Referencing Named Data Sources

When you name a data source in an object on a template, you can access the data that is contained in that data source and then use it in other objects. In addition to sharing data between objects, you can reference the named data source in a Visual Basic Script, so that the application returns the value of the specified data source. The Script Assistant pane of the Script Editor contains a list of all of the named data sources that are specified in your document.

When you use named data sources in scripts, we recommend that you follow the naming restrictions that are defined in Visual Basic. Avoid starting data source names with numbers or using spaces and special characters in the data source name. If you do not follow these conventions, you must reference the data source by using one of the following methods.

Use one of the following methods:

In the Script Assistant pane, open the Named Data Sources book, and then double-click the data source name to insert a reference code snippet into the Script pane.
Enter the data source name to insert a reference code snippet into the Script pane.
Enter the following code in the Script pane:

Format.NamedSubStrings("datasource_name")

The Named Data Sources book does not appear in the Script Assistant pane unless you linked an object from the current template to a named data source.