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Text & formatting

This group adds text to a PDF and changes how it looks: whole paragraphs, small pieces of text with their own formatting, line breaks, and the font, size, bold, italic, underline, and colors of a paragraph. Use it to write the body of the document and style it.

Prerequisite: before using any of these instructions, the workflow must already have a PDF created (with Create PDF). Insert Paragraph adds the first paragraph; every other instruction needs a paragraph to already exist.

These concepts recur across several instructions in this group; they are explained here once.

  • Document: indicates which document in the workflow the instruction applies to. If left empty, the current document is used. If the document doesn’t exist (or is not a PDF), the instruction simply does nothing.

  • Fonts: a font name can be any font installed on the computer that runs the workflow. If that font has no bold or italic of its own, the bold or italic is drawn from its regular letters. A font that is not installed is written in Arial, keeping bold and italic, and the run says so in a warning.

  • Two ways to work with a paragraph. Insert Paragraph creates a new paragraph (it doesn’t need one to exist). Every other instruction works on the last paragraph — the one added most recently. So the usual flow is: add a paragraph, then style it or append inline text to it. If no paragraph exists yet, those other instructions do nothing.

  • Whole paragraph vs. a piece of text. Set Font, Set Font Size, Set Bold, Set Italic, Set Underline, Set Text Color, and Set Text Background Color format the whole last paragraph. Insert Inline Text adds a single piece of text with its own formatting to that paragraph — use it when only a few words need a different look. Set Vertical Text Position acts on the last inline piece of the paragraph.

  • Changes take effect right away on the document being built (they are not deferred to when the PDF is saved).

  • Dynamic values (@name): in a text field (Text, Style name, Font name, Color hex) you can type @ followed by the name of a value saved earlier in the workflow, and it will be replaced by that value.

  • “From variable” fields: the @name trick only works in text fields. The numeric fields — Font size, Points, and the Red / Green / Blue color channels — each have a companion “from variable” field:

    • If you leave it empty, the value typed in the normal field is used.
    • If you fill it in with the name of a saved value, the engine ignores the normal field and reads the value from that variable.

    This is mainly for chaining instructions. If you only work with fixed values, you can ignore these fields. (The yes/no fields — Bold, Italic, Underline, Superscript, Subscript — have no “from variable” companion.)

Insert Endnote .pdf

Marks the last paragraph with a note number and remembers the text of the note for the list at the end.

When to use it: to add a clarification to something you have just written, without breaking the flow of the text.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Note text Text of the note. Supports @name (empty) No

Important behavior: it is an end note, not a footnote: the number appears as a superscript at the end of the last paragraph, and the note itself is written where you place Insert Endnotes List — normally at the end of the document. A note at the bottom of its own page is not possible in a PDF made by this program. The numbering is automatic and starts at 1 for each document. With no text the instruction does nothing, and so does a note added before any paragraph exists: the number has to hang from some text.

Insert Endnotes List .pdf

Writes every endnote collected so far, numbered, at this point of the document.

When to use it: once, at the end of the document, after all the Insert Endnote instructions.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Heading Heading written above the notes; empty means no heading. Supports @name Notes No

Important behavior: if there are no notes, nothing is written — not even the heading. It writes the notes collected up to that point, so if you place it in the middle of the workflow the notes added afterwards will not be in it; using it twice writes them twice.

Insert Inline Text .pdf

Appends a single piece of text with its own formatting (font, size, bold, italic, underline, color) to the last paragraph.

When to use it: when only part of a paragraph needs to look different from the rest — a bold term, a colored word, or a phrase in another font.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Text The text to append. Supports @name (empty) No
Font name Font for this piece of text; empty = keep the paragraph’s font. Supports @name (empty) No
Font size Size of this text in points; 0 = keep the current size 0 No
Bold Yes = bold, No = explicitly not bold No No
Italic Yes = italic, No = explicitly not italic No No
Underline Yes = underline this text No No
Color hex Text color as a 6-digit hex code RRGGBB (the leading # is optional); empty = keep the current color. Supports @name (empty) No
Font size (from variable) Reads the font size from a saved value (empty) No
Bold (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No
Italic (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No
Underline (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No

Important behavior: this appends to the last paragraph — if the document has no paragraph yet, nothing happens. The font name is applied only if it isn’t empty, and the size only if it is greater than 0. The color is applied only when it is a valid 6-digit hex code; anything else is ignored.

Insert Line Break .pdf

Adds a line break inside the last paragraph, so the text that follows starts on a new line without starting a new paragraph.

When to use it: to break a line within the same paragraph — for example the lines of a postal address or a short list kept as one paragraph.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No

Important behavior: if the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Insert Paragraph .pdf

Adds a new paragraph of text to the document.

When to use it: to add a block of text to the PDF. Unlike the rest of this group, this instruction creates a paragraph — it doesn’t need one to exist. The paragraph it adds becomes the “last paragraph” that the other instructions then work on.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Text The text of the paragraph. Supports @name (empty) No
Style name Name of a paragraph style to apply (for example Heading1, Normal); empty = the default style. Supports @name (empty) No

Important behavior: a new paragraph is always added. If Style name is empty the default style is used; otherwise the named style is applied.

Set Bold .pdf

Turns bold on or off for the whole last paragraph.

When to use it: to make an entire paragraph bold (or to remove bold from it).

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Bold Yes = bold the paragraph; No = remove bold Yes No
Bold (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No

Important behavior: applies to the whole last paragraph. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Font .pdf

Sets the font family of the whole last paragraph.

When to use it: to change the typeface of a paragraph (for example to a heading font).

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Font name Name of the font to apply. Supports @name Arial No

Important behavior: applies to the whole last paragraph. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Font Size .pdf

Sets the font size, in points, of the whole last paragraph.

When to use it: to make a paragraph larger or smaller.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Points Font size in points 12 No
Points (from variable) Reads the font size from a saved value (empty) No

Important behavior: applies to the whole last paragraph. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Italic .pdf

Turns italic on or off for the whole last paragraph.

When to use it: to italicize an entire paragraph (or remove italics from it).

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Italic Yes = italicize the paragraph; No = remove italic Yes No
Italic (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No

Important behavior: applies to the whole last paragraph. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Text Background Color .pdf

Sets the background (shading) color of the whole last paragraph, given as a hex color code.

When to use it: to highlight a paragraph with a colored background band.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Color (hex) Background color as a hex code, e.g. FFFF00. Empty = leave unchanged. Supports @name FFFF00 (yellow) No

Important behavior: the color is a hex code (with or without a leading #); the default FFFF00 is yellow. If Color (hex) is left empty, the paragraph’s background is left unchanged. An invalid hex code is treated as black. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Text Color .pdf

Sets the text color of the whole last paragraph, given as a hex color code.

When to use it: to color the text of a paragraph.

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Color (hex) Text color as a hex code, e.g. FF0000. Empty = leave unchanged. Supports @name 000000 (black) No

Important behavior: the color is a hex code (with or without a leading #); the default 000000 is black. If Color (hex) is left empty, the paragraph’s text color is left unchanged. An invalid hex code is treated as black. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Underline .pdf

Turns underline on or off for the whole last paragraph.

When to use it: to underline an entire paragraph (or remove its underline).

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Underline Yes = underline the paragraph; No = remove the underline Yes No
Underline (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No

Important behavior: Yes applies a single underline; No removes any underline. If the document has no paragraph, nothing happens.

Set Vertical Text Position .pdf

Makes the last piece of inline text of the paragraph superscript or subscript.

When to use it: for footnote markers, ordinals (like the “st” in “1st”), or chemical formulas (like the “2” in “H2O”).

Parameter Meaning Default Required
Document Document the instruction applies to (current document) No
Superscript Yes = raise the text above the baseline No No
Subscript Yes = lower the text below the baseline No No
Superscript (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No
Subscript (from variable) Reads the yes/no value from a saved value (empty) No

Important behavior: this acts on the last inline piece of the last paragraph — a piece added with Insert Inline Text. If the paragraph has no such inline piece, nothing happens. If both Superscript and Subscript are No, any superscript or subscript on that piece is cleared (back to normal). Normally you set only one of the two to Yes.

This documentation is the help of the application, and it comes underCreative Commons Attribution 4.0.