Text Symbols

All symbols that do not correspond to one of the three types of symbol described above are text symbols. You define the value of a text symbol yourself in the text module.

There are two ways of doing this:

• In the text editor, choose  Include  Symbols  Text .

  All the text symbols contained either in the current text or in a form assigned to the text are displayed. You can assign a value of up to 80 characters to a text symbol. Enter this value in the same form as it is to appear in the output.

  The effect of assigning a value is temporary, since the values assigned are not stored with the text but are lost as soon as you leave the editor You use this kind of value assignment if you had a ready-made text containing symbols that you want to print with specific values in place of the symbols, and you want to do this only once without storing the "changed" text.

• In the text, use the control command DEFINE.

  Since control commands are stored with the text module, any value you assign in this way is preserved when you save the text. You can change the value assigned to a symbol in the text at any time simply by issuing another DEFINE command.

  Remember always to use the ' (inverted comma) character to delimit a value. The maximal length for these values is also 80 characters.

  Example

  A text in the editor contains the following DEFINE commands:

  /: DEFINE &mysymbol& = 'xxx xxx xxxxx xxxx'

  &mysymbol&

  /: DEFINE &mysymbol& = 'yyyyy yyy yyyy'

  / &mysymbol&

  The printed text appears like this:

  xxx xxx xxxxx xxxx

  yyyyy yyy yyyy