Using text replacers in a report introduction

If you've used any of the standard Report layouts provided with Discus' Report Editor feature, you may have noticed that they insert customised introductory text at the beginning of the report. For example, if you produce a Recruitment Briefing for a Ms Jane Smith, the introduction will read:

"This report summarises Jane's style with particular reference to a recruitment or assessment situation. Especially in recruitment, it is important to take account of the comments in the 'Behavioural Adaptation' section, as Jane's perceptions of her circumstances will be particularly relevant to the way she responds in a recruitment situation."

Note that the contents are customised to include the candidate's name (in the form 'Jane' or 'Ms Smith', depending on the defined formality), and also to use feminine pronouns where appropriate.

These features aren't confined to the reports provided with the Discus system - you can also use them in your own report introductions.

Editing the Report Introduction

The Report Introduction text is available through Discus' Report Editor. Choose 'System Utilities' from Discus' main menu, and click the 'Report Editor' icon, then 'Load' the report you want to edit. The Report Introduction section is to the bottom right of the Report Editor window.

The Candidate's Name

To insert the candidate's name, just type '[name]' into your introduction. When Discus produces a report, it will automatically insert the candidate's name (in the appropriate form) instead of this text. ('[name]', and the other special text codes discussed in this article, are technically referred to as 'replacers'.)

Discus also supports the possessive form, '[name's]', which will be replaced with the corresponding form of the candidate's name in the introduction.

Pronouns

Discus is also able to reword the report according to the gender of the candidate. To do this, you'd normally just use the masculine form, but in square brackets. So, if you type '[he] [himself]' into the Introduction box of the Report Editor, it will appear differently in the report depending on the candidate's gender. For a male candidate, the text would read 'he himself', but for a female candidate, the text would be 'she herself' instead.

There is one exception to this, because '[his]' is ambiguous - it might refer to the masculine form of the 'her', or - much more rarely - 'hers'. In the latter case, Discus always uses '[hers]' as the appropriate replacer, to avoid ambiguity.

The full list of available text replacers is as follows:

Capitalisation

If you do use any of these replacers in your introductory text, it's important to follow the normal rules of capitalisation, even for '[name]'. Where the replacers appear at the beginning of a sentence, then, you should always use a capital, as in '[Name]' or '[His]'.

Note: These replacers only work in the Report Introduction text, not in the Reference Description.