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AdmFubar

Is there a list of all the variables that can be added to a document this way? It would be handy.
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

utnik

hi admfubar

what do you mean by
Quote...all the variables that can be added to a document this way?
as there is no automatism to fill in some text, you are free to add variables as you like.
afaik there is just the name of the variable and the text which replaces it in the actual text frames.
...or did i miss something?

utnik

AdmFubar

and how do you define this variable on the fly?
I was asking for a list of usable variables.. But you are saying that you define it as needed.  
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

utnik

hi admfubar

Quote from: AdmFubar on January 23, 2024, 07:39:28 AMand how do you define this variable on the fly?
take a look at the first step in ale's screencast! he defined a variable as 'date' and populated it with 'today' (which he altered in a later step...)

utnik

AdmFubar

great.. but where does "today" get its value from?
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

Nermander

It is a text you write.

The text variable named "date" is first set to contain the text "today", then it is changed to "tomorrow".

So everywhere where you have inserted the variable named "date" first shows "today", and after the variable has been changed it shows "tomorrow".

So you can define the variable named "date" to be whatever you want. "today", "tomorrow", "23 January 2024", "Stardate 7643.5".

AdmFubar

let me see if i have this straight..
One would name a variable in scribus, manually assign it a value. then went ever you type that variable in it shows up.

So how does one get the current date into that variable? I dont see this method as being useful for this use case. what am i missing?
Using Scribus 1.6.1, openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

utnik

hi admfubar

Quote from: AdmFubar on January 23, 2024, 09:00:27 PMSo how does one get the current date into that variable?
as i wrote before, there's no automatism. (in other words: scribus doesn't know what 'date' is used for...) you need to insert the date once manually to tell scribus how to populate every instance of the variable.

QuoteI dont see this method as being useful for this use case.
you're right. if you don't know the current date, text variables are useless. but if you do, you might use them...

utnik

a.l.e

i think that people have issues with the concept of variable (in computer science).

a variable is not something that changes by itself, it's a way to put a common value in a container and give it a name.
it's not called a "variable" because it changes its own content by itself, but because you're allowed to change its content (the opposite is a "constant", where you set the value once and you're not supposed to change it later).

my final world on this topic: i recognize that it would be "cool" to have some sort of dynamic field that shows the current date, but for layout purposes, i fear that such a field would be pretty useless since you almost never want to have the layout date (or time) in the layout itself.