Formatting Text Data

Overview

The data formatting options allow you to alter the format of the input text in a parameter and display it as something else. For example; changing a text string from upper case to lower case, or formatting the output of dates and numbers. Below is an overview on how to access the formatting features and the options available to you once you have done so.

Note: Data formatting works only with dynamic text, i.e.the part of a text placeholder for which a parameter has been selected.

Accessing the Format Button

The Format button and features can be accessed by using the following workflow:

1. From the Storyboard area of the Idomoo interface, click on the pencil icon of the placeholder you would like to format.
2. When the advanced text properties panel opens, select a part of text that has been assigned a parameter or change the Type from Text to Parameter (as shown on the far left below).
3. Once this step has been completed, you can select the Format icon (on the far right as shown below) by clicking on it.
   
4. This displays the formatting options, which can be selected from the ‘Format by’ drop-down menu. Select the category you want to apply to this text and then the options applicable to that category. More about this below.
5. Once all the choices have been completed, click Apply Format, and then click on the OK button to close this advanced text properties box.

Note: If you make a mistake or no longer want to format the text, delete the formatting instructions by clicking the Delete Formatting button.

Available Formatting Categories

Once you have accessed Formatting, you can access a number of categories that control how the text can be formatted. These are:

• String
• Number
• Date

Find below an explanation of the options available to each of these categories.

String Formatting

Formatting a string of text can be used to deal with various text formatting options. An explanation of each can be found in the table below:

Number Formatting

Formatting a number means adding thousand separators and decimal marking. This means the data you send has to be a simple number. If the data is text and not a number, the render fails. As an example, the number has to be 10000, and not 10,000. The existing comma means it can no longer be recognised as a number.

Here are the three options you have for number formatting, and an explanation for each:

Date Formatting

Formatting a date takes an input date format and converts it to an output date format. There are two drop-down menus and you choose how you are going to send the date, and how you would like it to be displayed. The options are detailed in the table below: