Attach an Answer Wizard to a Field

When a user direct-fills a form document, he or she answers questions by clicking on the field and entering the answer in the field. Sometimes, however, the user may not be able to enter an answer in the field, either because the field requires other variables be answered to calculate its answer, or because it's conditioned on another field's answer in the document. To help users answer the questions necessary to fill in the field, you can assign an answer wizard to the field. An answer wizard attaches a button to the field that, when clicked, displays a pop-up interview asking the required questions.

For example, say you create a field that merges a user's age. To merge this answer, you attach a Computation variable that calculates the age based on the user's birth date and today's date. You can attach an answer wizard that asks the dialog that contains the birth date variable. Once the user answers the date, the answer is calculated and merged in the field.

Answer wizards are most often used with computation fields, conditional fields, or fields grouped as a table.

To create an answer wizard for a variable

1. Edit a form template. (See Edit a Form Template.)
2. Select the field to which you want to attach the answer wizard, then click the Field Properties button. The Field Properties dialog box appears. (You can also right-click and select Field Properties from the shortcut menu.)
3. At the Type tab, click the Wizard button. The Answer Wizard Field dialog box appears.
4. Select the answer wizard option you want to use:
   • Computation Variable: Select an existing Computation variable from the Computation drop-down list, or click the Edit Component button to create a new one. During direct-fill assembly, when users click the Answer Wizard button, the variables used in the Computation are displayed in the pop-up interview. (If the variables are linked to a dialog, the dialog appears in the pop-up interview.)
   • ASK Instruction: Select an existing dialog from the drop-down list, or click the Edit Component button and create a new one. During direct-fill assembly, when users click the Answer Wizard button, the specified dialog is displayed in the pop-up interview.
   • DEFAULT: When users click the Answer Wizard button, any dialogs containing the required variables are asked.
   • NONE: Removes any answer wizards attached to the selected field (or group of fields).

You can also create a wizard for a table. A table wizard appears as a spreadsheet button () instead of as an answer wizard button (), and clicking it will display the repeated dialog in a pop-up interview. To create a table wizard, select the table, click the Field Properties button, and create the wizard. You can still create an answer wizard for a field in a table by specifying the answer wizard before you group the fields in the table.