A text items is used for displaying text in a document, or on a page.

Text items are small indivisible blocks of formatted text. They are indivisible in the sense that only a whole text item is reusable, not a part of the text item. You can use a text item in pages, documents, and content items. A text item can consist of multiple pieces of text and fields, each of which can have a condition and a presentation style.

Editing text

To add or edit text in a text item:

  1. Select the language in which you want to add or edit text.

  2. Type or paste your text in the text field.

Using fields (expressions) in your text

Within text items, you can refer to information from your domain model. You can do this by inserting fields in your text. A field can contain an expression or a reference to an attribute. On generating your document, these fields are substituted by their actual (display)values.

There are two ways to insert an attribute or expression field to your text:

  1. Insert a new field:

    1. Right click anywhere in the text field of the text item.
    2. Choose from the context menu.

    3. Create an expression using the expression editor.

    4. Optionally add a mask.

  2. Transforming existing text to a field:

    1. Select existing text.
    2. Select the insert field button that appears near the selected text.
    3. The selected text will now be transformed into an expression, and the expression editor will open. 
    4. Optionally add a Mask.

To edit a field:

  1. Either
    1. double click it,
    2. or right click it and choose the edit option from the context menu.
  2. Edit the expression using the expression editor.

To remove a field:

  1. Right click the field.

  2. Choose the remove option from the context menu.

A comment at the start of a field will be used as a preview. For example, the expression  will be shown as in the text item editor. 

Using conditions

You can add a condition to a part of your text, in order to display or hide this part under certain conditions.

Always consider reusability of your text item when you decide to add a condition to your text item. An alternative is to divide your text over multiple (inline) text items as separate nodes with its own precondition in a content item.

To add a condition to a text item:

  1. Select the text to which you want to apply the condition.

  2. Select the add condition button that appears near the selected text.

  3. Enter your condition in the expression editor that appears.

As a result, the conditional text is highlighted.

To edit the condition:

  1. Right click the highlighted conditional text.

  2. Choose the condition from the context menu to edit.
  3. Edit your condition in the expression editor that appears.

To remove the condition:

  1. Right click the highlighted conditional text.

  2. Choose the condition from the context menu to remove.

Using presentation styles

You can add a presentation style to a piece of text to change its appearance.

To add a presentation style to a text item:

  1. Select the text to which you want to apply the presentation style.

  2. Select the add presentation style button that appears near the selected text.

  3. Select the presentation style from the list

As a result, the text is underlined. 

Editing and removing a presentation style is done in a similar way as conditions.