Changes to the default tags and to the text of the prompts for a template
are stored in the template itself.  When you change the tags and save the
template file in the template directory, they become the default for the
template.

The text for the prompts in a tag may be stored either in the template or in
a customization file.

If you want them to be stored in the template, open the template file in the
plain text view and edit the text of the prompts which appear in braces
inside a processing instruction within the element.

One can generate prompts indirectly in another way as well.   The
customization file, ead.ctm, permits one to have certain subelements
automatically inserted when a parent element is selected.  For example, you
may want to automatically insert a <unittitle> and <unitdate> every time you
open a <did>.  The customization file will do this for you but it will apply
to every EAD file you open whether it is created from the New choice or from
a template.   In this case, you can also cause a particular prompt to appear
as well as the subelement.  For example, you may want to set it up so that
when you open a <did>, a <unittitle> is also inserted along with the prompt
"Type Title Here".   In this situation, because the <unittitle> element is
being inserted through the services of the customization feature, the text
for the prompt is also built into the customization feature (and
subsequently appears whenever you open a <did> regardless of the template
being used).

There is a complicated interplay of two features happening and one simply
needs to understand which feature is creating which result.  If you have
just a few standard templates and the same subelements always appear in each
instance, then I would use the template to generate the prompt and remove
the customization feature by deleting the text for the prompt.

To do so, go to the customizations screen, select the parent element from
the list on the left and edit the text in the On Insert box which appears
center bottom.

Michael


Michael J. Fox
Assistant Director for Library and Archives
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd West
St. Paul, MN 55102-2409
651-296-2150  (phone)
651-296-9961  (fax)
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Amy McCrory [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 11:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: problem with customizing template


I'm having trouble understanding how the customization of templates for EAD
finding aids works.  I would like to modify both the default tags and
default text prompts that appear in the finding aid I'm creating.  In
sections 4.1.3.2 and 4.1.5 of the EAD Cookbook, it says that changes in the
text are made in the template (in my case, eadcorporate.xml), and changes
in the default tags are made in the ead.ctm file.  But when I open the
eadcorporate.xml template in a new file, and click Tools and
Customizations, the window that opens carries the message "Customizations
for ead.rlx".  I'm confused as to where the changes are being made, and
what I am actually saving when I save the file (after making the
customizations, chossing "Apply" and "OK").

I would also like to be able to create more than one customized
template.  So instead of saving my changes back to the eadcorporate.xml
file, as instructed, I saved them to a new file.  Problem is, I found that
the changes were applied to the new file and to eadcorporate.xml as
well.  Is this because the changes are actually happening in the
ead.rlx?  How is it possible to save more than one type of template?

I'm feeling really out of my depth with this, and hoping for clarification
from someone with more experience in modifying templates.

Amy McCrory
Project Archivist
Cartoon Research Library
Ohio State University