Rules for Naming Variable Fields

As you name your variables, you must follow these rules:

• Names can include letters, numbers, and underscores but they cannot contain spaces or other special characters.
• Names must begin with a letter.
• Names are case-sensitive (meaning that GiftAmount and giftamount are two different names).
• Names must not be composed entirely of capital letters.
• Names must be 50 characters or less in length.

By default, when you mark up a HotDocs Model, you are required to follow the naming rules described above—particularly by using only letters, numbers, and underscores in field names. If you haven't followed these rules, when you attempt to draft or assemble a HotDocs Model, HotDocs will generate an error message and stop the assembly process. When automating templates in HotDocs, however, you can include spaces and non-alphanumeric characters in variable names. This discrepancy between naming standards becomes problematic when you convert a HotDocs Template to a HotDocs Model and then try to assemble the HotDocs Model. In order to remain compatible, you can define a setting either in HotDocs Options or in the HotDocs Model that allows you to use non-standard names (or names that have spaces and non-alphabetic characters) for fields. See Define Settings for a HotDocs Model for details.

A variable field name typically consists of at least two words that identify the subject and the aspect of the field. Some examples are:

While you can use any scheme you choose for naming variables, it’s recommended that you capitalize the first letter of each word in a variable field name, regardless of its part of speech, as is shown in the examples above. One reason for doing this is because during a HotDocs interview, HotDocs displays the questions from the document so the user can answer them. If no prompt is specified for a variable in the markup, HotDocs can generate default prompts based on this scheme, adding spaces where each word is capitalized. So, for example, the variable field ClientName will automatically be assigned the prompt Client name.