Sample A2J Guided Interview & HotDocs Template Exercise HotDocs Template We are going to create this template in HotDocs. You can find the Word document to start with here. Figure 1: Form to automate Converting a Word document (.doc) to a HotDocs Pdf Template (.hpt) 1. Download and open the document in Word. 2. Save it as a.pdf a. Click File b. Click Save as c. Browse to the folder where you want to save the document. d. Change the Save as Type to.pdf (see Figure 2) e. Click Save
Figure 2: Save As PDF 3. Open up HotDocs Developer (it has this icon ) 4. Click the New Template icon (it looks like this ) 5. A dialog box will open up. a. Change the Type to HotDocs PDF Template (.hpt) b. Type in a File name. i. For example Sample Exercise ii. HotDocs will add the.hpt extension to whatever name you give the file. c. Click into the Title box. It will auto populate with the same name as the file name. d. Click Other file under Initial contents i. Browse to the folder where you saved the pdf in step 2. ii. Click to add that file. e. Click Ok you have just created your first HotDocs Template! Now to automate it! f. The HotDocs Automator ( ) (where you automate pdfs) will automatically open when you click Ok in Step 5(e). Automating the Template 1. Creating a field: a. Put your cursor over the line next to Name: b. Left click to draw a box the size of the line. See Figure 3.
Figure 3: Draw a box next to Name c. Now draw a box next to every line that will require a variable. This is called making a Field. See Figure 4. This includes small boxes over the check box spaces (Married and Children questions). i. *Note: You can resize your boxes by clicking on them and then adjusting the size of the box by dragging the lines either up and down or left and right. ii. *Note: Child s Name and Child s Birth Date are two separate columns. Their lines should have separate boxes. See Figure 4. Figure 4: Blank boxes throughout entire document.
2. Now to add variables. Double click into the box you created in question 1. HotDocs Developer will open (if you don t already have it open in the background) and a Variable Field dialog box will pop up. See Figure 5. i. In the Variable Field dialog box, make sure the Text bubble is selected. ii. In the white box next to Variable type Client name full TE iii. Click Ok. (See Figure 6 for filled in Variable Field dialog box) iv. You ve just created your first variable! Figure 5: Blank Variable Field dialog box pops up Figure 6: Filled in Variable Field dialog box for name variable
3. Create the variables for questions 2 4. i. Question 2 variable is Today date DA and is a Date variable type ii. Question 3 has 4 variables 1. Street: Address street TE (text variable) 2. City: Address city TE (text variable) 3. State: Address state MC (multiple choice variable) a. *Do not worry about populating this variable with states. We will take care of that in the A2J Guided Interview. 4. Zip code: Address zipcode TE (text variable) a. *Note: sometimes numbers are held in variables that are the type text read this for an explanation. iii. Question 4: Phone number TE (text variable again) 4. Create the checkbox fields for Question 5 a. Draw a small box over the box in front of Married like you did to make the Field in Step 1. b. Copy and paste this box in front of Single, Divorced, and Widowed. c. Click the first box, hold down the Shift key and click the other 3 boxes. All should have red corners. See Figure 7. Figure 7: Checkboxes all selected. d. Right click and a menu should pop up. e. Select Group. A red box should now appear around all of the 4 checkboxes. See Figure 8. Figure 8: Red box around checkboxes. f. Double click anywhere in that red box around the checkboxes. The Variable Field dialog box should appear. Create a new variable called Marital status MC. The type is multiple choice. Click into the Variable editor. Under the Option column in the table, type Married, Single, Divorced, Widowed. Make sure your other options look like Figure 9. Click Save. Click Ok. Click Ok again. It should now look like Figure 10.
Figure 9: Variable editor for Marital status MC. Figure 10: Question 5 with variable inserted into grouped checkboxes. 5. Repeat Step 4 for Question 6 s checkboxes. The variable is Have children TF. The type is True/False. 6. Create a field and insert a variable for Question 6(a). The variable is Number of children NU. It is number type of variable. 7. Repeat Loop for Question 6(b): This next section is more advanced. We are going to create a repeat loop. A Repeat Dialog (aka a Repeat Loop) is a series of questions that will continue to loop based on criteria that the author sets. If the same type of information needs to be collected several times, such as children s names or birthdates, a repeat dialog can be written to collect the series instead of using multiple questions, thus greatly increasing the efficiency in interview drafting. In order to facilitate this, we need to group the fields that will contain the name of the user s children and group the fields that will contain those children s birthdates.
a. In the column under Child s Names click on the first field box that you created. Hold down the shift key and click on the other 3 boxes in that column. Right click. A pop up box will appear. Select Align Fields. See Figure 11. Figure 11: Align Fields pop up box. b. A new popup will appear. Select Left from the Horizontal option, No change for Vertical, and Like first for Width and Height. This will make sure that your boxes are all aligned properly. c. Do the same thing for the boxes under Child s Birth Date. d. Create a new variable in the first box under Child s Name called Child name first TE. It should be a text variable type. e. Create a new variable in the first box under Child s Birth Date called Child DOB DA. It should be a date variable type. f. Once all your boxes are aligned and your 2 new variables created, click to select all of the boxes in both columns. Right click and select Group as Table from the pop up menu. g. Click anywhere on the new table to select it. With the table selected, click the Field menu on the top toolbar, then click REPEAT. See Figure 12.
Figure 12: REPEAT option in Field menu. h. This will open up the Repeat Field editor. Create a new Repeat Dialog called Child Information. See Figure 13. Figure 13: Repeat Field editor. i. Click the edit component button. This will open the Repeat Dialog Editor. j. Make sure the Style is set to Repeated Series. Drag the Child name first TE variable into the Contents box. Drag the Child DOB DA variable into the Contents box. Click OK to close the Repeat Dialog Editor. k. Click OK to close the Repeat Field Editor. Congratulations! You have now created a repeat loop in HotDocs. i. *Note: In a real document automation project, you would want to tell HotDocs what to do if more than 4 lines of information was filled in by
the end user for this question. That involves adding a COUNTER and an ADDENDUM. We aren t going to do that in this example. If you d like to learn more about, check out this other resource we created. We are going to limit the number of answers an end user can give us to 4 in our A2J Guided Interview (instructions below). l. To finish automating our template, we need to automate Question 7. This is an open ended question to which the end user might give a lengthy answer. In order to make sure that their entire answer is included in the final product, we need to tell HotDocs to include an addendum if the text is longer than the space allotted on the form. i. Select all 5 field and align them (see above Step 7(a) above if you need a refresher on how to do this). The fields should be aligned horizontally Like First, vertically Space Equally, Width Like First, and Height Like First. ii. Then Group the lines (See Step 4(c) (e) for a refresher on grouping). iii. Create a new variable called Purpose of form TE and insert it into the grouped fields. It should be a text variable. iv. Right click in the grouped fields. A pop up menu will appear. Click Field Properties and the Field Properties box will pop up. Tab over to Overflow. v. Check the box next to Send answer to addendum. vi. Add an Addendum label text called Purpose of using this form today. (no quotes) vii. Check Begin addendum entry on a new page. Click the red x to close the Field Properties box. See Figure 14 for how the Field Properties box should be configured.
Figure 14: Field Properties box with proper options selected. 8. Congratulations! You have successfully automated your first HotDocs template. Now we need to test to make sure that everything is working properly. To test assemble in HotDocs, we want to generate a default interview so that we can fill in our variables. Once we have completed our A2J Guided Interview, we can test our HotDocs template using our answer file from A2J Author (.anx format). However, we haven t built our A2J Guided Interview yet, so we want to have HotDocs display the variables for us to fill in now as we test. To do that: a. Open the component manager by clicking on this icon in the top toolbar. b. Click the Component File Properties button (this allows you to edit the properties of every variable in your component file). See Figure 15 for where this button is located.
Figure 15: Component File Properties button in the Component Manager. c. The Component File Properties box will pop up. Tab over to the Interview Tab. Check Generate default interview and click Ok. d. Click the save button on the component manager and close it. It is very important to use HotDocs internal save buttons. There is no automatic saving in HotDocs! e. Now click the Test Assemble button on the top toolbar in HotDocs Automator. f. Fill in all the variables that display in the default interview. Click next to proceed through the interview. i. *Note: Skip the question about state and marital status. We did not create multiple choice options in HotDocs because the answers will be passed from the A2J Guided Interview. We can test that section fully once we have created our A2J Guided Interview.
g. When you get to the end of the interview, tab over to Form Document to see if your variables properly formatted and filled in. It should look something like Figure 16. Figure 16: Test Assembled Form Document. h. You can go back into HotDocs Automator and make any edits, move fields around, better align your boxes, or make any changes that you need. Make sure to save your work with the HotDocs save button in the top toolbar!
A2J Guided Interview We are now going to create an A2J Guided Interview to go with the HotDocs template. 1. Log into your a2jauthor.org account. If you aren t sure how to create an account, check out this resource. 2. Once logged in, go to the authoring tab and click it to open A2J Author version 5.0. 3. Under Create a new interview click Blank Interview. This will open up a blank A2J Guided Interview. To learn more about authoring in A2J Author 5.0, check out our 190 page Authoring Guide. 4. A new A2J Guided Interview comes pre populated with 4 questions. We are going to have 11 questions in our practice A2J Guided Interview. So you will need to create 7 additional questions. a. Click the New Page button at the bottom of the screen 7 times. Your screen should look like Figure 17.
Figure 17: Blank Guided Interview with 10 questions. 5. Go to the About Tab on the left side of the screen and click it. This is the meta data behind your A2J Guided Interview. a. Change the title to Sample A2J Guided Interview. b. Add in a description of why you are doing this exercises. (Ex. This is to learn how to create an A2J Guided Interview for my class during the fall 2015 semester.) c. Under Avatar and Guide Gender, you can choose the skin tone and gender of your guide avatar. Whatever skin tone you choose for the guide, will be the same for the end user s avatar. See Figure 18 for the options.
Figure 18: Guide Avatar options shown in order: Avatar 1, Avatar 2, and Avatar 3 in both female and male. d. Scroll down to the Authors section and include your information. This is not shown to the end user in a public facing A2J Guided Interview. 6. Go to the Variables Tab. We need to import our HotDocs component file so that we can use the variables we created in the exercise above in our A2J Guided Interview. Your variables must match exactly between A2J Author and HotDocs or your final end project won t assemble properly. To ensure that they are exactly the same, we import our HotDocs component file (.cmp). a. Click the Add from HotDocs.CMP button. A box will pop up that will allow you to search for the place on your computer where you saved your.cmp file. Click Ok to add the variables to your list. 7. Go to the Steps Tab. There are by default 4 steps. We will need to add 1 additional step. We also need to change the names of the steps. a. Add an additional step by selecting 5 from the drop down menu. See Figure 19.
Figure 19: Drop down menu to add an additional step to the default 4. b. Change the name of the steps i. Step (0) to INTRODUCTION ii. Step (1) to YOUR INFORMATION iii. Step (2) to FAMILY INFORMATION iv. Step (3) to PURPOSE OF FORM v. Step (4) to THE END 8. Go to the Pages Tab a. Click on the question (page) that is labeled 1 Introduction. i. Scroll down to the text box. By default it says This is the introduction. Add This A2J Guided Interview was created as part of a sample exercise. It is not intended for use by the general public. Close that page. b. Click on the question 2 Name. i. Change the Step from 0 to 1. ii. Change the name to 1 Name (it is now the 1st question under Step 1, so the question numbering in the question name has to be changed. To learn more about question naming, check out this resource.) iii. Scroll down to the section labeled Advanced Logic. In this section, we are going to tell A2J Author to combine the end user s first, middle, and last names into the variable [Client name full TE] that is used in our HotDocs template. *NOTE: The brackets around the variable name in this sample exercise instruction set are only intended to separate the variable
from the rest of the text. When creating variables, you should not use brackets in the variable name. You need to use brackets in A2J Author when you place variable names into Advanced Logic, Macros, or Functions (see Figure 20 as an example). To do this, we have to script some logic that tests if the end user has entered a middle name. If they have, then the variable [Client name full TE] will include the values held by [Client first name TE] + [Client middle name TE] + [Client last name TE]. If they have not entered a middle name, then just the first and last name will populate [Client name full TE]. If we didn t include the logic as scripted below, there would be an odd extra space in [Client name full TE] if the end user didn t enter a middle name. Type the logic exactly as it looks in Figure 20. Figure 20: The Scripting Logic for testing if the user entered a middle name and setting the variable [Client name full TE]. iv. Now you need to test to make sure the logic is working correctly. Click the button under the logic box (within your Question Design Window). This will take you into the A2J Viewer on this question. Open the Variables and Scripting Window by clicking this button *Note: This is an excellent thing to have open during any testing you do in A2J Author. It allows you to see what is going on behind the scenes in your A2J Guided Interview.
Type in a first and last name in the question fields. Click Continue. Look in the scripting box and make sure the condition evaluated properly. It should look like Figure 21. Figure 21: Testing logic with no middle name. Now hit the Back button (the A2J Author internal one, not your browser s back button). This will take you back to the Name question. Type in a first, middle, and last name. Click Continue. Look at the scripting box now and make sure it looks like Figure 22. If it does, then you have successfully scripted your first advanced condition! If not, go back and re do the steps above.
Figure 22: Testing logic with a middle name. c. Open the question called 3 Gender. Change the Step Number to 1. Change the name to 2 Gender. i. This question is used to populate the end user s avatar. An end user may wonder why this question is being asked. It is a good practice to include a Learn More to explain. ii. In the Question Text section of the Question Design Window, find the field labeled Learn More prompt. In that space type, Why are you asking this question? iii. In the Help field (this is the reply the guide avatar gives) type, This question is used to populate the avatar that will represent you through the rest of this A2J Guided Interview. iv. Click close. d. Open the question called New page and change the Step to 1. Change the name to 3 Address. i. In the text box type, What is your address? ii. Scroll down to the Fields section. Select 4 from the Number of fields. The Field information will now appear for 4 fields. Here is where we are going to collect the end user s address. iii. In the first field, change the label to Street (this will appear in front of the field where the end user will type in their street address). The variable should be [Address street TE]
*Note: When you start typing a variable, A2J Author will offer up suggestions from your list of variables that match the letters you have typed. iv. In the second field, change the label to City and the variable should be [Address city TE] v. In the third field, change the type to Text (Pick from list), change the label to State and the variable should be [Address state MC]. We are now going to add in a list of U.S. states in alphabetical order. Instead of making you type that list in, download the list in xml format here. Save it some place on your computer. Click the Upload button next to External list. Navigate to where you saved that U.S. states xml list and click open. vi. In the fourth field, change the type to Number ZIP code, change the label to Zip code, and the variable should be [Address zipcode TE]. Close the Question Design window for this question. e. Open the question called New page 2 and change the Step to 1. Change the name to 4 Phone number. i. In the notes section write: This question also sets the logic for TODAY. On this question, we will use advanced logic to set the variable [Today date DA] as well as collect the value for the variable [Phone number TE]. ii. In the text box type: What is your phone number? iii. Create 1 field in the Fields section. The type should be Number Phone, the label Phone number, and the variable is [Phone number TE]. Scroll down to the Advanced Logic section. In the After box type (no quotes) SET [Today date DA] TO TODAY f. Open the question called New page 2 2 and change the Step to 2. Change the name to 1 Marital Status. i. In the text box type, What is your marital status? ii. Scroll down to fields and create 4. iii. In the first one, make the type Radio Button. The label should be Married, the variable is [Marital status MC], and the default value is Married (make sure it is spelled the same way, including capitalization, as you made it in HotDocs step 4(f) above. iv. In the second field, the type is Radio Button, the label is Single, the variable is [Marital status MC], and the default value is Single. v. In the third one, the type is Radio Button, the label is Divorced, the variable is [Marital status MC], and the default value is Divorced.
vi. In the fourth one, the type is Radio Button, the label is Widowed, the variable is [Marital status MC], and the default value is Widowed. Click close. g. Open the question called New page 2 2 2 and change the Step to 2. Change the name to 2 Have children? i. In the text box type, Do you have children? ii. Scroll down to the Buttons section. Select 2 buttons from the drop down list. The first button should have the label Yes, the variable is [Have children TF] and the default value is true a. *Leave the destination question to [no where] for now. We ll set that later on. The second button should have the label No, the variable is [Have children TF] and the default value is false h. Open the question called New page 2 2 2 2 and change the Step to 2. Change the name to 3 How many children? i. In the text box type, How many children do you have? ii. Scroll how to the Fields section. Create 1 field. The type should be Number (Pick from list), the label is Number of children, the variable is [Number of children NU], the Min value is 1, and the Max value is 4. *Note: We are limiting the maximum number the end user can input because we only have 4 lines on our HotDocs template. On your actual document automation project, you could create an addendum if the user input more options than the lines allow. You could also cap the maximum number like we are doing here and let your end user know in a Learn More why the number is restricted. iii. We are going to create a repeat loop to capture the information about the user s children. To learn more about repeat loops, check out this resource. We need to create a new variable that will just be used within A2J Author. Go to the Variables Tab (you can keep the question design window pop up open). a. Click the Add variable button. The new variable should be named ChildCount (no spaces in the name and no 2 letter indicator), the type is Number, and click Close. (Make sure not to check Repeating ) Go back to the Question Design Window for 3 How many children? Scroll down to the Buttons section. Under Repeat
Options, change it from Normal to Set Counting Variable to 1. In the Counting Variable field type, ChildCount. i. Open the question called New page 2 2 2 2 2 and change the Step to 4. Change the name to 1 The End. i. In the text box type, Congratulations! You have finished your A2J Guided Interview. Click Get My Documetn to print your completed form. *Note: In your real document assembly project, you may wish to include instructions on how the end user will get their document. This will vary based on which server your A2J Guided Interview is hosted. ii. In the Buttons section, change the button label to Get My Document. Change the Destination question by clicking on the blue button next to Destination. Change it to [Success Process Form]. Click Change. Click Close. j. Open the question called 1 Question 1 and change the Step to 3. Change the name to 1 Purpose of form. i. Type in the text box, Why are you filling out this form? ii. Create 1 field. The type is Text (Long), delete the label, and the variable is Purpose of form TE. iii. Make 1 button (to do this, you may need to create 2 buttons and then delete 1 of them this is a quirk in A2J Author) with the label being Continue and set the Destination to 1 The End. Click Change. Click Close. k. Open the question called New page 2 2 2 2 2 2 and change the Step to 2. Change the name to 4 Child s name and birthdate. i. Type in the text box, What is your child s name and date of birth? ii. In the Question text section, scroll down to where it says Counting Variable. Type in ChildCount. This lets A2J Author know that this question is to be repeated to the end user because it is part of the repeat loop. iii. Create 2 new fields in the Fields section. The first one should be a text type, label should be Child s first name:, and the variable is [Child name first TE]. The second one should be a date type, the label should say Date of birth:, and the variable is [Child DOB DA]. iv. Under the Buttons section, change the Repeat Option to Increment Counting Variable and add ChildCount to the Counting Variable field under it.
v. In the Advanced Logic section we have to create a condition that tests whether the user has gone through the repeat loop enough times. We are comparing the times they have gone through the loop to the number of children they said that they had. The logic goes in the After logic box and is this: IF [ChildCount] = [Number of children NU] GOTO 1 Purpose of form ELSE GOTO 4 Child s name and birthdate END IF l. Now that we have created all of our questions, we need to connect them to one another. i. Open up each question and go to the Buttons section. The questions should be connected through the Destination option as follows. Change any that are not connected this way. 1 Introduction to 1 Name 1 Name to 2 Gender 2 Gender to 3 Address 3 Address to 4 Phone number 4 Phone number to 1 Marital Status 1 Marital Status to 2 Have children? 2 Have children (Yes option) to 3 How many children? 2 Have children (No option) to 1 Purpose of form 3 How many children? to 4 Child s name and birthdate 4 Child s name and birthdate to [no where] (branching done in Advanced logic) 1 Purpose of form to 1 The End 1 The End to [Success Process Form] 9. Now that we have connected everything, we need to test our A2J Guided Interview. a. Open 1 Introduction. Click Preview and open the Variables/Script window b. Go through your A2J Guided Interview and make sure that all of your variables populate and that your advanced logic works properly. i. When you get to the end, go to the Variables Box and click Save (see figure 23). This will download your answer file. We are going to now use that to test in HotDocs. We want to make sure our A2J Guided Interview and HotDocs template properly assemble together.
Figure 23: Save answer file 10. Open up the HotDocs Automator and open your saved HotDocs template. a. Click the Test Assemble button in the top toolbar. This will open the Test Assemble window. b. Click the Open Answers button in the Test Assemble tool bar. See Figure 24. A new window will pop up. Figure 24: Open Answers button in tool bar.
c. Click the Add item button. A dialog box will pop up. i. In that box, there is a yellow folder icon. Click it. It will open up a search box for your local computer files. Navigate to where the.anx file (the answer file you created in A2J Author) was stored. (Check your downloads folder if you didn t move it or save it some place else after Step 9(b) above.) When you find the correct file, click Ok, and it will fill in the File name. Click Ok. ii. Your answer file should now appear in the list of answer files in HotDocs on the left side of the Open Answers dialog box. Double click on it. It will go back to the Test Assemble screen, and your answers should be populated in the interview. Click over to the Form Document tab. Your template should be filled out like Figure 25.
Figure 25: Fully assembled HotDocs template using saved answer file from A2J Guided Interview 11. Congratulations! You have successfully created your first A2J Guided Interview and HotDocs template. If you have any questions, check out our A2J Authoring Guide or our A2J Author YouTube Channel. You can also contact webmaster@a2jauthor.org with any issues.