I’m writing some documentation for a style guide in Coda. It’s very structured. Here’s an example:
standfirst
The standfirst should clarify actions, highlight essential consequences, and suggest next steps upon completion.
Sentence case, 20-70 characters, standard punctuation
Make important points super-clear
Like this: Only deposit from your own bank account. Deposits from other accounts will be rejected.
Not like this: You must only transfer your deposit funds to your account from a bank account in your name. Failing to meet this condition will block your funds. Support will contact you if this happens.
Avoid referencing technical processes (and ‘successful’)
Like this: Thanks! We’re reviewing your documents now
Not like this: Upload successful
Those principles (‘Make important points…’ etc.) are part of a bigger set, all formatted as callouts. I want to be able to quickly add a formatted ‘principle’ text component on a page from that library. And ideally, when the text of the original component changes, all applied instances of it change too.
Can I achieve this in Coda?
Hey @Mike_Atherton,
Great question. If you want to you should be able to create templates that the team can use with stand in data that they can then update all holding on to the format you are looking for.
When you create a templet you can also allocated it to create a new doc, or add to an existing doc. In this case when adding to an existing doc, people who use it will be able to use the “/” command to add the template.
Additionally, if you are trying to allocate a template to a table, you can use the canvas column feature and then create your in doc template on a page, having that canvas column look up to that page as the base template. Word of caution, when trying this, you want to make sure that you do not have tables in your template as this will create multiple views of the data creating strain on performance.
I hope that helps!
Best,
Dan
Hi Mike,
What I often have in my documents is a dictionary table with a term column, and a definition column.
I can then write a formula anywhere in the doc, including callouts, as follows dictionary.filter(term=XXX).defintion.totext().
And yes, any change to the dictionary table immediately is reflected throughout the document.
It sounds like it could be something that will help you.
Regards
Piet
4 Likes
Thanks Piet - using a formula could work. I wish there was something more like Notion’s concept of reusable content blocks that carry their formatting whenever instanced.