Component Studio

Component Studio is the interface for creating, editing, testing, or deleting the components in your HotDocs Templates.

You can open and close Component Studio as needed, or you can display it and switch between your template and Component Studio as you work. Keeping both windows open makes it easier to view and edit all the components in your template at once.

The individual component editors described in this, and subsequent reference topics can also be accessed from the HotDocs Field Editor in the form of pop-up component editors. You should be aware, however, that if you previously opened Component Studio from Workspace Explorer you cannot edit any components in that file using the pop-up component editors from within the Field Editor. While you can open the editors, they present a read-only version of the component. If you want to work with these editors, you must first close the version of Component Studio you opened from the Workspace Explorer. If you first open Component Studio from your word processor, you do not have this restriction.
You can open Component Studio from the following locations:
* The HotDocs Author Tab on the ribbon (by clicking Component Studio)
* The HotDocs Test Browser (by right-clicking a component and selecting Edit Component.)

In this topic ShowHide

Common Tasks
Keyboard Shortcuts
Window Title
Component Studio Ribbon

Common Tasks

Among others, the Component Studio enables you to perform the following common tasks:

Creating a Text variable
Creating a Number variable
Creating a Date variable
Creating a True/False variable
Creating a Multiple Choice variable
Creating a Dialog
Creating a Computation

Keyboard Shortcuts

Component Studio's interface includes keyboard shortcuts to enable you to work more rapidly than you can by clicking with a mouse.

Window Title

The title of the Component Studio window carries the name of the currently opened component file. If you see [Read-Only] after the title and a lock icon on the component editor's tabs, you have a read-only copy of the component file open and you cannot make any edits.

Component files may be read-only if you are using a source control system for versioning your template and component files.

Component Studio Ribbon

The top of the Component Studio window displays a ribbon containing the following buttons:

Button	What it Does
Save	Saves any changes you make to a component.
Undo/Redo	Enables you to undo and redo the changes you make in Component Studio. When you use the Undo and Redo buttons to undo or redo changes in the Component File Properties Dialog, a notification appears next to the Properties button.
New	Enables you to create new components. When you select a component from the drop-down list a dialog appears where you can enter the basic details of the new component. The editor for that component type then opens.
Find	Opens the Find in Components dialog box to enable you search for text strings in components.
Properties	Opens the Component File Properties dialog box to enable you to edit component file level properties.
Help	Launches the help documentation for HotDocs Author.

Find in Components Dialog Box

When you click Find at the top of Component Studio, the Find in Components dialog box enables you to search through all the components in the component file for text strings, then returns results in the Find Results pane at the bottom of Component Studio:

Element	What it Does
Find what	Enables you to type the text string for which you want to search.
Find options	Enables you to specify whether you want to constrain you search by one or both of the following: Match case – Limits the search to items that matches the capitalization of the string you type Match whole word – Checks the string you type against whole words in the components in the current component file.
Look in	Enables you to specify whether you want to constrain you search by one or more of the following: All searchable text – Searches for the text in all of the options (you use this to select and deselect all) Names – Searches for the text in all component names Display text (titles, prompts, etc.) – Searches for the text in component titles, prompts, and other fields containing text that HotDocs displays in the interview Additional information – Searches for the plain text in Additional Information panes in all components Scripts, expressions, and tables – Searches for the text in text literals Format text and input mask text – Searches placeholder field content for format text and text in input masks and for text in alternate text list components Option sources and answer suggestions – searches the text in option sources (for selection variables) and answer suggestions (for Text variables) Notes – Searches for the text in each component editor's Notes tab

Component File Properties Dialog Box

To access component file preferences, click the Properties button at the top of the component studio.

Property	What it Does
Maximum WHILE iterations	To prevent HotDocs from infinitely processing a WHILE expression, which causes HotDocs to stop responding, type a number in this field. This number represents the number of times dialogs or variables in the template or script can be looped before HotDocs stops it from doing so.
Maximum processing stack depth	To prevent HotDocs from infinitely processing (or recursing) a computation, which causes HotDocs to stop responding, type a number in this field. This number represents how many instructions you want HotDocs to allow in the processing stack. When HotDocs reaches this limit, the recursion will stop.