Custom variables: How to get empty value in drop-down list

[Lisa Carey]

Hi. In a variable type 'List of Choices', does anyone know how I can get it to display an empty value as a choice?

I am using a custom variable for 'Brand' for Google product feed. Some products have a brand and some don't. But in 'Values', Actinic won't allow an empty value.

I don't want to use a text field instead because we have some hard-to-spell brands!

[leehack]

Enter 'none' as a choice and have that as the default setting, you simply change it when there is a brand then.

[Lisa Carey]

That's what I have done, but I was hoping to get to to accept an 'Empty' value (ie nothing in the field), so Google won't display it.

[leehack]

Only selectors have 'no layout' as an option, i guess your only option is to have a space as the name, so its a character but an invisible one, either that or n/a, not known etc.

[Duncan Rounding]

Set the first Choice to be "" then it will appear as blank at the top of the list.

[NormanRouxel]

Or use something like "none", and when you use the variable in your layouts, put a BlockIf for not equal to "none" around it.

[Lisa Carey]

Thanks everyone for ingenious thoughts!

Actinic won't allow a space or a blank in the 'Value' field, so I think I'll go for using blocks in the layouts.

Cheers

[Paul Bulpit]

Try holding down the [Alt] key and then typing 255 on the numeric keypad (if using a laptop, switch on Numlock then hit k,i,i) - this produces an ASCII space.

I use it quite a lot - computers think there is a character there so it's not an empty value - but you can't see it.

[Duncan Rounding]

Entering double quotes as I mentioned above sholuld work fine.