HotDocs 5.2 Attorney Training Manual

HotDocs 5.2 Attorney Training Manual Prepared by: Basha Systems LLC (914) 827-9173 www.bashasys.com sgr@bashasys.com I. GETTING STARTED... 1 1. PROGRAM SELECTION 1 2. TEMPLATE SELECTION 1 II. TEMPLATE SELECTION... 2 1. ASSEMBLE COMMAND 2 2. ASSEMBLY OPTIONS 3 III. USE OF ANSWER FILES... 4 1. CREATE NEW PROFILE 4 A. IMANAGE PROFILE SCREEN 4 B. FINISH PROFILING THE ANSWER FILE 5 2. USE LAST ANSWER FILE 5 3. OPEN PRIOR ANSWER FILE 6 IV. ASSEMBLY OPTIONS... 8 1. ASSEMBLE OPTIONS 8 A. DOCUMENT 8 B. ANSWER SUMMARY 8 C. QUESTION SUMMARY 8 2. ASK OPTIONS 9 V. COMPLETING A HOTDOCS INTERVIEW...10 1. BASIC DIALOG 10 A. NEXT BUTTON 10 B. PREVIOUS BUTTON 10 C. FINISH BUTTON 11 D. CANCEL BUTTON 11 E. CLEAR BUTTON 11 F. SAVE BUTTON 11 2. REPEATING DIALOGS 11 A. HOW DO YOU KNOW? 12 B. COMPLETING A REPEAT 12 3. FINISHING THE INTERVIEW 13 4. SAVING ANSWERS 13 VI. REVISING A TEMPLATE BASIC TEXT CHANGES...14 1. OPENING THE DOCUMENT FOR EDITING 14 2. SAVING CHANGES 15

2 3. CLOSING THE TEMPLATE 16 VII. REVISING VARIABLES AND LOGIC IN A TEMPLATE...17 1. SELECT AND EDIT THE TEMPLATE 17 2. CHANGING SIMPLE CONDITIONAL LOGIC 17 A. FIND THE IF STATEMENT 17 B. EDIT THE CONDITION 17 C. CHANGE THE CONDITION 18 3. CHANGING COMPLEX CONDITIONAL LOGIC 18 A. FIND THE IF STATEMENT 18 B. EDIT THE CONDITION 19 C. ALTERNATIVE APPROACH 19 4. CHANGING THE FORMAT OF A MULTIPLE CHOICE OR TEXT VARIABLE 19 A. CLICK THE VARIABLE BUTTON 19 B. SELECT THE PROPER FORMAT EXAMPLE 20 C. EXPLANATION OF TEXT FORMAT EXAMPLES 20 5. CHANGING THE FORMAT OF A DATE VARIABLE 20 A. CLICK ON THE VARIABLE 21 B. SELECT THE FORMAT EXAMPLE 21 C. EXPLANATION OF DATE FORMAT EXAMPLES 21

I. GETTING STARTED Welcome to the Pullman Comley HotDocs Library. 1. Program Selection Pick HotDocs from the Programs on the Start menu or select the icon from the desktop. Developer s Note: There may be a pause before the clause library opens to allow for imanage to load in the background. 2. Template Selection The HotDocs library window appears. If the Probate folder does not appear, click File-Open library. Then select the library: Probate.HDL and click OK or Open.

2 II. TEMPLATE SELECTION Select the template which you wish to use. 1. Assemble Command Unless you are an authorized developer, you will only be able to Assemble templates. You may need to click on folders to find the appropriate template, or use the scrollbar to see it.

3 2. Assembly Options If Word is not already open, it will start up. Then, the Assembly Options dialog box appears. The Assembly Options dialog box shows the Untitled answer file. Developer s Note: For proper imanage integration, your HotDocs Setup should be set to Use Untitled Answer File By Default

4 III. USE OF ANSWER FILES For every document assembled, there must be a corresponding answer file. However, an answer file can be reused to assemble several documents. In fact, good usage is to assign a single answer file to each legal matter and use that answer file for all documents created pertaining to that matter. Answer files must be saved into imanage. Once you choose to assembly a document, you have several options. You may use the Last answer file you were working with, Open a prior answer file that has been profiled in imanage, or create a profile for the new answer file using the Save As button. Each option is explained below. 1. Create New Profile For now, let s look at the last option. Click on Save As. Developer Note: The only option that is not available with the current imanage integration is the New button. a. imanage Profile Screen The Save As button should bring up the imanage New Profile screen. The application type, operator and status should be already filled.

5 b. Finish Profiling the Answer File You should complete the profile. Realize you are creating a profile for an Answer File, NOT the actual document you will be assembling. The document type is Answer. As with any other file, select the author, and assign the profile to a client and matter, and choose the security setting. 2. Use Last Answer File If you are resuming work on a document that you started earlier in the day or if you are working on additional document for the same client-matter, you should use the Last button.

6 This will change the Answer File from Untitled to the path and file name of the last answer file you work on. 3. Open prior answer file Most often, you will want to find a prior answer file to continue adding answers. This allows you to keep consistent answers across all document assembled for a particular client. Just click on Open.

7 And then select the appropriate Answer File. Be sure to select an Answer File and not the document. Recent answer files should be at the top of your worklist and should have a HotDocs icon before the name.

8 IV. ASSEMBLY OPTIONS Once you have retrieved an answer file from imanage, or profiled a new answer file into imanage, you are ready to begin. HotDocs offers you several options, each of which are explained before. 1. Assemble Options You can select to assemble a document, an answer summary or a question summary. a. Document This choice will produce a custom document based on the selected template. Most of the time, this is what you want. b. Answer Summary This choice will produce just a list of answered questions, grouped by dialog. It will include the "prompt" and "answer" for each variable. However, because of design choices, some of the prompts will be "cryptic" and you may be better off assembling a separate Answer Summary template if one has been provided by the creator of the HotDocs library. c. Question Summary This final choice will produce a questionnaire that can be used with blanks that can be filled in. This option has some further choices that affect what you want your question summary to look like.

9 IF Logic will ask you any true/false questions that surrounds dialogs. None will produce a question summary of all questions regardless of whether the questions are nested in logic. 2. Ask Options You can also select what template questions will be asked. All will ask All questions, even if you are using a prior answer file. Unanswered Only will ask only those questions that have not been answered in a prior answer file. However, if an unanswered question is on a dialog that contains answered questions, it will nevertheless pull up the complete dialog. None will process the answers in the prior answer file without asking any questions.

10 V. COMPLETING A HOTDOCS INTERVIEW Well designed HotDocs dialogs should be self-explanatory. 1. Basic Dialog A basic dialog is a series of questions in the form of prompts with blanks, check boxes, or choices. The dialog below is a sample. All dialogs have Next, Previous, Finish and Cancel options. There are also buttons marked Save and Clear. a. Next Button Most of the time, you will simple click Next when you finish answering all the questions you know. Generally, if you don t know the answer to a question, just leave it blank. If the answer is Required you will get a message saying there is a Required Variable that you must fill in before you can proceed to the next dialog. b. Previous Button On occasion, you may want to go back. Just hit Previous. Most of the time, this will take you to prior dialog. Developer s Note: Depending on the design of the template, this may take a millisecond, or it could take a few seconds. This is because HotDocs goes to the top of the document an runs through all the dialogs in background until it reaches the prior dialog.

11 c. Finish Button If you have run out of time or need to break for lunch, you will want to click Finish and save your answer file. You can discard the assembled document, since you will likely just reassemble it after lunch. You may also click Finish if you are reviewing a answer file and have make any required changes. There would be no need to review any further questions. d. Cancel Button The Cancel will cancel the assembly. Any new answers added during the session will not be saved they will be as if they were deleted. And of course, no document will be assembled. e. Clear Button Located on the bottom left of the dialog, this will clear the value of any selected variable. Rather than deleting the text, you may simple want to clear the value of a given variable and leave it blank. f. Save Button Recently added with HotDocs 5.3, this allows you to Save your answers as you go along. This is recommended for large templates with lotsa questions where they may be a risk of crashing. Developer s Note: If you have created a new answer file and not yet profiled the answer file in imanage, you will get a imanage Document Profile screen to fill out. You need to fill it out at this time. 2. Repeating Dialogs These dialogs look like regular dialogs, but with one critical difference: they repeat. As such, when you click Next you will see the same dialog. This will be confusing at first.

12 a. How do you know? There is one clue that gives it away. You will find a number in the upper left corner. b. Completing A Repeat If you click Next you will see the same dialog, but with a higher number. If, as in this case, there is a second trustee, just enter the details. If, however, there is only one trustee you have two choices (1) click Next twice, or (2) click Finish. If you choose the latter, you will be asked whether you are finishing the repeating dialog or the interview. You should choose Finish the current repeating dialog.

13 3. Finishing the Interview After the last question or if you click Finish, you will invariably receive a warning dialog like the one below. Don t worry. Most of the time, just click Finish interview and click on OK. If there were unanswered variables, most of the time they were intentionally unanswered. 4. Saving Answers The final dialog will ask if you wish to save your answers. If you have not already created an answer file and profiled it in imanage, clicking save will pop up the imanage Document Profile screen. Otherwise, once you click Save, your document will finish assembling and you will get your completed document in Word or Wordperfect.

14 VI. REVISING A TEMPLATE BASIC TEXT CHANGES The library should be open. To proceed, you will need to have Author privileges to change the template. Any changes you make to the template with affect everyone else who works with the document. 1. Opening the Document for Editing Select the template from the main folder and click Edit.

15 HotDocs will launch Word and open the template file. It is important that all changes be made to this file. Except for the HotDocs codes, this is a regular Word file that can be edited like any other word processing file. All the HotDocs codes are in BLUE and surrounded by chevrons, e.g. «IF ALLOC Type of Match MC = Mandatory». Warning!!! Do not make any changes in blue text between the Chevrons unless you have had advanced HotDocs training in template design. 2. Saving Changes To save changes use the HotDocs Edit toolbar. Click on the Save Save the HotDocs Template and its Component File icon. You should save periodically as you are working on the document. Important Note: Be sure to use the HotDocs save icon. If you use the WordPerfect Save icon, you will launch imanage, which will move the template changes into your document management program.

16 3. Closing the Template When you are finished making all your changes, click on the Close Close and Save the HotDocs Template and its component and answer files.

17 VII. REVISING VARIABLES AND LOGIC IN A TEMPLATE Caution. Any revisions to variables and/or logic should be carefully thought out. Changes can have a ripple effect to other parts of the document and to other dialogs and variables. Be sure that the template and component files have been recently backed up before making any changes. 1. Select and Edit the Template See instructions above. 2. Changing Simple Conditional Logic On occasion, you may need to make simple changes in the rules governing whether a particular clause or paragraph or group of paragraphs is included in the assembled document. a. Find the IF Statement Go through the document to the paragraph you need to correct. You will see an IF. Statement, e.g. «IF NOTE Luxembourg listing TF». b. Edit the Condition Place your cursor anywhere between the chevrons, and click on the IF button on the HotDocs toolbar. In this illustration, the IF button will pull up the Variable Editor. There you can select a different True/False variable to govern whether or not the passage is included.

18 c. Change the Condition Just click on the drop-down list and choose a different variable. After you have selected a new variable, click on the If button and return to the template. 3. Changing Complex Conditional Logic IF Statements sometime contain more complex logic governing whether a particular clause or paragraph or group of paragraphs is included in the assembled document. a. Find the IF Statement The IF. Statement will usually contain a short logic statement that looks like an equation, e.g. «IF NOTE registration requirements MC = "Registered with the SEC"». Place your cursor anywhere between the chevrons, and click on the IF button on the HotDocs toolbar.

19 b. Edit the Condition In this illustration, the IF button will pull up the Expression Editor. There you can edit the rule. After you have made your changes to the Expression, then click on the If button and return to the template. c. Alternative Approach In the alternative, you can just edit the text between the chevrons to correct the condition. 4. Changing the Format of a Multiple Choice or Text Variable In certain portions of a document, you may want a variable to appear in ALL CAPS or with Leading Caps or even Sentence Case, whereas in other parts of the document, you want it to appear as people entered the variable. This can be done by using Format examples. a. Click the Variable Button Find the variable and place your cursor between the chevrons. And then click on the Variable button.

20 b. Select the proper Format Example In this illustration, the Variable button will pull up the Multiple-Choice Variable Editor. Formatting is set by the Format Example drop-down list. c. Explanation of Text Format Examples Choose the format example that closest matches the way you will want the text formatted: like this converts to all lower case. Like this converts to sentence case. Like This converts to leading caps or upper and lower case. LIKE THIS converts to all upper case. 5. Changing the Format of a Date Variable Dates may also need to be formatted in special ways.

21 a. Click on the Variable Find the variable and place your cursor between the chevrons. And then click on the Variable button. b. Select the Format Example In this illustration, the Variable button will pull up the Date Variable Editor. Formatting is set by the Format Example drop-down list. c. Explanation of Date Format Examples Choose the format example that most closely matches the way you will want the text formatted: June 3, 1990 is the standard date format for use in text. 3rd day of June, 1990 is a more stylized format for use in text. June Third, One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety is an even more stylized version useful for certificates etc. 3 June 1990 is the European format for dates. 6/3/90 is the format you might use for a date in a table.