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Using placeholders

A placeholder is a piece of text that Snapshots displays in place of an empty cell or an empty level. It exists for a single reason: in regulated and audit contexts, an empty cell can be ambiguous — it might mean "no data" or it might mean "data was removed." A placeholder makes the absence explicit.

There are two kinds of placeholders:

  • Field-level placeholder. Replaces the value of a single field when it is empty for a given issue.

  • Empty-level placeholder. Replaces an entire missing level when a parent has no children at that level.

You configure both from the macro configuration screen.

Placeholders.png

When to use a placeholder

  • You need to deliver compliant documentation (regulated industries, formal audits, sign-offs) where every cell must carry information.

  • You want page viewers to be able to tell at a glance which entries are deliberate and which are missing.

  • You want the export (Excel, PDF) to read cleanly with no blank cells.

If neither of these applies, the default empty cell is fine.

Field-level placeholder

Replaces the empty cells of a single field. The same placeholder is applied to that field on every level it appears.

To configure a field placeholder:

  1. Edit the page and open the macro configuration.

  2. On the level where the field appears, hover over the field name in the field list.

  3. Click Placeholder.

  4. Edit the text if you want a custom string. The default text is empty (renders as empty square brackets [ ]); you can replace it with anything — for example, Not specified, N/A, or a short comment.

  5. Save with Insert snapshot and republish the page.

The placeholder text appears in any cell where that field has no value, on every level the field is on.

Empty-level placeholder

Replaces an entire absent level. If a level-1 issue has no level-2 children (or a level-2 issue has no level-3 children, and so on), the row that would otherwise be empty shows the placeholder text.

To configure an empty-level placeholder:

  1. Edit the page and open the macro configuration.

  2. Open the Layout tab.

  3. Scroll to Empty level placeholder.

  4. Tick the option to enable it. The default text is [NO DATA]. Edit if you want a different string — for example, Not Available.

  5. Save and republish the page.

Now wherever a parent has no children at the next level, the placeholder text shows instead of an empty space.

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