The Prefix/Suffix Naming Convention
'Instant insertion' of any clause from anywhere
on your system.
Have you ever daydreamed about how nice it would be if you could insert the contents of a particular document into your current document simply by typing its name? With Pathagoras, you actually can. If you know the document's full name (including the path), just type that name onto the screen, and press <Alt-G>. Pathagoras will retrieve the text for you and insert it where your cursor last rested.
What if you know a name, but not the full path? Well, that becomes a bit trickier, but only modestly so. This is where naming a document (or a clause) using a prefix/suffix name style can come in handy. If you name your documents using this technique, you will be able to instantly insert any document from any folder via the document name alone. The prefix of the clause tells Pathagoras where to look, and the suffix identifies the specific clause. You now can recall and insert into your document any clause located anywhere simply by typing its name to the screen and pressing the key combination <Alt-G>.
The samples that ship with PATHAGORAS have names like 'wil100' and 'boc225.' While these names inherently mean nothing, once the operator 'memorizes' that wil100 is the preamble to a will, it is easy to recall that preamble to the editing screen. Plus, since it unlikely that the user will be able to memorize all clauses, the user can simply refer to a printed list, disussed below, and quickly call up the clause by reference to the printout.
It is certainly correct to observe that 'wil100' is a meaningless combination of letters and numbers. Something like "Will, Preamble" is at least substantive. Therefore, "Will, Preamble" it must be better. But what happens when the clause dealing with the "statutory powers of the personal representative." Will the user be expected to memorize that name. Or perhaps you will shorten it, but to what? "StatPowPersRep"? or "Personal Rep Powers"? And what happens when you want to put your list of clauses into a certain presentation order. You can do it with the latter naming style, but you certainly can with a prefix/suffix style.
Document names that follow a recognizable pattern are much more succeptible to automation. A prefix/suffix pattern has been adopted by Pathagoras for its document automation systems. As you will experience, a simple prefix/suffix style name is much easier to type and instantly recall than is a long name. (Plus, as will be show below, you can associate a meaningful subject with the actual clause name, and display that subject along side the name -- the best of both worlds.)
Using a printed checksheet helps to reduce 'recognition' problems. With such a checksheet, the author of the document would check all of the desired clauses from the checksheet, The computer operator would then electronically 'check-off' on the computer screen the parallel clauses. If later the attorney wants to add "wil122a" (Special Gifts) into the middle of the assembled document, the computer operator could simply type "wil122a" at the proper insertion point, and press <Alt-G>. The clause is instantly called in. There comes a point that a perfectly well-named document cannot effectively be used in a document assembly system.
As implemented in Pathagoras, the prefix/suffix naming convention requires that a clause's name must begin with a two to four letter prefix immediately followed by a 3 or 4 digit numerical suffix. (The suffix can be further 'suffixed' by additional letters. 'BOC103', 'pre3433a' and 'Dz766first' all meet the convention. 'B123', 'Clause765' and '100boc' do not. Any name is acceptable, but only those that follow the above pattern will allow you to maximize PATHAGORAS ' most powerful document assembly features.
(Please understand that Pathagoras allows any name. It does not require the prefix/suffix style name. Only if you intend to take full advantage of Pathagoras' features assembly features do you need to follow the convention. Pathagoras can discern the pattern and locate distant files from the detected pattern. If you don't want to use that power, Pathagoras doesn't require that you do so.)
Note the following:
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PATHAGORAS maintains a table of the associations between a prefix and the corresponding glossary. It uses the naming convention to quickly identify a term and locate the glossary in which it exists. So, when <Alt-G> is pressed at the end of a terms name, PATHAGORAS looks for the character-digit pattern. If the initial characters are between 2 and 4 in number, followed by three or four digits, if looks for the prefix in the table and goes directly to the proper glossary. If you are not using the above described naming convention, you will not be able to take advantage of PATHAGORAS' full powers. This table can be directly accessed and edited by pressing the Prefix Table button from the Utilities/Settings|File Locations tab or the Utilities/Settings|Miscellaneous tab.
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Some names do not lend themselves to prefix/suffix naming because they do not 'belong' to a particular glossary. The address to the Clerk of the Court, or the executive officer's signature block, simply are not namable as "wil 345" or "con221". These 'generic terms' belong in a 'general glossary' which Pathagoras will also automatically look into upon an <Alt-G> call. See Position #1 Glossary in Part 5 of this Users' Guide.
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Please note: a name such as 'Contract100' is a perfectly acceptable name for a clause. However, PATHAGORAS will not be able to instantly discern that "Contract" is a prefix. Therefore PATHAGORAS will not be able to instantly link an <Alt-G> call to the glossary that contains that term. Don't panic however: If asked via <Alt-G> to find a term such as "Contract100", PATHAGORAS will certainly still find it, but it will take several seconds longer for do so than if it were locating a term such as "Cont100".
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If you simply type the prefix, and no suffix, Pathagoras will display the folder associated with the prefix, assuming that the prefix is not otherwise a term in a glossary or AutoCorrect file.
PATHAGORAS is flexible enough to work with any of Word's naming styles and rules. Further, the naming convention described above pertains only to the document assembly aspects of Pathagoras, not disk navigation, saving of completed documents, general correspondence, etc. In many, if not most, cases, the name of the document is not important. But, as you use the system (especially if making <Alt-G> calls) to build documents from clauses, the benefits of the 'prefix/suffix naming convention' will become apparent, and the deficits of other naming systems and programs more pronounced.