# Custom component property references

**URL:** <https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/custom-component-property-references/49495>\
**Category:** Elements API\
**Created:** [August 6, 2025, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/custom-component-property-references/49495 "2025-08-06T10:12:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AndyG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@AndyG](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/AndyG)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/custom-component-property-references/49495/1 "2025-08-06T10:12:54Z")

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@ben The documentation for Properties defaults shows the following example:

```auto
 }, {
            "title": "Alignment",
            "id": "alignment",
            "segmented": {
                "default": {
                    "base": "w-auto",
                    "md": "w-full"
                },
                "items": [
                    { "value": "w-full", "icon": "text.alignleft" },
                    { "value": "w-asdf", "icon": "text.alignleft" },
                    { "value": "w-auto", "icon": "text.aligncenter" },
                    { "value": "custom", "icon": "text.alignright", "title": "Custom" }
                ]
            }
        }

```

What is the correct way of referencing the set value for substitution into a template? I’ve tried {{alignment}}, {{alignment.value}}, {{alignment.segmented.items.value}} and other combos and it always generates “w-auto” and “md:” followed by the item value I actually want. What am I doing wrong?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AndyG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@AndyG](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/AndyG)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/custom-component-property-references/49495/2 "2025-08-06T12:02:55Z")

</div>

Ok, I think I understand now… But when when I remove the “default” section I still get the default class w-auto and md:w-full if I select left aligned for instance. Is this expected even though the defaults are not explicit?