| Warning | Description |
| Variables that are set to a value and are marked "Save in answer file" | When HotDocs generates an interview outline, it processes any SET instructions and assigns answers to the variables that are set. This causes HotDocs to ask to save the answer file, even if the user doesn't enter any answers during the interview. |
| Variables that are set to a value and asked in the same interview | You should not use a SET instruction to assign an answer to a variable and then ask the variable later in the interview. As HotDocs processes answers and rebuilds the interview, the value assigned by the SET instruction will always overwrite any answers the user provides. An example of this would be the following script:
SET TF Variable TO TRUE ... (later in the template) ASK Dialog (where Dialog uses the variable, TF Variable.) In this situation, even if the user marks TF Variable as false, HotDocs will always change it back to true because of the SET instruction. If you want to suggest an answer for a user, use the DEFAULT instruction instead of the SET instruction. If you want a variable to always have a specific answer, then SET the answer and do not ask that variable anywhere in the template. |
| Variables that are asked more than once in the same interview | You should not ask the same variable more than once in an interview. If you do, HotDocs will always assign the last answer you gave to the variable, no matter where it is used in the interview. |
| Variables that are referred to in a dialog script and are set to a value later | You should not refer to a variable in a dialog script and then set that variable to a value later in the template. When HotDocs reprocesses the interview, the set value may change the appearance of the dialog—including how it presents variables to the user and how it processes the answers.
An example of this would be the following script: SET Client TO "Husband" ASK Husband Information SET Client TO "Wife" ASK Wife Information In and of itself, this script is OK. However, Husband Information and Wife Information are dialogs that contain the following dialog element text: The following information applies to the «Husband or Wife». Husband or Wife is a computation that merges the literal text "husband" or "wife" into dialog element text, depending on the answer to Client. Because HotDocs continually updates the interview, it will always use the last value resulted for this computation, which means that the dialog element text will always merge the word "wife," even if the user is viewing the Husband Information dialog. This could be confusing to the user. |
| Variables that are not asked when referred to but are asked later | You can refer to a variable in a template without asking the variable (by referring to the variable in an ASK NONE block or by clearing the Ask automatically option for the variable). However, if you do this, you should not ask the variable or set it to a value later in the template. Doing this will replace the answer that was used for the variable earlier in the template, thus causing an inconsistency. |