What a HotDocs Developer
Should Know
About Microsoft Word
Alan Soudakoff, Bart Earle, Marc Lauritsen
Capstone Practice Systems
December 9, 2009
Agenda
• Introduction (Marc)
• Styles and auto numbering (Bart)
• Sections, headers, and footers (Alan)
• Wrap up and questions
Using Word
• Showing paragraph marks and other
symbols
• Format painter
• Readability Statistics function
• Document comparison
(for authoring, to identify variations, for testing)
To enable readability statistics:
Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
Click Proofing.
Make sure Check grammar with spelling is selected.
Under When correcting grammar in Word, select the Show
readability statistics check box.
Some Word/HotDocs issues
• How HD handles hard returns after
instructions (IFs, ENDs, REPEATs)
• HD variables don't work in text boxes
• Word comments may cause trouble in
span of an IF statement
Resources
• Payne, Word for Law Firms
• HotDocs Help
• Knowledge base at www.hotdocs.com
Problems & Solutions | Microsoft Word Issues
(HotDocs.com knowledge base)
• HotDocs Chevrons Converted to Quotation Marks
• Pressing F11 Key Does Not Move to Next Field
• Comments at End of Inserted DOT Template Cause Bad Formatting in Parent Template
• Text is Skipped by Spell Checker
• HotDocs Cannot PLAY the Macro
• Numbering Lost in Conditional Paragraph
• One Style Superseding Another in Word Template or Document
• 'Value out of Range' Error When Inserting Variable in Word Footer
• Bookmarks Deleted When Editing Template
• Inserting Graphics in RTF Increases File Size
• AutoOpen and AutoExec Macros Disabled When Working with Word Templates
• HotDocs Menu Appearing in Word Documents When It Shouldn't
• Can't Preview a Template When Working with Word 2007
• Problems with Microsoft Word and Smart Tags
• Page Breaks are Deleted When Inserting Templates with Tables
• Remove Unwanted HotDocs Outliner Icon from Toolbar
• Runtime Errors When Creating New Word 2007 Template
• HotDocs Button Doesn't Appear on the Word 2007 Ribbon
• 'HotDocs Cannot Play the Macro HD6EditTemplate.Main' Message Appearing
• Word Displays Expired Macros Error and Then Disables HotDocs Macros
• Word Toolbars Disappear from HotDocs DOT Templates
Styles & Auto Numbering
• Styles allow you to efficiently apply
consistent formatting throughout a
document
• Auto numbering provides the best method
of generating a document with
consecutively numbered paragraphs (even
where logic makes some conditional)
Styles
• Include paragraph, character, table and list
• Word includes many built-in styles
• Tools for using are accessed via Styles
panel on Home tab in Word 2007
Word vs. HotDocs Numbering
• HotDocs: cumbersome to use if complex
logic and/or outline numbering involved,
makes editing of assembled documents
difficult.
• Word: No need to adjust HotDocs logic
and facilitates easy editing of assembled
documents.
Auto Numbering Basics
• Numbered list: Single level list that does
not allow for list styles. Useful for quick
and dirty numbering tasks.
• Multilevel numbering: Outline numbering
for which you can create a list style (which
can then be edited).
Using Styles and Outline Numbering
• Start by creating an outline numbered list
style.
• Configure all levels of outline numbering
• Apply numbered list style to a paragraph
and create new paragraph style
OR
Create paragraph style, link it to
numbered list style
• Apply paragraph style where needed
Styles/Numbering Dos and Don’ts
• Don’t use built-in Word styles
• Don’t base a new style on Normal
• Don’t use automatic update for styles
• Use outline (multilevel) numbering
• Do allow outline numbering to control
indents
• Make sure styles in inserted templates
match main template
Footers/Headers in Inserted Templates:
The Problem
• When producing a package of Word documents
using HotDocs INSERTS, sometimes you want:
– different header/footer for each document
– re-pagination starting with page 1
– different margins
• Without following the steps here, HotDocs and Word
puts the parent template’s footers in all docs
Footers/Headers in Inserted Templates:
The Solution, Step 1
• Place a next-page section break in parent
template before INSERT
Footers/Headers in Inserted Templates:
The Solution, Step 2
• INSERT child template, using HD INSERT
• At the INSERT Field dialog box select
“Keep header/footer of inserted template”
Footers/Headers in Inserted Templates:
The Solution, Step 3
• To re-start page numbering, go to the Parent
template and Format Page Numbers
Footers/Headers in Inserted Templates:
The Parent Template
• This is what the parent template should
look like:
Footers/Headers in Inserted Templates:
The Assembled Inserted Document
• This is what the inserted assembled
document should look like:
Footers/Headers: Other Issues
• Same as Previous
• Variables in headers and footers are processed first
with respect to a default interview
Questions
and
Comments