Assign Colors to Fields and Instructions in Templates

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You can assign custom colors to the different types of fields in a template. This can help you more quickly identify sections or parts of your template as you are automating. Additionally, you can assign colors to IF, REPEAT, and SPAN instructions in your templates. Assigning different combinations of these colors can help you differentiate levels of nesting as well as help you better view individual pairs of instructions.

By default, HotDocs assigns its own colors; however, you can customize the colors at the HotDocs Options dialog box. (See Define Field Colors.)

To apply custom colors to template fields and instructions

  1. Open the template for editing. (See Edit a Template.)
  2. Click the Apply Colors button. The Apply Colors dialog box appears.
  3. Select one of the following options:
    • Choose None to make all variable and instruction fields black.
    • Choose Regular to mark all variable and instruction fields using a custom color specific to that field type. For example, all variables will be marked with one color, all IF instructions will be marked with a different color, all REPEAT instructions will use a different color, and so forth.
    • Choose Nested to mark each level of IF and REPEAT instructions using a custom color. (For example, all first-level IF instructions will use a specific color, while all second-level instructions will use a different color, and so on.)
    • Choose Sequential to mark each IF and REPEAT instruction field using a custom color. (For example, the first instruction in a template will be marked using one color, while the next instruction will be marked using a different color, and so on.)

If you change your default colors, or if you receive templates from other developers whose colors are different from yours, you can click the Apply Colors button to update existing templates with your custom colors.

If you're using Microsoft Word, you can also apply colors by clicking on the HotDocs drop-down menu in the HotDocs toolbar and choosing Apply Colors. (To access this menu button in Word, click the HotDocs drop-down button.)