PS TEXT FORMAT Reference Manual

Introduction to TFORM
11387 Tandem Computers Incorporated 3–91
FORMAT string
The FORMAT option provides you with an alternate way to modify
labels for standard list items. Instead of using the BEGIN LIST
STYLE feature, you specify the list type and customize the label for
that list type with the FORMAT option.
The FORMAT string is a “picture” that defines what you want
the label to look like. A question mark in the string in the
command line represents the portion that TFORM must compute.
To generate each list item’s label, TFORM
1. Copies the FORMAT string characters, up to the question mark,
to begin the label
2. Inserts the standard LIST expression or the value of the STYLE
expression (defined by the user) in place of the question mark
3. Copies the remaining FORMAT string characters to the label to
complete it
For example, if you prefer parentheses around each letter in an
alphabetic list rather than the standard period, you can use the
following command
\BEGIN LIST ALPHABETIC FORMAT "(?) "
TFORM can use the new format you provide to build the labels of the
ALPHABETIC list; the list items will print like this
(a) text of item 1
(b) text of item 2
... ...
Note the two blank spaces included in the string. These spaces provide a
2-space gutter to separate the label from the body of the list item. You can
also vary the number of spaces or omit them.