Chapter 29. Attribute Lists

An attribute list is a comma separated list of attribute values.
The entire list is enclosed in square brackets.
Attribute lists are used to pass parameters to macros, blocks (using the AttributeList element) and inline quotes.

The list consists of zero or more positional attribute values followed by zero or more named attribute values. Here are three examples: a single unquoted positional attribute; three unquoted positional attribute values; one positional attribute followed by two named attributes; the unquoted attribute value in the final example contains comma (,) and double-quote (") character entities:

[Hello]
[quote, Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)]
["22 times", backcolor="#0e0e0e", options="noborders,wide"]
[A footnote&#44; &#34;with an image&#34; image:smallnew.png[]]

Attribute list behavior

If one or more attribute values contains a comma the all string values must be quoted (enclosed in double quotation mark characters).
If the list contains any named or quoted attributes then all string attribute values must be quoted.
To include a double quotation mark (") character in a quoted attribute value the the quotation mark must be escaped with a backslash.
List attributes take precedence over existing attributes.
List attributes can only be referenced in configuration file markup templates and tags, they are not available elsewhere in the document.
Setting a named attribute to None undefines the attribute.
Positional attributes are referred to as {1},{2},{3},…
Attribute {0} refers to the entire list (excluding the enclosing square brackets).
Named attribute names cannot contain dash characters.

29.1. Options attribute

If the attribute list contains an attribute named options it is processed as a comma separated list of option names:

Each name generates an attribute named like <option>-option (where <option> is the option name) with an empty string value. For example [options="opt1,opt2,opt3"] is equivalent to setting the following three attributes [opt1-option="",opt2-option="",opt2-option=""].
If you define a an option attribute globally (for example with an attribute entry) then it will apply to all elements in the document.
AsciiDoc implements a number of predefined options which are listed in the Attribute Options appendix.

29.2. Macro Attribute lists

Macros calls are suffixed with an attribute list. The list may be empty but it cannot be omitted. List entries are used to pass attribute values to macro markup templates.