I would like to edit the Serial Numbers Template to add more fields such as “Date Purchased” and “Price” and, maybe a checkbox for whether I paid via Credit Card or paid via Paypal. I know that I have to right-click on the template itself in the Templates Folder and then choose “Show Package Contents”. After I open up the “Serial Number.rtf” in TextEdit, I do not know what I have to do to add the fields mentioned above. By the way, am I right that I should open the “Serial Number.rtf” in TextEdit, or do I need to open it in a different text editor?
The “fields” in the RTF in that template are part of a table. The left column is the “field name” the right column is where the value is entered. You can edit the RTF in any RTF editor. Some editors (e.g., Nisus) handle tables with a little more finesse than TextEdit. There’s no simple way to add checkboxes to RTF, but you could have rows for Credit Card and Paypal in your table and put a tick mark in the value (right hand) column next to the applicable “field”.
Thank you for the help in telling me that the template is a table and I should open it with Nisus Writer. I did a test run of the “Serial Numbers Template” after I edited it and everything seems perfect. I only need help as far as what strings (I do not know if that is the proper term) put in my fields.
I know that “Date Purchased” should be the string %date% .
What would the string for “Price” be? I tried the string %price%, however, it does not work.
Also, how do you get a long date (as in February 22, 2011)? The string %date% only gives you the short date (as in Feb 22, 2011).
Search for “Templates” in the Help file and then scroll down to the “Template Packages” section of the help page for the complete list of placeholders that DT supports in .dtTemplate files.
The is no default placeholder for “Price” - how would DT know what you meant by that? You would need to write your own AppleScript - continue reading in that section of Help about “Smart Templates” for the basic guidance on that. Someone in the DT Scripting forum might be interested in writing such a scripted template.
As noted in the above-referenced section of Help, the placeholder for long date is ```
%longDate%