# Field formatting

Starting with **v0.1.0** it's possible to specify custom formatting and to use templates.

## Internal links

The internal link preference influences how file names and therefore how links look.

* `[[wiki links]]` can contain spaces and maintain their case
* `[Markdown links](markdown-links.md)` are all lower case and spaces are replaced with dashes.

## Zotero Note formatting

Zotero Notes are formated in HTML. The hidden preference `extensions.mdnotes.html_to_md` has a dictionary of how the HTML elements are translated into markdown.

## Placeholders

With a few exceptions, you can format any placeholder by adding (or modifying) them in the settings. You can reach the hidden preferences menu from `Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Config Editor`. You can use the search to find existing configurations:

![Zotero's Config editor](/files/-MXmrZbxG5kyru9KQYOQ)

### Default formatting

#### Placeholder format

By default, placeholder contents are replaced with:

```
{{bullet}} {{field_name}}: {{field_contents}}
```

Where:

* `{{bullet}}` - Defined in `extensions.mdnotes.bullet`
* `{{field_name}}` - The name of the field transformed from camel case into sentence case.
* `{{field_contents}}` - The contents of the field as described below.

#### Field format

Any placeholder that doesn't have their formatting defined in the hidden preferences has the following defaults:

* `link_style`: As defined by the preference of [Internal links](/zotero-mdnotes/customization/formatting.md#internal-links). Valid values include `wiki`, `markdown` and `no-links`.
* `list_separator`: For fields that contain more than one value, the default is `,`.
* `change_case`: How to capitalize the contents of the field: `title`, `sentence`, `lower` or `upper` case. The default will return the field content in its original case.
* `remove_spaces`: If this is set to `true` spaces will be replaced with dashes.

### Adding new formatting rules

If you want to add custom formatting for any field not currently there, you can add the format for a placeholder with right-click and `New > String`.

### Preference name

The preference name should be `extensions.mdnotes.placeholder.<yourFieldHere>`, where `yourFieldHere` should match a [supported Zotero field](https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_types_and_fields). Keep in mind that Zotero fields are usually accessed using camel case, and should be (usually) formatted as `fieldName`, e.g. `seriesTitle`.

#### Preference value

The value of the preference should be enclosed in braces, and defined as key/value pairs, e.g `{"key": "value"}`.

In addition to the fields described in the [default field format](/zotero-mdnotes/customization/formatting.md#field-format), the following options can be specified:

* `content` - Formatting the placeholder's content ([default placeholder format](/zotero-mdnotes/customization/formatting.md#placeholder-format))
* `field_contents` - Formatting the field itself, which defaults to `{{content}}`

**Examples**

Replacing the field label with custom text and changing the list separator to make a list:

```
{"content":"{{bullet}} PDF Attachments\n\t- {{field_contents}}", "field_contents": "{{content}}", "list_separator": "\n\t- "}
```

Making the tags placeholder remove spaces and adding a hash sign before each tag:

```
{"content":"{{bullet}} Tags: {{field_contents}}", "field_contents": "#{{content}}", "link_style": "no-links", "list_separator": ", ", "remove_spaces": "true"}
```


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