Insert Characters in Text Strings
When working with plain text in both computation results and in variable prompts, dialog element text, and resources, you frequently need to insert a character not typically supported by the plain-text character set. Using dot codes, you can insert these characters so that when the answer is merged in the document, the dot codes are processed and the sentence is punctuated correctly.
For example, if you are merging a literal text string in a computation script and the text needs smart quotation marks (and not straight quotation marks), you can insert the dot codes that merge the correct marks.
To insert special characters in plain text
- Either edit a Computation variable (See Customize a Computation Variable) or edit a prompt or dialog text element. (see Create a Prompt for a Variable and Add Text to Your Dialogs.)
- Place your cursor where you want the character and right-click. A shortcut menu appears.
- Choose Character Insertion > Character (where Character represents one of the dot codes described in the following table). (WordPerfect users: To insert the dot codes, manually type the codes as you see them in the table below.)
| Dot Code | What It Does |
| «.an» (An) | Inserts a or an, depending on whether the word that follows begins with a consonant or a vowel. For example:
«Employee Name», «.an»«Job Title» becomes Jack Carey, a paralegal or Bonnie Millet, an attorney |
| «.la» (Left Apostrophe)
«.ra» (Right Apostrophe) |
Inserts a left or right apostrophe. |
| «.lq» (Left Quote)
«.rq» (Right Quote) |
Inserts a left or right quotation mark. |
| «.ps» (Paragraph Symbol ¶) | Inserts a paragraph character. |
| «.ss» (Section Symbol §) | Inserts a section symbol character. |
| «.tc» (Tab Character) | Inserts a tab character. |
| «.lb» (Line Break) | Inserts a line break. |
| «.pm» (Paragraph Mark) | Inserts a paragraph end. |
| «.pb» (Page Break) | Inserts a page break. |
| «.ns» (Non-breaking Space) | Inserts a non-breaking space character. |
| «.nh» (Non-breaking Hyphen) | Inserts a non-breaking hyphen character. |
| «.oh» (Optional Hyphen) | Inserts an optional hyphen character. |
When you type double angle brackets (<< >>), HotDocs converts them to chevrons (« »). You can manually enter the dot code by typing the brackets with the format code between them.