<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Writing the Report > Picklists > Picklist Manager > Advanced Picklist Customization

Note 1: Backslash (\) menus

Using a backslash will create a menu structure.  The text after the final backslash is the picklist option. You can go as many layers deep as you want. For instance, for “Side Choice\French Fries”, French Fries would be the option. For “Side Choice\French Fries\Crinkle Cut”, Crinkle Cut would be the option. Use the same structure to add more options to your menu. “Side Choice\French Fries\Shoestring”, would add Shoestring as an option under Side Choice > French Fries.

 

Optionally if using the Multi-Select Picklist Manager for the picklist selection, you can use a double-backslash (\\) which instructs the Multi-Select Picklist Manager to automatically expand that folder (only one instance of the double backslash is needed for any group using the same folder).

 

Example:

 

 

Note 2: Caret (^) and Double Caret (^^) RapidRemark Inserting

Prefixing a picklist item with a single caret allows the replacement of the picklist with a matching RapidRemark if it matches a RapidRemark description in the current list of RapidRemarks for the current topic based on the current search setting for the RapidRemark AutoPaste.  Using a double caret will perform a global search of all RapidRemarks.  The look-up will return the first one found, so be sure to use unique descriptions for your RapidRemarks.

 

For the single caret method, if the RapidRemark AutoPaste search method is set to search anywhere in the RapidRemark description then the description after the caret is treated as individual tokens.  In this case, a case-insensitive partial match is performed for each token.  If a match is found, then the first matching RapidRemark is inserted.  For example, if the RapidRemark had a description of "Windows is broken", a picklist entry of ^win brok or even ^brok win will match.

 

For the double caret method, the text following the double caret much match the RapidRemark description exactly so as to be more precise since it is a global search of all RapidRemarks.

 

You can also reference a RapidRemark folder instead of listing each RapidRemark in a picklist.  If the picklist item is bracketed, it will assume it is a RapidRemark folder name and will automatically replace and populate the picklist folder item with all the RapidRemarks contained in that folder.  For example, a picklist entry of ^^[Foundations] will replace that one entry with a branch name of "Foundations" with all the RapidRemarks found under the Foundations folder added as child nodes.  Using the double caret indicates a global search, however you could also using a single caret for a local topic RapidRemark search.  Note: This is only available if using the standard pop-up or Multi-Select picklist selection methods, it is not support if using the popup dropdown picklist selection method.

 

Once a RapidRemark is found and inserted, the RapidRemark completely replaces the picklist that it was inserted with.  If you selected the wrong one, do an undo to recover the picklist (Ctrl+Z, the [Undo] toolbar button, or Edit > Undo).  You can also include picklists within the RapidRemark which can provide for elaborate multi-paragraph construction.

 

Note 3: Double greater than sign (>>)

Using a double greater than sign allows multiple picklists within the same paragraph to be selected simply by selecting from a single picklist.  If you have a picklist entry as defective>>repair>>replacement, and you select that item in one of the picklists in the paragraph, then "defective" is used as the text result for that picklist.  It then looks at all the picklists in the same paragraph, and if they contain an entry "repair" or "replacement", it will automatically select it in those other picklists.  For example:

•Three picklists in their default state.  Garage action 1 has "Consider a replacement" and "Needs lubrication"; Garage Action 2 has "repair" and "replacement"

•You select only "defective" from the Garage Condition picklist which has the picklist item: defective>>Consider a replacement>>repair

•You select only "noisy" from the Garage Condition picklist which has the picklist item: noisy>>Needs lubrication>>repair

 

Of course you could have had a single picklist containing the entire sentence, but this was just an illustration of how it could be utilized.

 

Note 4: Double Forward slash (//) Comments

Using a double forward slash allows for adding notes or instructions to the picklist items. Text after a “//” is seen when the report writer goes to choose a picklist item, but is not inserted into the report.

 

Example:

 

 

In the above example, only the WIN03 is used to match the RapidRemark description shown on the right.  Since this is a RapidRemark picklist reference, the body of the WIN03 RapidRemark will be inserted in place of the picklist.  Had it not had the leading caret, it would not have looked at the RapidRemarks and would have simply inserted WIN03 into the report as the selected picklist item, ignoring the comment portion of the picklist item.