Creating and Searching for Specification Texts

Specification texts describe a certain aspect of a model element in the respective text definition (specification text).

Essential Specification Text Properties

A specification text describes certain aspects of a model element. The text definition controls which these will be respectively. Text definitions can be configured as components of the documentation.

Specification texts are possible for all model elements.
Specifications belong directly to the model element.
Text definitions can be configured per model element, e.g.
- Description
- Open Points
- Special Text Definitions for Specific Innovator Functionalities
The text can be formatted (font, size, color, style); tables can be copied, e.g. from Word
The text can include links
- model references (using Drag-and-Drop)
- hyperlinks to external targets (e.g. websites)
The text can be searched

Creating Specification Texts

Context

You can store any number of descriptions for each model element, show them in the respective model element's specification preview and connect them in their model's documentation later. These textual specifications are essential when creating a comprehensive model documentation. These texts are normally constantly maintained throughout the course of the project.

If model elements are selected in the interface, you can use the Start>Open>Specification Text (F3) command to open the editor for editing specifications of these model elements.

In diagram editors, the Design>Editing>Specification Text (F3) command is additionally available.

Text is inputted for element descriptions directly in the respective document window. You can use drag-and-drop to insert references on model elements; these are then maintained when renaming the element.

You can also use text files which were produced in other editors or in text processing programs as a copy source. Formatting is taken from Word.

You can customize the default format (font and size) for specification texts in the Specification Text Options section in the Display tab in the Options dialog (Model>Options ([Alt]+[MI]))

Configured text definitions always exist and cannot be deleted for individual model elements. They can only be empty.

How to proceed

Select the model element you want to describe.
Select Start>Open>Specification Text (F3).

The model element's specification window appears.
Select the text definition which contains the text you want to edit.
Enter the text according to the selected text definition.

The name of the text definition to be edited is shown in red if your changes have been made.
To insert a reference to a model element as a hyperlink, add the model element to the desired position in the specification text using Drag-and-Drop.
To insert a reference to an external target as a hyperlink: select the text to be linked within the specification text, choose the command Hyperlink from the context menu and enter the address for the hyperlink in the dialog.
Format the text using the Text tab or the context menu.
Save the specification with Text>Specification>Save (Ctrl+S).

The name of the edited text is shown as black.

Searching the Specification Text

Prerequisites

The specification window for the model element is active.

Context

You can search for a string in the specification text of the current text definition.

How to proceed

Click in the <Find in text> field and enter the string that you want to search for in the current text definition.
Enable the corresponding Options if you want to match case, search for whole words only or search backwards.
Press the [Enter] key or click on Find Next (Ctrl+G).

If the string occurs in the text after (searching forwards) or before (searching backwards) the mouse pointer, the first instance is selected. Otherwise, nothing happens.
To select the next instance, click on Find Next (Ctrl+G).

If the string occurs again in the text after (searching forwards) or before (searching backwards) the previous instance, the next instance is selected. Otherwise, nothing happens.

Searching in Specification Texts

Context

You can search for text in text definitions.

How to proceed

Select Start>Browse>Find>Find Specification (Ctrl+F3).
Enter the text or text pattern in the Contained Text field. Regular expressions are supported.
Select the element type which you want to limit the search to from the Find Element Type drop-down list.
Select the text definition which you want to limit the search to from the Find in Text Definition drop-down list.
Enable the corresponding search options if you want to match case or search for whole words only.
Click on Find.

The elements found are listed with the searched text in the result region.
To save the current search with a name and description so you can reuse it, click on Save.

A dialog appears which you can add the information required in.