Mini tip: Outlined (code) blocks with regular font

Paul_Danyliuk · May 22, 2022, 11:33am

Update: Do this with callouts now:

Old answer for historic reason:

I think I’ve seen this trick in @Scott_Collier-Weir’s docs — making nice outlined blocks for drawing extra attention. To draw such block, one would use Code Block paragraph style. The problem with it is that it forces all the text in the block to have monospace font (see left).

The solution: use formulas and put all the text there. The style of text in formulas will override the “outer” style forced by the block (see right).

Bonus tip: warning boxes with side-by-side icon and text can be created with a Card hidden formula also wrapped in a Code Block paragraph:

Card(
  Image("https://cdn.coda.io/icons/svg/color/delete-sign.svg"),
  Concatenate(
    _Bold("Title"),
    LineBreak(),
    "Message"
  )
).Concatenate("")

Lynn_vK · May 22, 2022, 1:07pm

Hi! The block with regular font is full screen, unless multiple blocks are placed in columns, side by side. Is this correct?

Paul_Danyliuk · May 22, 2022, 2:38pm

The block takes the full width of the page or a column, yes.

Scott_Collier-Weir · May 23, 2022, 4:51pm

Thanks for the shoutout!

You can also easily grab icons and input them anywhere in your doc like this:

(1) Right click on an icon in the page title

(2) Select "Copy Image Address"

(3) Paste the copied URL into an Image() formula

Paul_Danyliuk · May 24, 2022, 6:15pm

One downside worth noting: this is not “free tier” friendly at all because of all those formulas.

It’s possible to reduce the number of formulas used for this by combining multiple formulas together and make it easier to edit with the help of template tables:

system · August 22, 2022, 6:16pm

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Paul_Danyliuk · December 16, 2022, 5:25pm

Update: Also now that we have Callouts and can remove icons from those, it’s now even simpler to achieve this look.

It’s not 100% identical: this uses the page font while the trick in the original post results in a smaller font size (could be more useful for contextual tips). But it’s times easier to set up: no external tables and numerous formulas.