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Creating Named Data Sources

When you assign a name to a data source, you can share its value with other objects on the template, reference it by using VBScript, or reference it from an external program. There are several ways to create named data sources and connect them to objects on your template.

ClosedTo create a named data source from an existing data source

  1. Open the Object Properties dialog. To do this, double-click the object that contains the data source that you want to share. Alternatively, click Properties on the object's context menu.

  2. In the navigation pane, click the data source that you want.

  3. On the Data Sources property page, click the Data Source tab.

  4. Next to the Name field, click the icon to start the Change Data Source Name wizard. For more information about this wizard, refer to Change Data Source Name Wizard.

  5. In the Name field, enter the name that you want to use for the selected data source.

  6. Click OK to apply the name change and to close the Change Data Source Name wizard.

  7. Click Close to close the Object Properties dialog.

ClosedTo create a named data source by using the Create Named Data Source wizard

  1. In the Toolbox, click Data Sources to show the Data Sources pane.

  2. Use the secondary mouse button to click the Data Sources node, and then click Create Named Data Source. The Create Named Data Source wizard starts.

  3. Follow the prompts in the wizard.

When you are editing a text object, you can also create or rename a named data source by using the on-screen editing context menu to start the Change Data Source Name wizard.

ClosedTo create or rename a named data source by using the on-screen editing context menu

  1. Click inside the text object.

  2. Open the on-screen editing context menu by using one of the following methods: 

    • Use the secondary mouse button to click an existing data source (that is not an Embedded Data data source).

    • Select one or more characters of an Embedded Data data source, and then use the secondary mouse button to click the selected content.

  3. Click Name Data Source to start the Change Data Source Name wizard, and then complete the steps in the wizard to create or rename a named data source.

For more information about the options that are available on this context menu, refer to On-Screen Editing Context Menu.

After you name a data source, it appears in the Data Sources pane of the Toolbox in the Named Data Sources node.

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