Add Text to Your Dialogs

You can add text to a dialog to guide the user in answering questions. Dialog text can be inserted above or below variables or other items in the dialog.

To add text 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, ensure Text is selected.
5. In the Display text field, enter the text you want to appear in the dialog.
6. Optionally, to assign font properties to the prompt text (such as bold or underline), enter a formatting dot code.
7. Optionally, if the dialog is repeated as a spreadsheet, click the Options tab and choose how you want the spreadsheet to appear in the interview:
   • Spreadsheet view only displays the text on the dialog only when users view the spreadsheet and not when they edit individual rows in the spreadsheet.
   • Edit Row view only displays the text on the dialog only when users edit individual rows of the spreadsheet. No text will appear when they are viewing the spreadsheet.
8. Move the dialog element within the dialog by dragging it up or down in the Contents list.

To edit the dialog element, double-click it in the Contents list. To remove the element, drag it back to the Components list.

You can use a dialog to display just text and no variables. For example, you may want to include a dialog that contains only instructions for completing the interview.

You can customize dialog element text based on users' answers by including variables and other scripting instructions in the element text.