* remove the preposition in a narrative report

[jimlad68]

I'm trying to remove the preposition (e.g. on) before the date in a narrative report. From http://www.fhug.org.uk/fhhelp/source/te ... l#advanced I can see how to add one, but not remove. I note that PLACe can be used with/without a prefix but that for ADDRess you have to specify one if you want it! 3 variations for 3 codes!

It is not a major problem as I can remove via a word macro, but that would not be possible for PDF output. I am just intrigued, perhaps there is an extra list of items for the Fact Template.

[DavidNewton]

The help file will show you the way - search for Template Codes and look at the Date paragraph. Date codes accept qualifiers which allow you to choose the date format. As soon as you add a qualifier the automatic prepositions disappear. The disadvantage is that you will have to do this for every fact definition where you want to change the format.

David

[Jane]

If you want to do a global change and are happy using a search and replace program the Fact Sets are plain text files so easy to edit that way (obviously back them up first).

[tatewise]

Jim, the Advanced section you linked to explains the options David mentions:

Please note that the simple {date} code automatically adds various prefixes (different ones depending on the date type) and other language elements, to make the date information fit correctly into a narrative sentence. When you qualify a date, no such additional language elements are added. If you want prefixes, you will have to add them yourself (see next).

I believe the default {date} format is the same as the {date:LONG} format except the latter has no prefix.

Another interesting variant is <on {date:DAY_OF_WEEK}> {date:LONG} which includes the day of the week.

[jimlad68]

David, Mike, thanks, also found the extra page.

Jane, very useful info, I don't know how good it is in a programming sense, but I just love the simplicity of data being held in structured text files, bit like a GEDCOM file really. Takes me back to my system testing days.