HotDocs 2008
New Features

Create model documents, independent of HotDocs, and use them to assemble custom documents: Using Microsoft Word, you can create model documents. A model document is an exemplar document used as the basis for drafting documents of the same type for specific clients. Using a defined markup language, you identify text that varies from one client to another. This markup provides an unambiguous description of how a model document should be used to draft client-specific documents. Once you have a model document, you can use it with HotDocs to generate custom documents for your clients.

New Go to Field button added to HotDocs toolbar: When you receive scripting error messages in HotDocs, they often include the field number for the field where the error is located. To help you quickly find this field in a text template, HotDocs now includes a Go To Field button in the HotDocs navigation toolbar.

New Test Panel added: (HotDocs Professional Only) HotDocs now includes a Test Panel, which you can access during a test assembly. Features of this test panel include the following tabs:

• Variable usage: This tab shows how variables are being used in the template. For example, you can review a list of variables that are asked during the interview, but they aren't used in the document. You can also review which variables are used in the document but don't appear in the interview. These two lists can help you make sure the questions you are asking the user are relevant to the document, which ultimately improves the accuracy of the document.
• Warnings: In previous versions of HotDocs, the Warnings tab was included directly in the assembly window. This tab has now been moved to the Test Panel. It includes information about scripting in the template that may cause unexpected results in the interview or assembled document. For example, the Warnings tab can report when SET instructions have been used incorrectly. It can also identify when variables have been asked or referred to incorrectly.
• Go to Template: Using the Go To Template command, you can place your cursor in the Document Preview text and have HotDocs take you to the same place in the template. This lets you review the automation in that particular section of the template, perhaps to understand the conditions under which the text was inserted in the document.

Publishing licenses now include annual expiration: (HotDocs Professional Only) Licenses for publishing and registering templates for use with HotDocs Player now expire annually.

Have HotDocs automatically exclude irrelevant questions from an interview: (HotDocs Professional Only) Rather than write dialog scripts, you can have HotDocs automatically gray or hide variables that aren't relevant to the document.

Set HotDocs Server interviews so all dialogs in the interview appear in the same view: (HotDocs Professional Only) You can design your HotDocs Server interviews so that users can view all of the dialogs in an interview at once, on a single Web page.

Entering Non-English Answers During an Interview: During a HotDocs interview, you can enter answers in left-to-right reading languages other than English.

Create a Favorites folder in the template library and add templates to it: You can group the templates you use most frequently in a Favorites folder of your library.