Add Spacing and Separator Lines to a Dialog

You can add white space and/or separator lines to better organize a dialog.

 

You can control how much empty space appears, and you can include a caption with each separator. For example, if you have two groups of questions in a dialog—one about plaintiffs and the other about defendants in a case—you can add space to separate each group, or you can add a separator line with the text Plaintiff Information and Defendant Information on each separator line. When adding empty space to a dialog, you can control how much space will be used.

To add white space to a dialog

  1. Open a dialog for editing. (See Edit a Custom Dialog.) HotDocs displays the Dialog Editor.
  2. At the Properties tab of the Dialog Editor, click the Dialog Element button and drag it to the Contents list. The Dialog Element Editor appears.
  3. Enter a name for the component in the Dialog element name field, or select Generate name automatically, which allows HotDocs to name the component.
  4. In the Style group, select Vertical spacing.
  5. In the Spacing field, enter a percentage. (For example, if you want the space to be equal to the space taken by text in the dialog, enter 100 in the Spacing field. If you want it to be larger or smaller, enter the appropriate number in the field.)
  6. Click OK. The Dialog Element Editor is closed.
  7. Drag the component up or down in the Contents list, depending on where you want the white space placed on the dialog.

To add lines to a dialog

  1. Open a dialog for editing. (See Edit a Custom Dialog.) HotDocs displays the Dialog Editor.
  2. At the Properties tab of the Dialog Editor, click the Dialog Element button and drag it to the Contents list. The Dialog Element Editor appears.
  3. Enter a name for the component in the Dialog element name field, or select Generate name automatically, which allows HotDocs to name the component.
  4. In the Style group, select Horizontal divider.
  5. Optionally, enter a short description or phrase in the Caption field.
    • In the Font size field, enter a font size for the caption, based on the percentage of the rest of the dialog's text size. (For example, if you want the caption to be the same size as the rest of the text in the dialog, enter 100 in this field.)
    • Click the Justification drop-down button and select to which side of the dialog the caption is aligned.
  6. Click OK. The Dialog Element Editor is closed.
  7. Drag the component up or down in the Contents list to the desired location.

To format the caption text (for example, to make the text bold), highlight the text, right-click, and then choose a formatting option from the Character Format shortcut menu.