You can use variants of a Chapter template to create a specific format for your localized content.
Acme's requirements
Acme publishes documentation to several languages using print-based outputs. One of the languages is Japanese, and the documentation requires a different layout in the chapter numbering from the English format of "Chapter 1".
Solution: Create a variant of the chapter template
Create a variant for the chapter topic template and assign the locale as the variant value. Update the Super heading text in the variant. When you create your content, base the "chapter topics" on the primary chapter template. During publishing, when you filter for this locale, Author-it automatically uses the settings from the variant template.
In this example, we'll create a variant for the Japanese output and use text and a placeholder variable.
The number placeholder (<n>) enables you to customize the layout used by the topic's Super heading field so you can have the chapter number inserted before text ("1 something") or between text ("something 1 something").
| Super heading text field: The number placeholder (<n>) can be added to this field with custom text. For example, you can replace the Chapter text with a customized format such as: |
| The numbering format used in the published document is selected from the drop-down list. In the published output the placeholder (<n>) is replaced with the number. |
Format examples
When using the custom super heading options, by including the placeholder you can have any of the following combinations. In all cases the number formating used in the published Print output is defined by the option selected in the numbering drop-down list.
The following examples show how the text and placeholder can be used in the Super heading field.
- Chapter: When the default "Chapter" option is used without the numbering placeholder, the standard format is applied in the published output. That is, text from super heading field is followed by the numbering option selected in the number format drop-down list.
- text before <n>: Custom text is added before the chapter number; this is similar to the first option.
- <n> text after: In the published output the chapter number is added before the custom text.
- text <n> text: In the published output the chapter number is added between the text.
Japanese chapter numbering in the published output
During publishing, the super heading is added to the output by using the "Styleref" autotext entry from the Word publishing template and the formatted text from the variant template. This example shows the custom chapter numbering used in the page header in the published Print output.
| The custom text is added to the Topic template's Super heading text box. |
| The Word publishing template includes an auto text entry pointing to the Super heading in the topic (inherited from the Topic template). |
| In the published output the Super heading entry in the document's header is formatted with the custom text. |
