Saying status on a slide

Almost every business deck has to say where something stands: shipped or late, included or missing, applies or exempt. Lattice gives you four tools for it. They look alike, and they do different jobs.

A mark and a pill on every row

Try this. The disc at the start of each row is a mark: it says the answer. The tag at the end is a pill: it names a team. Change a [x] to [!] and only the answer changes.

Which one do I reach for?

You want to say	Reach for	Looks like	Learn it in
An answer: yes, no, partly, unknown, not yet, not applicable	A state mark	`[x]` `[!]` `[?]`	The six answers
A label or category: a team, a phase, a version	A pill you place	`{STABLE, c2}`	Pills you place
How a chart item is going: on track, at risk, blocked	A status word	`at-risk`	Pills a component places
Different words for a layout’s answers	A label set	`[{[x], Enacted}]`	Marks in layouts

The most common mix-up is using a pill for an answer. A pill’s color is a numbered slot that changes with the theme, so a “red” pill is not red in the next theme, and it tells a color-blind reader nothing. A mark’s answer is carried by its shape, the same in every theme. If a reader should read yes or no, use a mark.

What works where

Every feature on these pages sits in one of three tiers. Knowing the tier tells you whether a thing will work on the slide you are writing.

Universal — works on every slide

Anywhere inline code can go: a heading, a sentence, a table cell, a footer, in any component.

Inline state marks: `[x]` `[!]` and the rest, inside inline code.
Brace pills: `{LABEL}`, with shape, color and size modifiers.
The backslash escape: `\[x]` and `\{LABEL}` stay literal.
The off switch: inline-code: literal turns both off for a deck.

If you are not sure a slide supports something, the universal form is the safe choice.

Shared — one grammar, read by a set of components

The syntax and the meaning are the same everywhere they work, but only certain components read them.

Bare state markers at the start of an item or cell: checklist, verdict-grid, pricing, obligation-matrix, roadmap, and any table with state-cells turned on.
The ten status words: progress, timeline-list, kanban, gantt, state-chart and slope. Same words everywhere, but a different slot in each component.
Label sets that rename a key: obligation-matrix and roadmap.
Disc styles and heat: the checks-* classes and the heat modifier, on the layouts that draw marks.

Component-specific — a slot in one component

These are positional: the component decides what a span means from where you put it.

Date pills in timeline-list, regulatory-update and roadmap.
Metadata pills: a trailing code span, where a component has a slot for it.
The automatic range pill on a glossary heading.
matrix-grid’s cells, where [x] [-] [ ] mean a position, not an answer.

Each component’s page in the component reference says which of these it reads, and links back here.

How this guide is organized

Read the pages in order the first time; each builds on the one before.

The six answers: what each state mark means, and how to choose between the ones that look alike.
Marks in layouts: each layout’s words, renaming them, and the styles.
Pills you place: the brace grammar.
Pills a component places: status words, dates and other positional pills.
Upgrading an older deck: the empty box changed meaning in three layouts.
Cheat sheet: everything on one page, for when you know what you want and need the syntax.