About HotDocs

What is HotDocs document assembly software?

HotDocs is a suite of award-winning software applications that significantly reduce the time you need to spend generating client or customer specific documents (such as contracts, sales proposals, government and court forms, loan applications, and medical forms).

HotDocs' document generation software solutions form an array of products, environments, and platforms that enables users across a wide variety of work situations to take advantage of HotDocs' automated customization capabilities.

Using HotDocs, you can transform any word processor file or form into an interactive template by replacing the changeable text with HotDocs variables. Then, the next time you want to generate a completed document, just assemble the interactive template you've created. As you do this, you will be prompted for the information needed in the document and that information will be merged into the document.

When using HotDocs, you can perfect a template, minimizing the “human error” factor that repetitive typing introduces. Additionally, you can automate your templates so that verb tenses, gender references, dates, numbers, calculations, and more are updated automatically as users enter information. Custom interview questions and help resources guide you or your users through the interview.

Virtually any document in your workflow can be converted to a HotDocs template. HotDocs templates then become your gold standard—experienced colleagues can share their knowledge, and new colleagues come up to speed faster. Using HotDocs, you can compile an invaluable repository of special language, unique clauses or terms, correspondence, and more.

HotDocs Document Generation Workflow

HotDocs document generation follows the following workflow:

  1. You (or another template developerThe person responsible for automating your firm's templates. The template developer creates and inserts the variables in the template, arranges variables in dialogs, and performs other custom tasks in the template. (See also user.)) use HotDocs software products and systems to produce a generic exemplar document known as a templateA word processor or form document that has been converted to HotDocs format so that it can be automated. When in template format, changeable text in the template can be replaced with variables. Other instructions can be added as well, such as instructions that create lists, condition text, and insert other templates.. (You can do this most easily by replacing an existing document's changeable text—text that varies from one client to another, such as names, dates, and institutions—with HotDocs variableA component that is used to represent changeable text (such as names, dates, numbers, etc.) in the template. Types of variables include Text, Date, Number, True/False, Multiple Choice, Computation, and Personal Information.s).
  2. You tell HotDocs to use the template you create to generate an interactive interviewA series of dialogs, each containing one or more questions which HotDocs generates from the variables you add to your template. The template's user must answer the questions in the interview before HotDocs can assemble a custom document. You can view the interview by clicking the Interview tab of the assembly window. The left pane of the assembly window displays an outline of the interview. As the user answers questions, the outline tracks the user's progress through the interview. that asks your end user (a client or customer) for the data HotDocs needs to create a customized document.
  3. HotDocs presents the interview to your end user either in a desktop product, or in a browser.
  4. Your end user steps through the interview, providing the information you request at the prompts you set up in the template's dialogIn template development, represents the component in which the developer groups variables and other components. In document assembly, represents the group of questions in the Interview tab of the assembly window where users enter their answers.s.
  5. HotDocs stores this information in an answer fileA saved file that contains the answers gathered by an interview. Often template developers save an answer file so they can reuse the answers later to assemble other documents to which the answers are pertinent..
  6. When your user finishes the interview, HotDocs assembles a final document by merging the information in the answer file with the non-changing text in the template.

HotDocs can also use existing answer files to supply an interview with commonly reused information (for example, a company's address and contact information).

The workflow diagram below shows HotDocs' capability to use both answer files (saved answers) and end user input to provide information in an interview. The diagram also shows that HotDocs can generate an answer file or an assembled document by merging the template text with the answers from the completed interview.

HotDocs Document Generation Workflow

Using HotDocs, you can perfect a template, minimizing the "human error" factor that repetitive typing introduces. Additionally, you can automate templates so that verb tenses, gender references, dates, numbers, calculations, and more, update automatically as users enter information. Custom interview questions and help resources guide you or your users through the interview.

You can convert virtually any transactional document in your business to a HotDocs template. HotDocs templates then become your standard for document generation—experienced colleagues can share their knowledge, and new colleagues come up to speed faster. Using HotDocs, you can compile an invaluable repository of special language, unique clauses or terms, correspondence, and more.

HotDocs Product Matrix

HotDocs provides the products described in the product matrix below to enable you to accomplish the steps of the HotDocs document generation workflow described above. Which product or products you use to accomplish the steps depends on your particular computing circumstances and needs. You can gain a better understanding of a particular product or feature by locating it within the conceptual areas which define the matrix:

HotDocs Product Matrix

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Tools Layer

The tools layer of the HotDocs product suite is the area you use to create a HotDocs template. The tools layer consists of the following:

  • HotDocs Developer—a desktop application that enables a template developer to transform a word processor file into a HotDocs template by replacing the document's changeable text with HotDocs variables
  • HotDocs Automator—an aspect of HotDocs Developer that enables a template developer to transform a graphical form into an interactive template by replacing the form's changeable text with HotDocs variables
  • Models markup—a simple HotDocs document markup notation system that provides non-HotDocs domain experts a means to mark up or edit a word processor document so that HotDocs Developer can transform the marked up document into a HotDocs template

Content Layer

HotDocs templates form the content layer of HotDocs. A completed template acts as a generic or exemplar document you can use as the basis for drafting documents of the same type for various specific clients. To change the template to a client specific document, HotDocs needs to gather user information and then merge that information with the non-changeable text in your template.

Environment

To accomplish the task of gathering the user information needed to assemble a final document, HotDocs' product suite includes data-gathering solutions for three separate computing environments:

These environments serve as metaphors for specific software platforms that enable HotDocs to deliver data-gathering and document assembly functionality to end-users, regardless of their local computing configurations.

Platform Layer

HotDocs provides software solutions in the desktop, client/server, and cloud environments to collect client data and assemble client specific documents. These solutions form three independent but interrelated computing platforms for gathering and processing your clients' data to produce custom documents.

HotDocs provides three platform choices in the platform layer:

 You can use products from each of these platforms in any combination that enables you to meet both your and your clients' needs.

Desktop HotDocs Platform

The Desktop HotDocs Platform is not a product; rather, as the name implies, the desktop platform consists of products and communication protocols that you and your clients install on regular desktop computers or laptops.

The base product for the desktop platform is HotDocs Developer. HotDocs Developer enables you to create tex