Introduction: Publish HotDocs Templates

Publishing is a convenient way to distribute template files to others. When you publish a template, the related files (component files, clause library files, and so forth) are automatically compressed with the template file into one file.

There are four types of files you can publish, including:

• Standard template files. You can publish a regular template file and copy all the related files to the correct location. You can also apply protection options to the files.
• Auto-install files. You can publish a template or template set that, when accessed by the user, creates a new library of templates or updates an existing library for the user.
• Auto-assemble files. You can publish a template or template set that will automatically assemble when the user accesses the file.
• HotDocs Server files. You can publish the files needed to assemble documents using HotDocs Server.

All of these files can be uploaded to a Web server using your own custom uploading method. (See Introduction: Upload HotDocs Files to a Web Server.)

The HotDocs publishing process offers several ways for you to protect your published files. Also, at the end of the process, you can save your publishing preferences in a HotDocs publish settings (.HDP) file. These files are saved to your HotDocs Publish folder and can be used the next time you publish your templates.