The following terms appear in the order in which they occur in the basic HotDocs workflow.
| # | Term | Definition | See Also |
| 1. | Workspace Explorer | The first window you see in HotDocs Author, used to display and manage templates. | Workspace Explorer |
| 2. | workspace | A set of (often related) HotDocs templates you store in a HotDocs-enabled folder you designate on your computer's file system. | Workspaces Overview |
| 3. | HotDocs template | A reusable HotDocs application containing boiler plate text and HotDocs logic you build in HotDocs Author; HotDocs uses the template, along with user-supplied answer data, to assemble a customized document. | HotDocs Templates Overview |
| 4. | HotDocs field | A location you select in a template where, during assembly, you want HotDocs to either replace the field with an template user's answer or execute a specific instruction. There are two types of HotDocs fields: placeholder fields and instruction fields. | HotDocs Fields Overview |
| 5. | component | A basic building block of a HotDocs template that contains properties that define how HotDocs builds an interview, handles answer sets, and assembles a document. | Components Overview |
| 6. | variable | A type of component that represents an unknown value; you can define how to gather that value from a template user, how HotDocs stores that value as an answer, and how to format that answer when assembling a document. | Variables Overview |
| 7. | dialog | A HotDocs component used to group related components (usually variables) together to improve the usability and flow of an interview. | Dialogs Overview |
| 8. | interview | A series of questions used to gather data from your template users. HotDocs generates the questions from the variables and dialogs you define in your template. | HotDocs Interviews Overview |
| 9. | answers | Data provided during a HotDocs interview. | Answers Overview |
| 10. | assemble | To create a document by processing a HotDocs template in combination with a set of answers. | Document Assembly Overview |