This article outlines frequently asked questions and best practices when using content placeholders. To learn more about how to use content placeholders, click here.
Frequently asked questions
What are content placeholders?
When should I use content placeholders?
How should I use content placeholders?
Where can I use content placeholders?
What kind of content can content placeholders represent?
Can content placeholders be used for content that requires specific formatting?
Should I use content placeholders in a link or in regular text?
What do I do if I need content placeholders to appear blank in my final report?
What is the best way to use content placeholders when making a spreadsheet connection?
How are duplicate placeholders handled?
What are content placeholders?
Content placeholders allow you to insert variables into your text content. When you want to reuse common content with varied usages across files, content placeholders “hold a place” in your text that you can fill in later.
Consider your content placeholders as a grouping of structured data with a central defining characteristic. This characteristic determines which set of values is shown in a set of reports. For example, you might use content placeholders to represent the fund name when working with fund information or the entity ID when working with entity information. Each content placeholder has one value per document.
When should I use content placeholders?
You should consider using content placeholders if:
- You often break content up into multiple links.
- You have a consistent set of information that changes between documents or reports.
- You often break content up into multiple links.
- You have a consistent set of information that changes between documents or reports.
- You have content that is consistent but report-specific.
- You have templated reports in which a set of information is report-specific.
How should I use content placeholders?
Content placeholders work best when used in a template document. When creating your template, associate your content placeholders with general variables instead of specific values. Once you copy your original template document, changes made to content in the template won’t flow through to the copies that have already been made.
Where can I use content placeholders?
You can use content placeholders to place variables into links or regular text in documents and presentations. The value of each placeholder is determined at the destination where the placeholder is used. For example, if you put your content placeholders into a source link and then create a destination link in four separate documents, you can set the value of the placeholders in each destination document.
What kind of content can content placeholders represent?
Content placeholders can be used to represent numeric content and text content as short as one word and up to several paragraphs in length.
Can content placeholders be used for content that requires specific formatting?
You can apply value and rich text formatting on each placeholder in a source link or in regular text. However, you will not be able to do this to individual placeholders in a destination link.
For content that needs specific formatting, content placeholders may not be the best fit.
- For longer text content, rich text formatting does not flow through the placeholder connection.
- For numeric content, not all formatting will flow through the placeholder connection. Additionally, if your placeholder is in a destination link, you will not have granular formatting control.
Should I use content placeholders in a link or in regular text?
You should use content placeholders in a link if the content changes frequently or needs to be updated in all documents at once when changes are made.
You should use content placeholders in text if the content is not likely to change during your reporting period. Content placeholders in text are particularly useful when used in a template, where variable information can be altered between documents using placeholders.
What do I do if I need content placeholders to appear blank in my final report?
If you need content placeholders to be blank in your final report, you have a few options.
- You can manually hide it from your report by using the “hide” option in the right-hand panel (the eye symbol).
- You can enter a space in your connected spreadsheet.
Note: If the placeholder is on its own line in the document, these options will still leave a line in your report. To avoid this, add a hard return into the text of the other values of that placeholder.
What is the best way to use content placeholders when making a spreadsheet connection?
When connecting to a Workiva spreadsheet, keep the following in mind:
- Create the placeholder connection before creating any placeholders. Making a spreadsheet connection will automatically create content placeholders in your document that are mapped to your spreadsheet data.
- Try to make sure your data labels are finalized. Data labels map your data to your content placeholders. If you change the data labels, you will have to re-map your content placeholders to your data.
- Designate your key with the data’s defining characteristic. This determines which data will be shown and allows the connection to work like a bulk VLOOKUP function.
- If each of your reports will have its own data spreadsheet, set up the connection in each destination document. Do not set up a placeholder connection in your template document.
- On roll-forward, if you copy the document and its data spreadsheet, you will have to update the placeholder in the new document to point to the new spreadsheet. This connection does not happen automatically.
How are duplicate placeholders handled?
If your document contains a manually-created placeholder and a placeholder of the same name is introduced during a publish operation, the links will be merged into a single placeholder. This eliminates duplicates from the Placeholders panel and ensures consistent data updates—one connection refreshes every instance of that placeholder across your document.