Copy Templates to New Locations

Often you need to make a copy of a template and save it to a new location on disk. You can use the Copy command at the template library to do this. As you are copying, you can choose to make the template and component file read-only. You can also choose to update the reference to the file in the library so the library refers to the copied template rather than the original.

Be aware that copying a template creates two templates with identical template IDs. This can lead to template ID conflicts should you upload both the original and copied templates to a web server.

To copy the template to a different location

1. At the HotDocs library window, select the templates and clause libraries you want to copy. (Press Ctrl or Shift to select multiple items.)
2. Click Template menu>Copy.
3. Browse to the folder where you want to copy the template or templates and click OK.
4. You can then set some properties for the copied templates:
   • Select Mark newly created templates as read-only to keep users from editing the template. (This assigns the read-only property to both the template and the component file.)
   • Select Update library entries to refer to the newly created templates to have HotDocs change the file path for the library item so that it uses the file path for the copied template.

When a template has insert fields, HotDocs does not copy those inserted templates along with the parent template. If you want to copy a template that has insert fields you can use the Publishing Wizard to publish the initial template to the new location as a standard template file and HotDocs includes a copy of all the files necessary for assembly.