How to drive the contents of an FT&A Note from a parameter

[srikanth vadapalli]

I will show how to set the value of an FT&A Note from a string parameter. 
I will also show how to assign a multi-line value to a string parameter.

This is what we want to do. Have a FT&A Text feature driven by a string parameter. 

The problem and the workaround. 

If you examine the EKL type corresponding to the FT&A Text object, you will see its type is "CATTPSText". 
And you will see that it has an attribute "TextString" which is the value of the text. Also you are told that you can change the value: 

"its value can be modified"

However, if you go ahead and try to modify the value of the attribute in a Rule or Reaction:

`Annotation Set.1\Text.3` .TextString = aStringParameter

Nothing happens.  

But fear not, there is a simple workaround:

Under VB the FT&A Text object is called the "Text" type. And the Text type has a "Text" property which is the value. And in VB it really is read-write. 

So we use the  Knowledge Advisor feature: "VBScript with Arguments".

This is about as simple a script as you can have. The script takes two arguments: The text feature and the string value to assign. 

Now we can create a Reaction which fires on a change to the String parameter and simply call the VB Script from it. 

And that is it!  Change the parameter, the FT&A Text updates too.

This is only so useful unless you know how to make multi-line string values. And the answer is: With a Rule. 

You just need to include the carriage returns inside the quotes and nothing more. 

That's It. 

As almost always you can use Power Copy to reuse this method in the same or other designs.