Mark Conditional Text

Text in a document is conditional if it is included only when certain conditions are met.

There are two types of conditions you use in markup—simple conditions and alternative conditions.

Marking Simple Conditions

To mark conditional text, you surround the text using opening and closing square brackets. Immediately after the opening bracket, type the word if followed by a colon. After the colon, type a condition name followed by another colon. The document text comes after this last colon.

In this example:

[if:ClientIsMarried:I give to my spouse all interest in property, both real and personal, including buildings, fixtures and improvements to the property.]

The opening bracket, followed by if:, indicates the beginning of the condition. The condition name, ClientIsMarried, is a true/false variable that has been defined in a True/False Variables table. The closing square bracket indicates the end of the conditional text.

A condition name is an affirmative statement specifying the conditions under which the conditional text is included in the document. This can be a true/false variable, a computation variable that returns a true/false value, or it can be an expression. If the condition name isn’t defined elsewhere in the document (for example, as a variable field inserted elsewhere in the document or in a True/False Variables table), HotDocs will use the condition name to create a simple true/false variable. All of the rules that apply to variable field names apply to condition names.

When conditional text consists of a complete paragraph, it is usually desirable to include the paragraph mark as part of the conditional text. To do this, type the closing bracket after the paragraph mark, such that it appears at the beginning of the following paragraph. The following example, which shows the paragraph marks, demonstrates this:

My name is [ClientName;te].

[if:ClientIsMarried:I am married to [SpouseName;te].

][if:ClientHasChildren:The names and birth dates of my children are [ChildrenNamesAndBirthdates;te].

]Except as specifically noted in this document …

Additionally, conditional text may be “nested” within other conditional text. For example:

[if:ClientIsMarried:I give to my spouse all interest in property, both real and personal, including buildings[if:GiftsIncludeFixtures:, fixtures] and improvements to the property.]

Marking Alternative Text

Conditional text may include one or more alternatives, only one of which will be included in the final document. To specify alternatives, introduce each alternative with a forward slash character (/) followed by elseif to identify a conditional alternative, or by else to identify a conditionless alternative that will be included in the document if no other alternative is included.

Here is a simple example showing a conditionless alternative:

I nominate my [if:ClientIsMale:wife/else:husband], [SpouseName;te] as my personal representative.

Here is a complex example with several conditional alternatives followed by a conditionless alternative:

I direct that my body be [if:ClientToBeBuried:buried in the [ClientBurialCemetery;te]/elseif:ClientToBeCremated:cremated and that my ashes be [ClientAshDisposition;te]/elseif:ClientBodyToMedicine:donated to [ClientBodyInstitution;te]/else:disposed of as directed by my personal representative].

A conditionless alternative (else instruction) is not required, but if you include one, it must appear after all other conditional alternatives (else if instructions).

See Simple Markup Example (Contract), Simple Markup Example (Agreement), and Complex Markup Example with Tables (Last Will and Testament) for examples of how to mark up a HotDocs Model.