Neutering Text
--placing variables in your document.
See this link for other document design concepts.
Neutering is the process of placing “variables” in strategic places throughout your document so that those variables can be quickly and accurately replaced with information pertaining to the client, customer or situation.
Variables can be fields representing database records (and parts of record), then can be complex fields that have been coded to reference other parts of your document, or they can be plain text. Pathagoras prefers plain text. Plain text is easy to learn, easy to use, and is universally understood. These plain text variable are discussed below. Click here for information regarding inserting and using fields linking to commeral databases (Access, TimeMatters, Alpha5, etc.)
The steps:
Display a 'source document.' It might the original of the form you plan to recall and ‘personalize’ for the client. Or it might be a glossary that contains the separate terms that you will later assemble assemble.
(1) Simple variables: Place brackets around each term you want to serve as a replaceable variable. The brackets can actually be any unique character, but the choice of character must be consistent throughout the document. So the [brackets] can be {braces} or the <greater than, lesser than signs>, <&even double characters&>. You might use these strange double characters if you are worried about Pathagoras picking up a term in the document that is ordinarily set out in brackets but is not a variable. (When we say the brackets must be consistent, this refers to each 'pass' of a document scan which searches for bracketed variables. It is perfectly acceptable to have some variables marked with [brackets] and others, which may be completed at a later time, with {braces}.)
Here is a simple illustration:
Original text:
Our client's name is John Doe. He lives at 117 Main Street, Richmond, Virginia.
First markup (add brackets around personal words):
Our client's name is [John Doe]. [He] lives at [117 Main Street], [Richmond], [Virginia].
Final markup (change personal words to more generic terms)
Our client's name is [ClientName]. [He/She] lives at [Address1], [City], [State].
That is all there is to creating variables. No codes, no fields. Plain text.
Once you have placed the ‘brackets’ around the various personal terms throughout your source document, you have effectively ‘neutered’ it. All bracketed variables are 'automatic variables' which will be searched for and replaced according to your instructions after you assemble a document and activate either the GotForms? or InstantDatabase modules.
(2) Multiple Choice variables: A ‘variable’ to Pathagoras is simply a word or words between two brackets. Multiple choice variables are no different. A multiple choice variable can be used to limit or to suggest an answer to the user. (In a legal pleading you may want to limit the choices of a particular variable “City and “State.” In another variable you might want to suggest the answer to number of children as “none” “one” “two” or “three” but it could be “eight.”)
Multiple choice variables are easily created in Pathagoras. Simply place slashes between the choices. So, for the above situations, the variables would look like: [City/State] and [none/one/two/three]. Here is a good tasting example:
This confirms your order of [quantity] [pints/quarts/gallons] of [Rocky Road/French Vanilla/Pistachio/Butter Pecan] ice cream. Enjoy it in good health.
When a multiple choice variable is encountered in the GotForms? module, the choices are presented as selectable buttons. When multiple choice variables are encountered in the InstantDatabase module, they are presented in a selectable drop-down list. (With the IDB selection, the user may choose one, some or all of the choices in the list.)
Note: Multiple choice text is not the same as optional text. Optional text is typically large blocks of text selected by the user as the document is being assembled. Multiple choice text is more personal to the client or customer and is selected as the document is being personalized. The multiple choice selections are also saved with the clients InstantDatabase data, and can be reused from document to document by recalling the data from the InstantDatabase. Click here for more information on 'optional text.'
(3) Multiple Choice Variable Groups: Sometimes variables travel in packs. For example “[he/she/they]” and “[him/her/them]” and “[his/hers/theirs]” choices frequently appear in documents (especially legal documents). It is a real pain to have to select a pronoun each time a variation in the pronoun is encountered. So Pathagoras allows the user to assign a group name to these releated variables. When encountered during the final (personalization) phase of document assembly, Pathagoras will change every instance of a variable in the group to the same level as the first one selected.
A variable group is created by inserting a group name just inside the opening bracket, surrounded by exclamation marks. Thus:
I hereby appoint my [!spouse!husband/wife] to be my Personal Representative but if for any reason [!spouse!he/she] fails or is unable to serve, then I appoint [AlternativePR] in [!spouse!his/her] place. If for any reason the said [AlternativePR] fails or is unable to serve, then I appoint [2dAlternativePR] in [!AltPR!his/her] place.
When, in the Instant Database, any of the !spouse! multiple choice groups is encountered, a selection of one member of the multiple choice groups set the values of the rest of them.
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Using your Instant Database mask to neuter a document.
Definition: A mask is a part of the Instant Database system which displays a ‘coding’ pattern on the left side of the screen and a substitution pattern on the right. When a document is being personalized using an InstantDatabase mask, Pathagoras looks for the code words (left screen entries) and substitutes the code words with the particular client’s data. Neutering is the exact opposite, where personal information is replaced with codes.
If you have previously created a mask that can fit the present or intended coding for the open document, select Neuter Text from the Pathagoras drop-down menu. A new dropdown list will be placed on the screen. If a mask has not be previously used in the session, click the “Choose Mask” option and follow the prompts to select the appropriate mask.
From this list you can double click in a term from the mask in place of an existing word in your document. (Just highlight the text and then locate and click the term from the dropdown list. The substitution will be made for you. You will be offered the opportunity to replace all similar entries with the coding.) You can add new terms to the mask on the fly. Just highlight the new term and click <<Add Highlighted Text>>.
See Numbering under this Help System for information about Pathagoras’ plain-vanilla numbering feature. See Professor Pathagoras for a step-by-step, interactive, hands-on exercise regarding the above.