Field Editor: Punctuation Markers
In the Field Editor, under Other Operations, you can click Add a Punctuation Marker to add a punctuation marker field. You can use conditional punctuation marker fields to place punctuation in the assembled document if needed, depending on the surrounding text. Other non-conditional punctuation marker fields are used to control line, page, and paragraph break behavior.
Common Tasks
Field Type
The Field Type element of the HotDocs Field Editor declares whether the currently selected HotDocs Field is a placeholder field or an instruction field.
Type of Punctuation
| Element | What it Does |
| Conditional Text Insertion | Enables you to insert an A/An marker field that inserts an A or an An, depending on whether the word that follows begins with a consonant or a vowel. |
| Conditional Punctuation | Enables you to insert one of the following punctuation marks if no other punctuation precedes it:
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| Breaks | Enables you to insert the following types of breaks:
There are also two additional punctuation marker fields, which enable you to combine paragraphs in the assembled document. During document assembly, when HotDocs encounters one of these marker fields at the end of a paragraph, it merges that paragraph with the one that follows it. The styles applied to the resulting single paragraph depend on the type of marker field:
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Field Toolbar
At the bottom of the HotDocs Field Editor, you have access to the following actions:
| Buttons | What it Does |
| Add Field | Adds the placeholder field to the template in the selected location. |
| Navigation | When a placeholder field is selected, navigation buttons show. Use < and > to navigate to the next HotDocs field. When a conditional instruction is selected, such as ELSE IF, navigation buttons help you to match the corresponding instructions, such as END IF. |
| Delete Field Button [X] | Selecting anywhere in a HotDocs field causes the Delete field button to appear. If you select outside a HotDocs field, or include anything besides a single HotDocs field, the button disappears (if it was previously visible), or else does not appear. Clicking the Delete field button removes the selected field completely. Clicking Microsoft Word's Undo button restores the field completely.
The Delete field button exists to solve a particular problem: In Microsoft Word, you can delete a HotDocs field by clicking in the field, then clicking the field's handle, and then pressing the DELETE key on the keyboard. However, if you select the field using only the keyboard, Word does not easily enable you to delete the field. You can do so by deleting all the content of the field and then pressing the DELETE key again, or if your cursor is just to the right of the field, you can press the Backspace button once to select the field's content, a second time to delete the content, then a third time removes the field. HotDocs provides the Delete field button to simplify this process. |