| # Help: Creating and Using Fill-In Fields ### Introduction to Fill-in fields You can add fill-in fields to a snippet to make it easy to create customized boilerplate text at the time you expand an abbreviation. Here is an example of a snippet with fill-in fields in action: TextExpander supports four kinds of fill-in fields, as seen above: Single line fields: Type or copy / paste in a customer's name or numerical quantity. Popup menus: (new!) Assign a few standard options, like “today”, “tomorrow”, “in two days.” Optional sections:(new!) This content will always be the same, but does not have to appear every time. Multi-line fields: (new!) Allows for multiple lines of text to appear. ### Creating a Fill-in Snippet Create a new snippet by clicking New Snippet in the TextExpander menubar. Click the Insert menu located just above the Abbreviation box. Go to the Fill-ins option and select one of the four types listed. Select a Field Name. (If two different fill-in fields have the same Field Name, the same text will appear in both.) Click Done to close the popup window. To edit later, double-click on the field entry text to open the popup. (The field entry text is what will appear in your snippet content, it will look something like this: %filltext:name=field 1%.) Popup Window All of the fields are optional. The fill-in will work even if you don't change any of the defaults. Note: All fill-ins with the same Field Name will have the same value. Field Name: A descriptive name helps you organize if you have several fields. For example: “name”, “date”, “quantity”, etc. Default Value: Choose what will appear if nothing is added at the time of expansion. If you prefer the field to remain blank if nothing else is added, uncheck this option. Width: The default width is 20, shown in the example snippet above for the “customer name” field. The quantity field in the example has a specified width of 4. ### Features Access Fill-ins via the insert button beneath the Content box. Double-click within a field entry to edit in a popup window. (new!) Expand snippets when entering information into fill-in fields. (new!) Switch applications without dismissing the fill-in window. (new!) Text and popup fill-in fields support default values. (new!) ### Advanced: Fill-in Syntax If you want to skip the Insert menu, you can find the syntax for each of the four types of fill-ins below. Single-line fields Syntax: `%filltext[:name=<field name>][:default=<default value>][:width=<width>]%` Field name, default value, and width are all optional. Default width is 20. Example: `%filltext:name=quantity:default=1:width=4%` Multi-line fields Syntax: `%fillarea[:name=<area name>][:default=<default value>][:width=<width>][:height=<height>]%` Area name, default value, width, and height are all optional. Default width is 30. Default height is 5. Example: `%fillarea:name=custom:default=Thanks for ordering from Acme Widgets. We are a family owned business, established in 1891. We really appreciate your business.:width=40:height=4%` Popup menus Syntax: `%fillpopup[:name=<popup name>]:[default=]<value>:[default=]<value>…%` Name is optional. At least one <value> should be specified. Multiple <value>s are encouraged. If no default is specified, the first <value> will be the default. Example: `%fillpopup:name=ship timeframe:today:default=tomorrow:next week%` Optional sections Syntax: `%fillpart[:name=<section name>]:[default=yes'no]%<content of optional section>%fillpartend%` Example: `%fillpart:name=Payment Due:default=yes%You did not include payment information with your order. Please call our office at 555-1212 to provide payment details.%fillpartend%` Name is optional. Default is optional: yes or no; if not specified, no is used. Content can contain other fill-ins. ### Notes Fill-in field names and default values cannot contain % (percent sign) or : (colon). If two fill-in fields in a snippet have the same name, their value will be synchronized when you expand the snippet. For information on other macros used in TextExpander, see Date, Time, and Math Macros and Advanced Snippet Functions: Macros. |
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