Rules and Tips for Creating a HotDocs Model

You should keep the following in mind when working with HotDocs Models:

• Sometimes you may want to include the value from another answer in the prompt for a specific variable. To do this, make sure you include the opening and closing brackets around the variable name. For example, the following prompt Please enter [EmployeeName]'s gender, would merge the answer for the employee's name in the prompt during the interview, like this: Please enter Jane Porter's gender.
• Markup keywords (like format, text, style, and enddocument) are case-insensitive. However, variable names (like ClientName) are case sensitive.
• Property definitions are cumulative, meaning that if the same property is defined more than once for a given variable or dialog, the last one found in the HotDocs Model takes precedence.
• If you do not define prompts for your variables, by default, HotDocs will attempt to create default prompts based on the field name. For example, the field name [EmployeeName] would become the prompt Employee name. (HotDocs determines where spaces should be included in the prompt based on capitalization in the field name. Because of this, you should capitalize each individual word in the field name.) See Define Settings for a HotDocs Model for details.
• The same is true for dialog titles. If no title is specified, HotDocs will attempt to create a default title, based on the dialog name. For example, the dialog [EmployeeInformation] would use the title Employee Information. See Define Settings for a HotDocs Model for details.

Escaping Characters In Your Markup

If you need to use characters in your text that are typically reserved for the Markup specification, you can "escape" them by following these guidelines:

Properties appearing in a variable table column do not need to be escaped. The only exception is when you're listing multiple, different properties in the Additional column of the table.

• The opening and closing square bracket ([ ]), forward slash (/), and back slash (\) characters, if used as literal characters anywhere in the HotDocs Model, must always be marked as literal. You can do this by preceding the character with a back slash character.

For example, this text in a HotDocs Model:

For a complete description, see H:\\Publications\\Complete Description.doc \[revised 2006\]

appears like this in the final document:

For a complete description, see H:\Publications\Complete Description.doc [revised 2006]

• A forward slash (/), if used as a literal character in any list properties (such as a list of multiple choice options), must be marked as literal. You can do this by enclosing the text string in quotation marks.

For example, you would mark the following different options :

Cars/Trucks

Recreational Vehicles

Towing Trailers

Like this:

"Cars/Trucks"/Recreational Vehicles/Towing Trailers

• Paragraph marks or line breaks, if used in any list properties (such as multiple choice options), must be enclosed in quotation marks.

For example, you would mark the following different multiple choice option prompts:

(Option 1) Cars

Trucks

(Option 2) Recreational Vehicles

(Option 3) Towing Trailers

Like this:

"Cars

Trucks"/Recreational Vehicles/Towing Trailers