Understanding Variables

Got a bit of text you reuse everywhere, like your product or brand name?

Variables (sometimes called placeholders or merge tags) let you store it once and drop it into as many articles (and Clips) as you like. Update the Variable and every place it's used updates too.

And they look just like your normal text in your article. Heres a Variable we actually use all the time: ⋯ More. Looks just like text, right?

Creating a VariableInserting a VariableUpdating a VariableDeleting a VariableLocking a Variable

1. Head to Clips → Variables tab (or click here)
   
2. Click New variable
3. Give it a name and a text value
   
4. Hit Save

1. Head to your article
2. Type / to open the slash menu (or use the block menu or toolbar) and select Variable
3. Search for your Variable and select it
   
4. Your Variable appears in your article, showing its current value 🎉
   

A Variable in an article always shows the value it currently has, wherever it's inserted. There's no static or dynamic choice to make like with Clips.

1. Head to Clips → Variables tab (or click here)
2. Select the Variable you want to change
3. Update its value and hit Save

Click Used in x places under the Variable's name to open the "Used in" list, which shows every article referencing it (plus any Clips it's embedded in) so you know exactly what you're about to change before you save.

1. Head to Clips → Variables tab (or click here)
2. Select the Variable you want to delete
3. Click the ⋯ More menu beside Save
4. Click Delete, then Confirm delete

1. Head to Clips → Variables tab (or click here)
2. Select the Variable you want to lock
3. Change the dropdown under its name from Anyone can edit to Locked
   
4. Hit Save

If the dropdown is greyed out, hover over it to see why.

Overriding Variables Inside Clips

This is where Variables really pull their weight. Drop a Variable into a Clip and every article that uses that Clip inherits the Variable's value automatically. There's no need to retype it into each Clip instance.

But sometimes one article needs a different value than the rest. That's what overrides are for 🤩

Insert a Dynamic Clip and you can swap in a one-off value for a Variable in just that instance, without touching the Variable itself or the primary Clip.

1

Insert your Clip as a Dynamic Clip

This will allow you to override your Clip's inline Variable.

2

Click the Variable Button in the top right to override the Variable

You'll need to hover over the Dynamic Clip to see it.

3

Add your override value and hit Save

For this example, we'll override the price for this article since it's for special customers

4

Save your article's changes

You'll need to Hit Save to make sure the changes are reflected in your Working Copy

Using Variables With Custom HTML Clips

Variables can be quite advanced when you pair them with an HTML block inside a Clip. You heard that right 🤯

Build a styled component once, like a colored callout banner with its own custom CSS classes, and let non-technical teammates swap out its text without ever touching markup.

Say your design team ships three ready-made banner styles as HTML blocks, each with a different custom class:

<div class="hd-banner hd-banner--warning">
  ⚠️ Banner Text
</div>

Turn each style into its own Clip, like BANNER: Info, BANNER: Warning, or BANNER: Danger, with the custom class baked into each one.

Drop a shared Banner Text Variable inside each Clip where the message goes. Now a non-technical teammate doesn't need to write or edit any HTML to use them:

1. Insert whichever Dynamic Clip matches the style they want (BANNER: Warning for an amber banner, BANNER: Danger for red, and so on)
2. Click Edit variables and override Banner Text with their own message for that article

The variation (color, layout, whatever custom classes are involved) lives in which Clip they pick. The wording lives in the Variable override. Nobody has to open the HTML block or touch a class attribute to get either right.