HotDocs Tips & Tricks

Have you ever tried to add an Access database as a new “datasource” in Vista64 and Windows7? In most cases, you will go WINDOWS START -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC).  When you click ADD, you will get SQL Native Client and SQL Server.  There will be NO opportunity to add Access or any of the OLDER data types.  These 32-bit datatypes are effectively banished from the system.  Quelle disaster!!!  Well we have a solution, one that is REAL EASY

Face it: we don’t always upgrade to the latest version of a program. There is the cost of the upgrade, and the cost of “conversion”.  The cost of conversion on HotDocs upgrades has been over-rated.  With HotDocs 2009, you can keep the CMP in the HotDocs 2006-2008 format, ensuring painless upgrades.  However, if you don’t upgrade, some issues can arise.  This is particularly true for those who purchase LexisNexis automated forms or other published form set such as Wealth Transfer Planning.  These programs typically come with a license to “HotDocs Player 2009”.  This is the SAME as HotDocs User (previously HotDocs Standard) with one exception.  It will ONLY run “published form sets” and to publish a form set you need a “publisher’s key” and a special license arrangement with HotDocs corporation.  This is a non-issue if you have HotDocs 2009 (or the latest version).  However, if you don’t you can find that your own firm-developed templates NO LONGER WORK.

The HotDocs QUIT instruction specifies that any code in a computation after the QUIT instruction is to be ignored as code. There are two major uses for this instruction.

Sometimes, there are things you want done to your assembled document that HotDocs simply cannot do.  Perhaps you want to check margins for a specific section, re-style an inserted template on the fly or automatically run a custom in-house print macro upon completion.  For these sorts of tasks, the PLAY instruction is what you wish to use.  PLAY will tell your word processor to run a specified macro after your document has been created (ie: after the interview, but before it displays as a document).  If there is more than one PLAY instruction in a template, HotDocs will process them in the order encountered.

When it comes to REPEATS in HotDocs, LIMIT is one very handy instruction to know how to use.  As its name suggests, it will LIMIT the number of iterations a repeat can hold, by placing the instruction in the dialog script of the dialog you wish to limit.  Please note that this is entirely different to the number of rows shown on a repeating spreadsheet dialog.  LIMIT will restrict a dialog to have only (for example) 3 iterations, where as the rows shown command will allow a repeat to hold countless iterations, but only show a specified number.

The Language instruction allows you to design, code and assemble templates in HotDocs in a language other than English.  To be able to use this feature, you must first contact a Lexis Nexis sales representative to obtain a DLL for the language you wish to program with.  HotDocs has DLLs for the following languages:

ENG (English), DEU (German), DES (Swiss German), DEA (Austrian German), FRA (French), NLD (Dutch), ESN (Spanish), ITA (Italian)

Not to be confused with the ASSEMBLE command (which queues a template for assembly after your current template has finished), the INSERT command does exactly that - inserts the content of one template into a different template (known as the “parent” template). 

This instruction is extremely handy and very under utilised as it is useful for a wide variety of things, not just inserting letterhead!

The humble IF statement is the core of all logic in any programming language, HotDocs included.  IF statements don’t actually do anything but rather, they provide a structure within which other commands are executed.  To bring any intelligence to your document-producing systems, you must understand the IF, ELSE IF and ELSE statements, as they are used everywhere.

These four commands are essential in presenting user friendly and user-proof dialogs in HotDocs.  When designing systems, it is generally best practice to show only those variables that require (or may require) an answer and HIDE or GRAY those that are irrelevant.  HotDocs provides a rudimentary manner to handle this automatically, but if you are designing complex systems, you may need to use these four commands.

All of these instructions are used in dialog scripts only.

Another HotDocs instruction model that does exactly what it sounds like, FORMAT allows you to specify the formattin of a “list style” RESULT.  Rather than explain, I’ll simply provide 2 examples which demonstrates everything you’ll ever need to know about FORMAT.