You can use the Names & Subjects editor to help you to implement the Prefix/Suffix Naming Convention  for your documents. All you need to do is display the contents of the folder you wish to convert and type the new ‘prefix/suffix’ name in the middle column. The following provides some hints and tips to speed the process.

  When the table first appears, it will display the names of the clauses in alphabetical order according to document name. That may not be the ultimate order in which you want the clauses to appear in the Clause Selection Screen or DropDown List displays. For example, in the below display (Figure 2 above and Figure 3 below, showing the contents of a folder containing contract clauses), ‘Closing Terms’ appears before ‘Cover Page.’ (Other clauses are also out of ‘logical,’ as opposed to ‘alphabetical,’ order.)  Before assigning prefix/suffix names, you may first want to make the list appear in a more logical order, following the sequence in which the clauses will actually be called into a document.

To make this happen, consider the following. In column 2, type a simple '1' (or '01') immediately in front of the term you want to be first in the list, a '2' (or '02') in front of the term you want to appear second, etc. When you have finished pre-pending the numbers in column 2, click the <Sort 2> button in the floating tool bar. This will cause the entire table will be resorted based on the numbering you provided in column 2. If clauses are not in the perfect order, refine them. (Keep in mind that Pathagoras sorts a column alphabetically. '1', '100' and '1000' all are alphabetically ahead of '2.' So if you have many files, add 0's ahead of a digit to keep the proper order.)

Figure 3.  Sorting Numbers Added to Middle Column
Note: The numbers don’t have to be consecutive.
If you don’t know how things will work out, put large gaps between the numbers.)

 

Now, you actually could stop here and click <Apply Edits>. With nothing further, you would have a better system than you had before. With just this, your documents would appear both the document folder and in Pathagoras displays in a more logical sort order. But let's go on.

Let’s sort the middle column so that we can more easily apply the prefix/suffix style names.  Figure 4, below. Then it is time to assign the prefix/suffix names. (If you still don’t like the sort order, reassign the temporary numeric prefix and re-sort until the order is correct.)

Figure 4. Sorted by Column 2.
Some Subjects modified and some spaces added to certain items in Column 3 to reflect 'sub-items.'

 

   Select a prefix that you want to associate with these terms. The prefix can be two, three or four characters long. The suffix must be three or four digits long. (Read more about the Prefix/Suffix Naming Convention by clicking the link.)

   Modify the subjects (third column) as appropriate. No naming rules apply to the third column. Just remember that the subject is what will appear when the user chooses ‘Display by Subject' for the Clause Selection Screen or DropDown Lists displays. As a rule (of thumb), however, a subject should not exceed 40 characters.

Figure 5. New prefix/suffix style names applied.
(Note that lots of ‘space’ has been left between numbers for additional terms.)

 

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