How To Topic

Defining a Custom Interview Computation

You can control the order HotDocs asks variables in an interview by implementing the two parts of defining a custom interview computation:

• Create a custom interview computation
• Tell HotDocs to use the computation when generating the interview

To create a custom interview computation

1. Open Component Studio.
2. From the ribbon, click on the New drop-down list and select Computation.
3. In the Name field, type INTERVIEW and choose result type None.

INTERVIEW is the default name for custom interview computation but you can give this computation any name you want as long as you change the corresponding Custom interview computation on the Interview Behavior tab of the Template Properties dialog.

4. Using a series of instructions, specify how you want HotDocs to ask the variables in the template, based on the logic you use in the template. For example, you can create a series of ASK instructions that ask the dialogs, as well as use IF instructions to make variables in the template conditional upon users' answers.

Once you have created the custom interview computation, you must specify a template file property that tells HotDocs to use the computation when it generates the interview.

Tell HotDocs to use the custom interview computation when generating the interview

1. Open the Template Properties dialog.
2. Select the Interview Behavior tab.
3. Select Use custom interview computation.
4. If you did not use the default name INTERVIEW for your custom interview computation, use the drop-down list to select the computation you need.

Now, HotDocs uses this computation to generate the interview.

In a DOCX template, if you select both Generate default interview and Use custom interview, HotDocs always uses the custom interview. That means that HotDocs only asks variables contained in the custom interview.