XpressDox has been designed to fill marked-up templates in two general situations: The first is when data are captured and stored as part of an application; and, the second is to assist users who use the system within Microsoft® Office Word to produce standard documents.
XpressDox has a special set of features when run as a Word Add-in. In this context, a marked-up template can be ‘run’, which has the following effects:
- When the user selects a template to be run, then XpressDox analyses the template for data elements;
- XpressDox presents the user with a data capture form (called the interview), in which the user enters the values to be filled into the template;
- When the user accepts the values entered, XpressDox applies the transformation which formats and inserts the data elements; and
- The resulting document and data captured are (optionally) stored by XpressDox (in locations specified and configured by the user). The data are then available for inserting into subsequent templates.
Depending on what, if any, formatting is applied to a data element in the template, XpressDox will infer the type of the data element as either a string, or a number or a date, and will assist the user in the capture of the data by use of specific controls on the capture form, for instance a date data element will be captured using a calendar control.
