About text blocks

A text block is a contiguous segment of written content, treated as a discrete unit for purposes of reference, editing, reuse, or formatting within a larger document or work.

A text block may comprise one or more sentences, paragraphs, or lines, and may include embedded elements such as tables, figures, or quotations.
A text block is context-dependent, meaning its interpretation is influenced by surrounding content and the larger work.
Text blocks may be assigned identifiers, labels, or positions to facilitate management, reuse, or citation.
Text blocks may be versioned or modified independently, supporting content reuse, revision tracking, or modular publishing.

This definition is consistent with ISO 704 and ISO 1087-1 terminology principles and aligns with content management, modular publishing, and knowledge organisation practices.

Distinction or terms from related entities

Text block vs work item: a text block is primarily a contiguous content segment; a work item is a structural or addressable unit of a work. A work item may contain multiple text blocks.
Text block vs quotation or paraphrase: a text block may contain quotations or paraphrases but is defined by its continuity rather than source fidelity.
Text block vs concept or term: a text block is material content; a concept is an abstract idea and a term is a linguistic label.

Insert reusable text blocks into writing

Text block metadata

Block title: a short name for the block that is also used for the shortcut key
Block type (e.g., honorific, snippet, boilerplate. biography, prompt)
Jurisdiction: the country that the work was produced in
Language: designate which language this concept has been added using (e.g., English)
Note: add any other information that is relevant (e.g., a guidance note on the use of this concept)

Context

The context for any term is important as it shapes the way the term is used in writing. Context can include:

Audience: who is the intended audience for this term (e.g., general public, employees, students)
Context (also known as register; e.g., academic, scientific, formal, informal)
Domain or discipline this concept belongs to or is associated with (e.g., humanities)
Sector (i.e., business sector; e.g., marketing)
Jurisdiction (i.e., country)
Language: designate which language this term has been added using (e.g., English-American)

Remember the acronym: ACDSJL

Relationships

Text blocks can have a range of relationships with other records:

Relationships with specific records (e.g., concepts, terms, or organization names):
- Select the relationships type and use a shortcut key to tag another term to link them together
Collections: tags that identify what collection(s) you have used this term in
Documents: tags that identify what document(s) you have used this term in

Authority, Status, & Source

Authority refers to an organization of group that provided evidence for the use of this term (e.g., judicial, government, published)
- Authority type: select the type of entity that provided authority for this term to exist
- Add the description of the authority or use the shortcut key to select the an existing person or oganization from your terminology data
Role: Select how you intend to use this concept:
- Preferred: primarily the one to use
- Admitted: a variety of this same terms
- Deprecated: this concept is no long er in use
Status: Identify the status of adding this concept
- Draft: needs more info
- Under review: by another person
- Approved for use but not yet published
- Published and available
- There is a wide variety of status stages (see also 'Terminology workflow')
Source refers to the external documentary evidence you used for compiling this record
- The title of the reference work that contains this evidence (the work should be in your reference library)
- Use the backslash key and enter the title to link the reference record
- Pinpoint the exact pages of the work from which this term is derived
- Open the library record for this source by clicking the library icon
- Add a new reference record to your library by clicking the + icon

Tips

Create different collections for easy maintenance, exporting, or sharing
We do not produce a list of work items, quotes, paraphrase, text blocks or websites as these are generally not required when writing documents.
You can export any collection in full directly from the collection record
If an block has been added in multiple places and needs updating, you can do so by editing the record and it will automatically update all instances
You can 'lock' a block by changing it's effective date and/or marking it as deprecated (thereby terminating its use) and create a new version for future use.