Custom SharePoint Designer Subject Lines with Calculated Fields

A way long time ago (back in October) I was working on building workflows with SharePoint Designer 2007 but for the life of me couldn’t figure out how to make custom Subject lines. Out of the box SharePoint Designer will only let you select one workflow variable or one field from the current item to display in the Email Subject. It will not let you build dynamic strings with multiple values. So I was digging around for a while and Paul Galvin
gave me a hint about using a workflow variable to build the string and then plugging that variable into the Subject line. That worked great. So I was thinking hmm… how about calculated fields… And guess what? That works too! So here are your 2 options:

1. Define a String Variable in SharePoint Designer:
   

    

   OR

    

2. Use a Calculated Field to store a string with item information:
   

    

So which way is better? I think it depends on whether or not you want to make that field viewable by your users or not. Variables stay hidden in the workflow data while Calculated Fields will be part of the item and can view viewed. What do you think?