Create a Prompt for a Variable

By default, when you assign a name to a variable, that name is what appears in the interview to guide users in providing an answer. However, sometimes you may name your variables using a scheme that would be confusing for your users to understand. Likewise, some situations require more detailed instructions. HotDocs enables you to provide longer explanations by using a prompt. During the interview, the prompt replaces the variable name (and title, if one has been provided).

To create a prompt for a variable

  1. Edit the variable. (See Edit a Variable.) The Variable Editor appears.
  2. In the Prompt field, type the information about the variable you want the user to see.
  3. Optionally, to assign font properties to the prompt text (such as bold or underline), enter a formatting dot code. (See Introduction: Dot Codes.)

You can include a variable in the Prompt field, which merges the user's answer into the prompt during the interview. See Use Variables and Scripts in Prompts, Dialog Element Text, and Resources.

When you group variables in a dialog, you can specify the visual relationship between variable prompts and answer fields by choosing an alignment option at the Options tab of the Dialog Editor. See Change a Dialog's Options.

You can make HotDocs show only an answer field—with no prompt or variable name—in the interview. To do this, type NONE in the Prompt field.

You can type an ampersand (& ) immediately before a character in a variable prompt to make that character an accelerator key. During the interview, an accelerator key enables the user to move the cursor to that answer field by pressing the Alt key while also pressing the underlined character in the prompt. This functionality can create an issue if you need to include a word in your prompt that has an ampersand immediately preceding a character. To do this without creating an accelerator key, you must type two ampersands (&&) where you want the ampersand to appear as a single ampersand. For example, to have "R&D" as your variable prompt you would need to type "R&&D".