A common issue with repeating data is the requirement to refer to the items within the list by their ordinal values.

When users enter repeating data into your XpressDox template, you can manage the number of occurrences of a repeater. “Repeaters” are otherwise called “complex elements” in XML, but are essentially items through which you can iterate using a «ForEach()» in the template. An example would be My children are: «ForEach(Child)» Name:...

The original article regarding inserting documents with variable names was written way back in 2009.  Since then, as a result of further maturing of XpressDox, some really useful innovations have been added.  In particular, if there are data elements whose values are set very early in the process (in fact...

In XpressDox, a Data Sheet is a document that contains a table with a list of data elements and values.   Why a data sheet? A data sheet is useful in the case where, for example, a lengthy and complex document is produced by a template, and the list of...

Overview The HotDocs® (HD) converter released with Version 11 of XpressDox will attempt as far as possible to prepare a set of XpressDox templates which, ideally, the user will be able to run as-is after the conversion is complete. Firstly, there are quite a few terminological and usage differences. Here...

Because XpressDox uses XSLT as its document automation engine, the arithmetic features of XSLT are all available to template authors. There is a caveat, though, and that is that XSLT requires that all numbers presented to it in calculations must be in a specific format.  The specific format is that...

Whether you are simply looking for a better–priced alternative to HotDocs, or maybe you want to run your Desktop templates on the Web, XpressDox is a smart choice. Join the growing number of firms who are looking for better value for money! XpressDox is as powerful as HotDocs with over...

When entering dates for a contract, it is important to get them right during the interview. It might be possible to control this via the Rule command, but often it is very useful to reflect this to the user as they are typing into the interview. For the purposes of...

You are the site administrator for a large legal firm, and you have set up a number of XpressDox applications. Each application has its own set of templates which are located in a folder for each application. Say for example there is an Estates application, a Litigation application and a...

The Command Editor empowers the template author by presenting an alphabetic list of all the XpressDox commands, with functionality which provides wizards for completion of the command as well as supplying examples of commands.

Problem Statement Suppose you have an application which requires that one or more parties sign a suretyship document, with the requirement that each party signs their own document, not that they all sign the same document. The first thing to do is set up the suretyship template, with the relevant...

The XpressDox Rule command can be used to validate a NINO in a template.   You have a template which needs to capture and use a NINO (National Insurance Number) as described in NIM39110 – National Insurance Numbers. You would like to make sure that the value captured in the...

Use one template to generate a letter to each of a set of clients whose contact details are saved in a database.

Suppose you have defined a set of folders to contain clauses for insertion using the My Clauses or Shared Clauses features in the XpressDox ribbon.  Normally you would group clauses together into folders containing clauses for similar uses.  For example, they might be “Contracts”, “Notices”, “Letters”, etc. In some cases...

Selection of multiple templates to be run can be done by the user using the XpressDox explorer, but the template author can also control the selection of templates using a master template with document-selection logic built into it.

Letterheads: BaseTemplate is an option, but does not give you much control: When it comes to inserting letterheads on your templates, there are different techniques you could employ. Should you have a very simple letterhead, 1 header with 1 footer that do not change then the BaseTemplate command is acceptable....

In the article Define layout in a base template, a mechanism for hard-wiring various fields in a letterhead base template is discussed. Now suppose that it’s not a letterhead that is the base, but the outline of an agreement on which other agreements will be based.  In this base agreement...

Suppose you want to set up a variable (called ‘Party’)  to contain either Defendant or Plaintiff, depending on PartyType and then a variable containing the possessive case of that  – i.e. the value should be “Defendant’s” or “Plaintiff’s”.  The apostrophe is going to give trouble. Here’s how to do it. ...

It would be really useful for XpressDox to be able to present an interview in French if the user is a French speaker, and in English for English users, where the document itself is in English. For the same template. And vice versa. XpressDox can indeed do that, as long...

The FormatTime command takes the HH or hh parameters to display the time in 24 or 12 hour time respectively, but what if you want to show the time in 12 hour clock, and display AM or PM? Here’s how: «FormatTime(AppointmentTime,'hh:mm tt')» Add an additional ‘tt’ to show the AM...

Version 4 of XpressDox (XDv4) represents a major change from Version 3. The principle change is that the format of an XpressDox template is no longer Word 2003 XML, but Office Open XML. Office Open XML (or OOXML) is the format in which Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 save their...

XpressDox Artefacts When a template runs, XpressDox creates a number of internal structures.  The most important of these is an XSLT Stylesheet.  The stylesheet contains the definition of how the data from an XML data set are to be inserted into the Word template in order to generate the merged...

Data element names aren’t always obvious when looking at an interview, especially when you have the Caption command, or when using ChooseFromDataSource, or ChooseFromFile. And of course, it is crucial for you to know the data element names when troubleshooting templates.   And so the way to find out what...

XpressDox has numerous string handling functions.  The number of different applications is vast, and this article tries to provide a number of situations all in one place. Extract the last few characters of a string Suppose you have a situation where a particular data element will always contain a specific code in...

A “foreign” template is a template marked up for use in another document assembly system, such as HotDocs®, GhostFill® or DealBuilder®/ContractExpress®.  The discussion below applies to HotDocs when using XpressDox versions prior to version 4, but after version 4 the discussion applies equally to GhostFill, DealBuilder and documents using Word...