Text
Text variables allow answers to be in free form. Without any patterns or validation, users can enter letters, numbers and special characters in any way in the given field. For instance, you might create a text variable known as Address1 which would prompt the user to enter information such as 123 Smith Street. However, there are times that you might want to limit the characters. You can do this by adjusting the text intake pattern. An example might be creating a Zip text variable field with the expectation that only a five digit number may be entered such as 83402, the zip code for Idaho Falls, ID.
Text Intake Pattern
The text intake pattern is used when you want to limit the user to input text in certain formats and limits the number of characters for a variable. The table below gives the tokens and what they do.
| Token | What it does |
|---|---|
| 9 | Only numbers (0-9) can be typed |
| A | Only letters can be typed |
| X | Numbers and letters can be typed |
| L | Only lowercase letters can be typed |
| U | Only uppercase letters can be typed |
Anything you type that is not one of the tokens will show up as text in the Apps user interface. You can also mix and match between letters, numbers, uppercase letters and lowercase letters (e.g. 99-AA, (999) 999-9999, XXX-XX-9999.)
Validation
Validation allows you to give the user the option to put text on multiple lines, Text may contain line breaks, and to format the text, Allow formatting (markdown). When choosing the option Text may contain line breaks, you will want to update the Input Height (Lines) shown below; otherwise, pushing Enter will result in selecting the Save and Exit button on the App. Allow formatting (markdown) lets the user format the text (bold, italicize, etc.), which will carry over to the document created.
Answer Suggestions
Answer suggestions allow you to give the user suggested values that they can choose from. The user will have those suggestions, and if the information they want to input is not an option, they can manually write in their answer. When you create a text variable, Knackly automatically has None selected for answer suggestions. You can add suggestions specific to the given text variable by selecting Fixed values defined below. Click on Add suggested answer and you can add a value. Repeat this process until all desired values are created. You also have the option to use Values defined somewhere else. This allows you to fill in the name of another Variable or Formula under Suggestions From (Expression).
Input Height (Lines)
Input height is how many lines this variable will take up on the App. The default height is one line. You can increase this, which we recommend for larger blocks of text.