Assign an Attribute to an Entity

An attribute always belongs to a particular entity even if it is the global entity. Every attribute automatically gets assigned to a particular entity when it is created. You can, however, override this by manually specifying the entity for an attribute.

When you create an attribute, the attribute is automatically assigned to a particular entity if it contains the text of the entity. Attributes which do not contain entity text become global attributes. For example, assume the attributes in the following table have been added to a Word document where "the household member" has been defined as an entity in the project.

Table 1. The entity level for example attributes when "the household member" is an entity

Attribute Text	Entity Level	Explanation
the household member is male	the household member	Contains "the household member"
a household member is eligible	global	"a household member" does not match "the household member"
the former household member has left	global	"former" interrupts the attribute text
the household member’s annual income	the household member	Adding extra letters or characters on the left or right hand side is acceptable
the date of birth of the household member	the household member	Entity text may appear anywhere in the attribute text

Both Boolean and non-Boolean attributes can be defined to belong to an entity in this way.

Tip: There are language-specific considerations affecting automatic entity assignment in Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

It is strongly recommended that attributes contain the entity text so that policy modelers maintaining the project can easily identify the entity that an attribute belongs to. As explained above, an attribute is automatically assigned to a particular entity if it contains the text of the entity. If, for some important reason, you do not want to include the exact text of the entity in the attribute text, then you will need to explicitly change the entity that the attribute is assigned to. To do this:

1. On the Data tab, select the attribute.
2. Click the Edit Attribute button.
3. In the Edit Attribute dialog, select the appropriate entity in the Entity drop-down list.
4. Click OK.