Control Whether Dialogs are Asked Automatically

You can control whether a dialog is asked automatically during an interview. You can do this by selecting an option at the Options tab of the Dialog Editor.

Dialogs that are not asked automatically must be asked using an ASK instruction. (See Control When Your Dialogs Appear.)

By default, HotDocs asks a dialog automatically: 1) when the dialog has not been asked before in the interview, and 2) when a variable to which the dialog is linked is asked automatically. Also, a dialog will be asked automatically when it is used in a REPEAT instruction. (See How Variables and Dialogs Are Asked for details on how variables and dialogs are asked.)

One example of why clearing this option may be useful is when you've created a list of answers by merging two different lists together (see WHILE EXPRESSION; END WHILE). When doing this, you often need to merge the new list into the document using a third repeated dialog. Since you've already gathered all the applicable answers, you don't want this repeated dialog to be asked.

To specify an option that controls when a dialog is asked

1. Edit a custom dialog. (See Edit a Custom Dialog.) The Dialog Editor appears.
2. Click the Options tab. The window changes to show several custom options.
3. Clear Ask automatically.

This option replaces the need for using ASK NONE / ASK ALL instructions. However, instructions for using them are still available.