog and InCatalog are plugins for QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign which enable linking to a text file for the purpose of updating a published document. Typically, this option is used for updating prices in an already-published ccatalogue or price list. For more detailed info, please see the Updating Data tutorial.
Limit to (n) words
Sometimes it's necessary to make sure a piece of text is limited to a certain number of words. Use this option to enable that. But be careful - you are likely to find sentences cut off in random places!
Trim text from the beginning of the Element:
A useful example of this option is when you're publishing website addresses. Some of the addresses might start with "https://", and others don't. For consistency you might want to delete the https://.
Trim text from the end of the Element:
Use this option to remove unwanted text from the end of the element.
Execute Regex
Regex is a Regular Expression. It consists of a set of very specific codes that enable making changes to strings of text such as capitalising the first letter of every word, converting text to or from upper of lower case, and many other options. A good. Regex tutorial can be found here.