OOo Off the Wall: Fielding Questions, Part 3

The Functions tab of the Fields window (Insert > Fields > Other
> Functions) contains tools for working with content. Some of the
fields on the tab are useful for writing drafts and editing. Others
are useful for maintaining different versions of a document in a single
file. To maintain multiple versions, you can choose from several fields,
each with a different strategy--varying content according to condition,
selecting from a list or hiding and revealing content as needed.

Many of the fields on the Functions tab can take time to set up. For
a document that is printed once, they probably are not worth bothering
about. It is when you are building templates that many of these fields
come into their own. With a bit of planning, you can have your templates
serve multiple purposes, making them even more useful than they already
are.
Understanding Conditions
Several of these strategies for controlling content by way of fields require
the setting up of a condition. This requirement confuses many users
without a background in mathematics. The concept isn't well-documented in
the OOo on-line help, and some users may confuse it with Conditional Styles,
an altogether different concept.

The concept of a condition, however, is less complicated than many
users fear. All that a condition does is set when or whether a piece of content
defined in a field appears in a document.

In versions of OpenOffice.org released prior to the 2.0 beta, a condition could
be almost any mathematical or logical expression. A condition also could
be set with the user data entered. For example, the condition
user_initial="BB" used with a hidden paragraph would
prevent anyone with any other initials from seeing let alone printing
the paragraph. However, although such conditions provided another level of
security, they were needlessly complex, and few people probably used them.

As of the 2.0 beta version, conditions have been simplified. The only
settings apparently valid for conditions are 0 or False and 1 or True. By opening
the Fields window and changing the condition, you can choose whether
content defined as part of the field appears in the document. This
concept should become clearer as we discuss the different types of fields.
Using Placeholder Fields
Placeholders are fields that mark where missing content should
go. Placeholders are a simple tool, but they are useful in a number of
situations:

• When you are writing, starting with the first paragraph and writing each paragraph in order
  often is the hardest way to write. You may know the points you want to
  write but not how to introduce them.
• Often, you are more prepared to write one part of a
  document than another.
• You may be missing information needed for one part of a
  document.
• Somebody else may be writing part of a
  document.

In these or similar circumstances, a placeholder can mark the missing
the contents, freeing you to write the parts you know and return to
the missing parts later.
To add a placeholder, click Insert > Fields > Other > Functions
> Type > Placeholder. From the Format field, choose the type
of content that eventually will replace the placeholder--Text, Table,
Frame, Graphics or Object. You also may want to add temporary text in
the Placeholder field and mouseover text in the Reference field. For
example, if you were working with a group of writers, you might use the
mouseover text to identify who should add the content.
When you are ready to add content, click the placeholder. If you
specified Text as the format, what you type replaces the placeholder. If
you specified any other format, the dialog box for importing that
type of content appears. Using Input Fields
An input field is an editing tool one step up from a placeholder. With an
input field, you have content already but want to mark it for possible editing.

To add an input field, click Insert > Fields > Other >
Functions > Type > Input field. Although the Reference field is available for
a mouseover, you can ignore it because it has no effect. Instead, click
the Insert button directly. When the Input window opens, type the text
for the input field into the large text box, not the Edit field.
To change the input field, click the field and change the text in the
large text box. Using Input Lists
Input lists are suitable mainly for small lists of variable content. For
example, if a company has three separate divisions, it could use an input
list in a template so that all three divisions could use the same letter
template. When employees printed a letter, they could use the input list
to change the name of the division, as appropriate.
Input lists are created in Insert > Fields > Other > Functions
> Type > Input list. Variables are added one at a time by typing
them into the Item field and then clicking the Add button. Each item is
visible in the Items on the list field, and the order of items can be
changed by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, so that more commonly
used items are higher on the list.
In the document, the first item on the list is displayed by
default. Whenever you want to change the item displayed in the document,
double-click on that field and choose another item from the Window that
opens. You also can click the Edit button to add or remove items from
the list.
Input lists are useful but are limited mainly to small lists. If you need
to use more than about half a dozen items, create a database and then
press F4 to display its content. You then can drag items into
the document; alternatively, creating a merge document might be more efficient.
Using Conditional Text
As with input lists, conditional text is a way of organizing variable
information. The main difference is that conditional text includes only
two items. Which item appears in the list depends on the condition set.

Conditional text is set by clicking Insert > Fields > Other >
Functions > Type > Conditional text. Setting up conditional text
really involves building a simple logic statement. The statement has
three parts, each with a field:

• The condition sets which item is used. By changing the condition, you change the item that
  appears in the document.
• The Then field contains the first alternative. This is
  the text used if the condition is set to 1 or True.
• The Else field contains the second alternative. This is
  the text used if the condition is set to 0 or False.

To change which text is used, click the field and change the condition.
Using Hidden Text and Hidden Paragraphs
Hidden text and paragraph fields are useful for maintaining two slightly
different versions of the same document in one file. For example, teachers
might use them to include answers and teaching notes in the same file
as a class exercise. After printing the entire file for themselves,
they then could turn on the hidden text or paragraphs to distribute
copies for students--and, with luck, not confuse the two.
Both types of field are available from the Functions tab of the Field
window, and both are alternate forms of conditional text. They confuse
many users, not least of all because the on-line help says little about
them. In practice, though, both are easy to use once you understand them.

A Hidden text field is applied to selected characters and
spaces. Alternatively, you can type the text in the Field window. By
contrast, a Hidden paragraph field is a marker that can be placed anywhere
in the paragraph. Except for this detail, the two types of fields work
in exactly the same way.
One reason why these fields can be confusing is you can set them
up, yet still see on screen the material you are trying to hide. As
a result, you might conclude that you haven't set up the fields properly.
In fact, all that is wrong is the Display of Fields: Hidden text or
Fields: Hidden paragraph boxes are selected on Tools > Options >
OpenOffice.org Writer > Formatting Aids. Once you uncheck the appropriate box, the text or paragraph
is hidden, as desired. Alternatively, you can leave each box selected and
use File > Page Preview to see how the document looks with the text or
paragraph hidden.
The second reason these fields confuse is they both
use a Condition field. When the field is set to 0 or False, the text or
paragraph is visible when the document is printed. When the field is set to 1 or
True, the material is hidden.
Hidden text and Hidden paragraph fields are included in version 2.0 of
OpenOffice.org. However, with this release, they have become a legacy
feature, included largely for those who might have documents that contain
them. If you want text that you can hide or reveal as needed and are
using version 2.0, you probably want to use the Hidden feature on the Font Effects
tabs of Character and Paragraph styles instead. With this feature, instead of setting a
condition, all you need to do is check or uncheck the Hidden box.
By doing so, you can instantly hide or reveal all material that uses
the style, rather than going through the document and changing the
condition on each field individually. Best of all, a Hidden Character
style automatically detects any hidden text fields, and a Hidden Paragraph
style automatically detects any hidden paragraph fields. Unless you're
secretive enough to want an unobtrusive way to conceal material or
mulish enough that you refuse to use paragraph styles, as of version 2.0,
you probably don't want to use the individual fields for new documents
at all.
Conclusion
The fields on the Functions tab do have several shortcomings. For one thing,
the input fields for variable content seem to assume that only brief
entries will be made. If, for example, you put two long paragraphs into
the Else and Then fields for Conditional Text, you can have trouble
editing them. In addition, although the Fields window includes arrow
buttons for moving sequentially between fields of the same type, tracking
down fields to edit them still is a slow and unwieldy task. Moreover,
it is only with version 2.0 that the on-line help has reached the stage
where beginners have any hope of understanding how to use fields without
investing a lot of time in experimenting. However, once you understand the Functions
tab fields, you'll find them small but handy additions to your toolbox.

Note: In "OOo
Off the Wall: Fielding Questions, Part 2", I mentioned the
inadequacies of Writer's cross-reference tools. What I forgot to
mention is two macros are available to provide remedies: Ian Laurenson's
ReferenceManager
and OutlineCross-Referencer. If cross-references are important in
your writing, you'll want to look at both of them.