The Professionals in Document Assembly

Compare PATHAGORAS with . . .

    Pathagoras proudly and confidently invites you to compare its approach to document assembly and document automation to those of its main competitors. The links immediately below will jump you to a particular topic of interest. Or just scroll down the page to read the entire discussion.

Other Document Assembly Products
Other Document Management Products
MSWord's AutoCorrect
Word2007 Building Blocks
Window's "My Places"
Plain text 'automated' variables vs. any other kind

Web based document assembly
How we treat you as a customer
How we treat you as a potential customer

General Comments:

    
Pathagoras is a total document production program. It spans every aspect of the document creation process, from locating the text sources, to building the document, to filling in variable information, to saving the final product to the location of your choosing.

General Design features:

  • Pathagoras uses plain text for the creation of variables and of options and optional text blocks.  While not directly usable by other programs, neither is the resulting text incompatible with other programs.
     
  • Other programs heavily depend upon highly specialized coding, hidden fields, separate component files and other 'behind the scenes' coding that necessarily make the resulting document incompatible with everything other than itself. None are interchangeable.

    While Pathagorized documents are not directly interchangeable with other program, neither do they conflict. They cannot because they are plain text and by definition, plain text cannot conflict with anything. There is at this time no 'standard' for coding documents for document assembly purposes. Plain text as envisioned by Pathagoras may eventually become that standard. It is certainly more 'standard' than what others are now offering, more easily understood.
  • Our use of the term 'plain text' to describe our approach doesn't mean unformatted text. The text you create can be highly formatted and highly stylized to meet your needs. 'Plain text'' means only that no hidden fields, no ancillary files, and no external or hidden coding is required to enjoy the full benefits of the program. The full power of Word remains intact.
     
  • Pathagoras uses plain-vanilla interfaces. When you first see Pathagoras, you will see 4 button, each representing a major aspect of the system (locate documents, save documents, assemble documents and features/settings). This underwhelming interface compares favorably with the ribbon full of 'features' and tools presented by the other program. When you click on any button, you are in Word and you stay in Word.
  • Pathagoras runs wholly within Microsoft® Word. It is an 'add-in' for (i.e., augmentation of) Word. When you are in Word, Pathagoras is already loaded and you have its powerful document assembly and management features at your fingertips. Most other products overlay Word. You have another program to learn and another program to teach to others. It's not that Pathagoras doesn't require some learning as well, but it builds on what you know instead of  demanding a wholly new learning curve.
  • You are never 'captured' by the system. With some other systems, separate programs control your activity. You are not released to perform other word processing jobs until you close those other programs. Not so with Pathagoras. You can switch to a new Word (or other) project as easily as you do now. Just change to a new screen.
  • Pathagoras does not require a set pattern that you must follow to assemble or manage your documents. Pathagoras does not limit you in any fashion. It won't interfere with what you use, and what you use won't interfere with Pathagoras.
  • Other programs tend to have nice, neat and well organized 'interview' screens. They are elegant in appearance. Provide answers to the questions posed and the program selects what document or clauses you need. That sounds like a plus. And it is. That is, until you realize who has to program the interview. These interview forms are time consuming to create and frustrating to test. And it is at this point that many people give up on the concept of document assembly.

    Pathagoras' encourages a simpler, more intuitive, approach. Our screens are simple and instructive. On the left side of our 'Instant Database' screen, we list the variables, the same variables that are in the document and which you can see behind the overlay screen.

    Document selection is accomplished from lists of your documents. You will recognize their names. These lists are generated directly from your existing file folders. We call these folders 'books'. We have concentrated our design efforts on making navigation to and document selection from those books as easy as is humanly possible. We require no 'interview' forms.

    It is our opinion, and our programming model, that properly named documents presented in easy to use lists work just as well as complex Interview forms. Both lead to the very same document. But Pathagoras' design allows this to happen intuitively and within a few minutes of installation.

Compare to other Document Assembly Programs:

  •  Highlights
  • Ease Of Use
  • Ease Of Edit
  • Orientation
  •  Pathagoras
  • Clause Orientation
  •  HotDocs® , XpressDocs®, ProDocs® , Exari® etc...
  • Document orientation
  • HotDocs® , XpressDocs®, ProDocs® and Exari® are four popular document creation programs. Others (perhaps two dozen) exist, and new ones appear with regularity. Some limit you to using their clauses only. All require special working templates, libraries, work sheets, sometimes rather extensive coding, special databases and special overlays. 
      Pathagoras uses:

    your clauses,

    your directories,

    your databases,

    your language.
    Most of their features and interface screens are more 'dramatic' than those of Pathagoras, but the trade-off is not necessarily ease of use.

    Pathagoras, on the other hand, uses your clauses, your directories, your databases, your language. You start with, end with and never leave Microsoft® Word as you build and use your source and final text.
  • Because of the special templates and hidden coding that other programs require, the document (base or final) frequently cannot be viewed or edited unless that program is running.

    Not so with Pathagoras. A Pathagoras document is a Word document, plain, simple and always. Whether you are viewing a source library or a final product, everything created by or for use by Pathagoras can be opened and edited on any computer running Word®, regardless of whether Pathagoras is running on that particular computer.
  • Most other programs are "whole document" oriented. You start with, and edit from, a complete document as the base for future documents. These are typically called 'templates.' "If /Then" formulae are inserted at strategic points throughout the document (typically as hidden fields) so that clauses are added to (or deleted from) the final product depending upon certain conditions. Separate tables and control forms must be created outside the document which control how the document is personalized for the client or customer.
  • Pathagoras is not 'whole document' oriented. But then, neither are we the polar opposite: 'clause oriented'.  We are "the way you want to work" oriented. It was built in an office environment, and follows the flow gleaned from contributions offered by dozens of real world working environments. Therefore, Pathagoras works just fine with either whole documents or simple clauses. You are not limited as to how your documents can be assembled.

--You can assemble documents from the Clause Selection Screen, building the document from a 'zero base' and adding the proper selection of clauses to make the perfect final draft.

--You can assemble a document one clause at a time using dropdown lists. (This 'one clause at a time' method is particularly useful when a lot of notes or dictation accompanies the inclusion of a particular clause, or when you want to add that 'one last clause.')

--You can pre-compose documents (i.e., 'templates') and using Optional text markers (also plain text) to pare away parts of the document that do not belong in the document being assembled for the particular client or customer.

--You can start with an essentially complete document and augment it with additional text that is easily accessed using either the Clause Selection Screen or the DropDown Lists.
 
--You can link to a database, or not. You can use Pathagoras' Instant Database feature, or not. You can even use both features. There is no preferable method. There is no wrong method.

  • Instant clause insertion: Pathagoras can instantly insert a single term from a library directly from your editing screen. Whether the term is called in just to complete or polish up a document currently on the screen, or to call in a complete document as new project, there is not another program that does so with the elegance or speed of Pathagoras.

    Other programs allow you insert a library term. However, to do so require multiple, sometimes complex steps. With most, you have to activate their programs just to get to one of your clauses. How fun is that? Some program don't allow 'single clause insertion at all.

    • With Pathagoras you simply type the clause name onto your Word editing screen and press <Alt-G>.  (See Mouseless assembly and SuperFolders for more information on these remarkable time saving tools.)
    • Alternatively, you can select a term from one of Pathagoras' always-on always visible DropDown Lists.
    • Indeed, you can assemble an entire document using one or both of these techniques, and you don't even have to open a single overlay screen. Try doing that with any other program!
  • Moving clauses into your source libraries is just as simple and intuitive. To add text to your 'clause library,' just highlight what your want it (it doesn't matter the source -- it can be 'freshly typed' text or text that you want to cull from an existing document, or from the Internet) and them press <Alt-G>. A simple screen pops-up. There, give the clause a name, select the library which will house the new clause and press <Save>.  It is not possible to have a simpler method to build your clause libraries.
  • Pathagoras libraries, books and glossaries can be readily viewed, edited and understood by their creators. But, and probably more importantly, future users who have no familiarity with Pathagoras can understand them too. They are naturally and by design 'cleaner.' They are immediately usable.
  • Pathagoras does not change document extensions. Pathagoras does not change your document's name.
  • Pathagoras does not move anything to directories where they weren't originally without your say so.
  • You can find, edit and save your final product as a real Word document. That's because the documents created using Pathagoras are in fact Word documents.
  • Documents created by Pathagoras are totally transportable from one computer to another, regardless of whether the other computer uses Pathagoras. That's because, as stated in the previous bullet, they are plain Word documents.  Want to take a your document home, or on a trip, but don't have Pathagoras on your laptop or home desktop? No problem. You never have to be on a 'Pathagoras' machine in order to edit a 'Pathagorized' document.
  • Pathagoras ships with a very clever, very easy to use 'InstantDatabase.'  This quite simply is the world's easiest to use database. Document variables can be instantly displayed onto a worksheet where you can complete then with personal values and save them for reuse with other documents. All of this is done without requiring any programming skills or knowledge of database structure on your part.
  • Every document in every folder on every computer on your network is easily and almost automatically a part of the Pathagoras document assembly system. You do not have to move, import or convert anything. Just point one of your books or DropDown Lists to any folder which already contains documents and/or clauses, and you are ready to go.

Plain text 'automated' variables vs. any other kind

  • Pathagoras uses plain keyboard entered text to create automated variables. Typically, these variables are set out in a document with simple square brackets. E.g.., [Customer Name] and [number of widgets]. (Any other kind of 'bracket' is acceptable, as well. The settings are practically infinite.)

    These variables are easy to create, easy to understand, in terms of purpose. They become fully 'automated' with no further effort on the part of the user.

    Here are the advantages of plain text variables:
  1. A Pathagorized document with plain text variables is essentially neutral. HotDocs and other competitive programs change the essence of the form to meet that program's needs. The variables in their base forms are converted to fields. They become neither readily viewable or editable (and sometimes not even accessible) when the parent program is not active.

  2. You need HotDocs, Exari, XpressDocs, etc., to read/use/edit a source form created by that program. You don't need Pathagoras to read/use/edit a Pathagorized form.

    If someone buys a manual of forms marked "Pathagorized" but doesn't own Pathagoras, it's not a problem whatsoever for the customer to use the forms in their present state. The customer can manually 'search and replace' any text (including bracketed variables) to personalize the document. (Of course, owning Pathagoras would make the process much faster, but it is 'neutrality' issue that we are discussing here, not speed.)

  3. Plain text variables are clearly defined and clearly visible at all times. Editing is more accurate and precise. Plain text variables are obvious and they are intuitive to the casual users.

  4. Plain text variables are simply easier to create. Other than typing an opening and closing bracket, there are no steps to create them. All steps are performed right on the editing screen.

  • An author who wishes to market forms does not have to create a dual set of forms to sell to the target audience, one for the 'automated' market and the other for 'non-automated' users.

    A 'Pathagorized' document containing regular and multiple choice variables such as:

    "Please send to me [quantity] [dozen/gross] [red/blue/olive green/sunrise yellow] widgets"

    is as discernable and usable to a non-automated user as it is to the fully conversant Pathagoras user.

    Therefore, the market for an author who has created plain text forms is infinitely larger. (If someone buys a forms manual marked "HotDocs compatible," but doesn't own HotDocs, that user has nothing.)

Compare to Word 2007 'Building Blocks':

  • Beginning with Word 2007, Microsoft added a clause management tool which it has named 'Building Blocks.' This tool allows you to highlight and add text blocks to a 'Building Blocks' library, and then recall individual terms from that library. As a practical matter, it is but an advanced version of Word's AutoText feature (a comparison to which is made below).
  • While Microsoft touts 'Building Blocks' as a document assembly tool, it is not. Read on.

  • You cannot 'assemble' building blocks in the fashion contemplated by Pathagoras (i.e., display all available clauses and select potentially dozens of individual clauses in a desired order and build a document . With 'Building Blocks,' you must select one block at a time.

  • You cannot create 'clause-sets' with Word 2007 Building Blocks.
     
    • With Pathagoras, you can generate 'sets' of individual clauses which, when selected, will create a specified document (or type of document) from the designated component clauses.


    • With 'Building Blocks,' you must select one block at a time.


    • Click this link to read more about Pathagoras' Clause-Sets

  • You cannot directly edit 'Building Blocks.'  To change an existing block, you must edit from the original and re-add. (Indeed, you cannot even directly 'see' your Word 2007 'Building Blocks.' The 'blocks' are initially stored in a template called 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Document Parts\1033\Building Blocks.dotx'. But if you navigate to and display that template, you will see nothing but a blank page.)
    • This limitation does not exist with Pathagoras. Pathagoras stores component text ('building blocks', as it were) as regular Word documents. They are easily located and easily edited using techniques you already know.

  • You cannot instantly call in a desired 'Building Block' from your keyboard. With Pathagoras, you can assign a folder or glossary containing your building blocks to a 'Super' status. Then, by simply type the name of the clause you desire followed by <Alt-G>, Pathagoras will instantly locate and insert the clause into your document.
  • See this section of the Manual to learn more about the SuperFolder.

  • Word 2007 'Building Blocks' work only if Word 2007 is loaded. While this is one of those 'duh' comparisons, it is important to know that Pathagoras has been doing the kind of document assembly that 'Building Block' is now beginning to mimic since Word 97 was introduced. Unlike 'Building Blocks, however, Pathagoras is not Word-version dependent. All clauses created in any version of Word can be easily and readily used by any Pathagoras user regardless of the version of Word being used.

Compare to other Document Management Programs:

  • Pathagoras' disk navigation tools are built into the program. Locating documents or clauses for assembly or editing is easy. Saving a new document to a proper location is a snap. (See the PathSmart and SaveSmart pages on this site.)


  • Pathagoras disk navigation tools are in fact Word/Windows functions. All Word folders and functions remain the same. Pathagoras tries its best to maintain the environment with which you are familiar. It doesn't block access to features which conflict with the program. Nothing conflicts with Pathagoras, and conflicts with nothing. (Exception: The PathSmart module of Pathagoras may not be compatible with some disk management programs such as Worldox®. These programs frequently store documents using their own (sometimes artificial) directory structures. In those cases, you can only use their programs to save and to locate the documents in their directories. (It's not that Pathagoras conflicts with them -- it is the artificial nature of their folder assignments, and the interruptions forced by these programs, which require you to use their programs to accomplish a document 'save' or 'retrieve'.)

    We fully recognize that the 'other guys' can provide indexing/search capabilities that Pathagoras/PathSmart cannot begin to approach. (That is simply not where we have gone with our 'document manager'.) But, with many of these programs, you have to give up 'normal' names and 'straight' saves. You simply have to decide how much you are willing to forego in order to obtain the indexing and desktop search capabilities that these other document managers can provide.

    Our recommendation -- if you have not already adopted a third party document manager (or are not happy with what you have), but need the kind of search power that a document manager can provide, try out PathSmart/SaveSmart to set up your file saving structure. Use it for daily file save and retrievals. When you are faced with a more complex search (e.g., "I know that I wrote a brief last year on the statute of limitations for contracts under seal, but where is it?"), use Google Desktop or one of the other desktop search tools such as Copernic®, Blinkx®, Locate32®,  and X1®. Some are free, some are quite expensive (but you can cross networks with the more powerful ones). All allow you to continue to use PathSmart and normal Word Find and Save windows. These alternatives quite literally gives you the best of both worlds.
  • Pathagoras can display a filtered listing of all of the files in a selected directory right on the face of the PathSmart screen. This improvement on Word's ability to filter and display files is unmatched by any other program.

For example, if you have stored all client work in a single folder, you may have thousands of files. (Typically, that is not a good file management technique, but Pathagoras will work well with you nevertheless.) If you want to see all of the 'Thompson' files, just type in the first few characters of the name (e.g., "Thom'" and Pathagoras will immediately filter the display for you in a split second (not the four or five or twenty seconds required by Word just to display the unsorted folder).

You then can scroll the available choices and select the appropriate document.

If you need to check other SmartPaths folders to locate the file, just click another of the 12  buttons on the screen. That way you can quickly rotate through all of your SmartPaths. The filter remains intact without additional intervention. You have got to see this to believe it.

Compares to MSWord's "AutoCorrect" and "AutoText" feature:

    Pathagoras has the speed of AutoText and AutoCorrect but Pathagoras provides much more versatility for document assembly purposes.

    AutoCorrect and AutoText just were not designed for document assembly. For example, you cannot save all formatted text, or database fields, in an AutoCorrect library. By contrast, any text, with full formatting and database links, pictures, etc., can be saved for use with Pathagoras.
     When you type a series of characters in Word, and if that character combination exists in MSWord's AutoCorrect or AutoText libraries, MSWord will automatically insert  (or propose to insert) the text it finds.

    This is a very nice feature -- sometimes.

    Here is the problem:
when you type a word that you really want to remain intact in you document, but it exists in the AutoCorrect library, the AutoCorrect version will be inserted. If you frequently type those words, the consequence can drive you crazy. While you can press <Alt-Z> to undo the insertion, that is a real pain. If you are a fast typist, and not watching your screen, you may be well beyond the point of the insertion before you notice the problem.

  • Pathagoras allows you the benefit of an AutoCorrect and AutoText library without the problems. Plus, inasmuch as Pathagoras runs inside of Word, you still have the benefit of these Word features in addition to those of Pathagoras. But you can turn them on and off at your pleasure. (We leave them off at our office. If Pathagoras doesn't find a term we are searching for in a glossary, it will search in the AutoCorrect library automatically.
PLUS:
  • Pathagoras' books are available across the network. AutoCorrect and AutoText are typically local computer oriented. Along these same lines, a change to a glossary term (wherever the glossary is located) is equivalent to a system wide upgrade.
  • All formatting in the original text is preserved.

How Pathagoras compares to Windows' "My Places" feature:

   It is possible in Window's (XP and later) to assign folder's down the left edge of a document folder which greatly speeds up navigation from folder to folder. The idea is similar to what Pathagoras has done (but Pathagoras has done it since 1998). To set a MSWord 'My Places' folder, navigate to the desired folder (highlight the folder from the parent folder, but do not enter into it), click on the Tools drop down toolbar at the top of the folders display, and click "Add to 'My Places." The differences are these:

  • While both have unlimited capacity to store SmartPaths (or its MSWord equivalent), there is a practical limit as to the latter's display.  Only the first few are visible on the screen.
  • Pathagoras groups folders into convenient profiles which can be user or subject matter oriented. Word does not. All of Word's MyPlaces display all the time. (See above entry.)
  • Pathagoras' SmartPaths are Word-centric. Only Word document folders are mapped. Word's favorite places are set at computer level and, assuming that you have set My Places for each program you run, all such folders will be displayed. (See above entry.)
  • Pathagoras filters before the display.  Word (including My Places) displays the entirety of the folders contents first. Only then can you filter.
  • Pathagoras allows mouseless access to any folder. No way with My Places.
  • Pathagoras allows the user to quickly move (copy to new location and delete from old location) in a single step.
  • Pathagoras allows 'active document' deletes.  If the current document is trash, then delete it without having to close it, then relocate it, then delete it.

Web-based document assembly

    There is little question that more and more processes are becoming 'web-based.' That is not in our immediate future. Pathagoras is tied to Word in a very real sense and the 'program' must reside in Word's 'startup' folder. So long as your Word program is on your local computer (or a file server), so must Pathagoras reside there.

   However, we fully provide for using your forms wherever they are stored. So whether you store your forms  locally (on your computer), on your server in a small office network, VPNs or WANs or in 'the cloud, if you can get to it in Word, you can get to them faster with Pathagoras.

   On more issue. Check out the costs. A newcomer to the field of web-based document assembly charges $150 per user per month!! Ouch.

How we treat you as a customer?

    We like to think that nobody does it better. Our customers seem to support us in this. We won't repeat here what they have said, but we proudly invite you to our 'kudos' page to read what many have written about us.

How we treat you as a potential customer?

    We treat our potential customers the same as we treat our customers. See above comments.

    But there is one more 'thing' we want to point out.  We treat you, and your privacy, with respect and common courtesy.  We treat your visit to our website as an honor, not an opportunity to mine information from you.

  • When you download our program, all we ask for is your name and an email address.  We don't ask you for your life's history.
  • If you want to see one of our demo videos, you don't have to sign up or 'register'. We have no artificially contrived 'unlock code' or 'super secret' password that you have to apply for. The only reason why other firms do so is to collect demographic information about you to be used for a sales call.  We don't ask for it because we don't intend to call you (unless you ask us for such a call) to push a sale.

  • Our prices are plainly posted. You don't have to talk with us to get the information that really does not require a live person to provide.

  • Your privacy is always respected and protected.

  • But if you do want to talk to us for an answer to a question, or for a live demonstration of the program, shoot us over your phone number and we will call you promptly. See our 'kudos' page for a description of how you will be treated.

  • Even with all of its features, PATHAGORAS has made the learning curve to move from program installation to initial document production very short. In effect, PATHAGORAS has taken document assembly to a new level -- to that of the typical user.