Formatting Your Results

Using Property Lists

Each HTML Formatting Tool uses a default set of properties to determine the formatting associated with the elements of your data set or SAS output. The default properties provided with each Formatter make it easy for you to quickly create HTML files for use on the Web or your intranet. However, the default properties may not be the way you want to format some or all of your Web-enabled information.

You may want to customize property settings to do the following:

Create different looks for related data sets and output.
Highlight changes in your information.
Take advantage of changing browser technology.
Accommodate the browsers used at your site.
Accommodate your preferences in font, color, and format.

When you settle on a format that works for you, you can create new property lists that define the appropriate set of property definitions. You can create property lists using our FRAME interface (available for Release 6.12 of SAS software only) or using the macros we provide (available for Releases 6.11, 6.12, and 6.09E of SAS software). Using the FRAME interface is referred to as creating a property list in interactive mode. Using the macros to create a custom property list is referred to as batch mode.

You cannot modify the default property file that is provided with each Formatter, but you can override the default settings by:

including the appropriate arguments in the macro call.
Including arguments on the macro call enables you to format data sets and output using formatting tags other than those provided in the default property list. Because you are providing the formatting instructions with the macro call, you can modify the format of the output each time you submit the macro.
creating custom property lists.
Custom property lists define a set of formatting tags that are different from those provided in the default property list. You may want to create a custom property list if you find that you are constantly using the same customizations on the macro call. You can have as many custom property lists as you need. Remember that a property list is defined for only one Formatter.

You can use either method and should choose the method that best suits your working environment. You might find it useful to combine the two methods by creating a custom property list, but also overriding the formatting instructions using the macro call when you need to. If you do combine these methods, be aware that the arguments you specify with the macro invocation override settings in the property list.

Before you use or modify a property list, you may want see how each property in that list is defined. To review the current property settings, use the SHOWPROP macro.

You can find information about customizing property list in the documentation for each Formatter: