Other Features, Tips and Tricks

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The Q&A screen easy to use and very flexible. It is not limited to the methods presented above. Keep in mind that a ‘question’ need not be only a question. An ‘answer’ need not really be an ‘answer’ so much as it is an 'option'. You can present statements with or without options beneath them. Bits and pieces eventually become a whole.

►	By way of further example, a lawyer might have a parent folder/book called Estate Planning.” The lawyer may create the following setups (Figure 9 is the Setup screen; Figure 10 is end user’s screen will see.) In this example the end-user can to create an entire estate package.

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For those administrators who wish to create an Interview for office staff, but wish to use the Clause Selection Screen for themselves, you actually can have it both ways simultaneously. From the initial Document Assembly screen, you can jump right over the Interview by holding down the shift-key when you click on the Next button.

►	It does not matter whether you add a question and a response, and then attach a response, or add all the questions and then the possible answers and then attach the actual response clauses at a later time. Pathagoras will work the way you want.

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Answers associated with checkboxes are always processed. So if a clause is associated with a false (empty checkbox) answer, and the user makes no selection, the ‘false’ response will be called in for assembly. (Even if no term or document was associated with the answer – perhaps it is a predicate for a subsequent question), the answer is still processed, but the effect is nothing since there is nothing to call in.

At the right of each question block on the Interview Screen, you will see a small checkbox. If you check it, a "start new document" code will be inserted at the head of the document(s) called by this particular frame.

Use: Let's say you are assembling a contract. But you also want to add a cover letter and perhaps an addendum. Even though they are separate documents, if the interview form is properly constructed, you can assemble them all at one time and break them up into separate documents later. Why would you want to do this? Simple – so that you apply the Instant Database only once. All variables are replaced in a single session.

Here is how it works: Answer the Interview questions and checking the New Doc checkbox(es) as desired. Click <Next> to assemble the document. Pathagoras assembles the entire collection of terms as one ‘great big document,’ and inserts the text “&New Doc&” in front of each document as requested. Pathagoras then scans the new document. If it detects the existence of "&New Doc&" in the assembled document, it displays a "Break into separate documents" button onto the screen. Don't touch it for now. First, apply the Instant Database to the 'great big document.' Make any other changes that may be appropriate. When you are all done, click the 'Break into separate documents" button. The ‘great big document’ is then broken into the separate documents as indicated by the "&New Doc&" markers.

The “&New Doc&” feature works ‘best’ when the variables in each of the documents come from the same Instant Database mask. By default, Pathagoras will automatically display the mask associated with the parent book (if any). If other documents assembled in the package are not based on the same mask, the efficiency of this ‘grand assembly’ are simply lost. (Of course, you can perform a <Scan> to pick up the variables in the entire ‘great big document’ that are not in the parent’s mask, but if the variables are not the same, you might find yourself inputting the client’s name more than once (once for each variable that is designed to capture the client’s name, address, etc. Moral of this story. Work to make all variables in related documents the same.)

Tree Service allows the user to select clauses not only from the current book (i.e., folder) but from any sub-folder beneath the current book. Tree Service is very easy to turn on, and very easy to use. When Tree Service is active, you will see not only the clauses in the top level book/folder, but you will also see all subfolders (if any) beneath the parent book. Subfolders are displayed between '{' and '}' markers. Double click on a subfolder and all documents in the subfolder are displayed, along with any sub-sub-folders. (When you are one or more levels beneath the parent folder, you will also see an {Up} entry so that you can return to the parent folder.)

Tree Service can be turned on by checking the Tree Service box in the lower left side of the Worksheet while the available clauses are being displayed. (You can permanently turn on Tree Service via Document Assembly|Settings|CSS defaults tab. Click the Tree Service checkbox.)

When you click a clause from the "available" list at the left into the 'selected' list at the right, the clause will be prefixed with "{\(subfoldername)} to indicate its relative location from the parent.

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If your book (in more classic “Pathagorean style’) comprises individual clauses for which assembly is required, this should be viewed as advanced feature. That does not mean that it is hard to use. On the contrary, we tried to make it as intuitive and as simple as possible. (Compared to the methods adopted by Pathagoras competitors, it is downright child’s play.) Before creating the Q&A lists, it is a good idea to create as many clause sets of standard documents as possible. That way the response to a question is a clause set, not a long string of individual clauses that you will have to ‘click in’ one at a time. (You can do this, of course, but why would you want to. Clause-sets are much more efficient.)

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The process of document assembly via the Q & A interview is generally sequential and not cumulative. This means that the clauses for the first answer will be added to your document before the clauses regarding the second answer. This is somewhat different from competitive products. It is a conscious decision made by Pathagoras to promote simplicity in its operations. (Other programs have allow answers that are made at the beginning of an ‘interview’ to be used to propose answers (and to exclude other choices) later in the interview. There is great benefit to such a tool, but the ‘problem’ is this: you (the administrator) have to do the programming! Pathagoras knows that it is this programming area that most people have ‘given up’ on the competitive products. Pathagoras does not require administrator to delve into the complex programming logic, Boolean and if/then statements, etc. needed to achieve the much fancier result obtainable by its competitors. But the payoff is a simple to administer, simple to compose, interview.)

As an exception to the above, you can have a predicate Checkbox question (i.e., yes/no or true/false type question) that can modify a subsequent List. As you are assigning target clauses to the answers, you can provide alternative answers depending upon the value of the predicate Checkbox question. The checkbox question is even displayed on the form and you can check it on or off to more visually see what target clause will be assembled.

For example, let’s assume you are trying to gather information for a Will. You have a series of clauses that describes both your client’s marital state (married vs. single) and the number of children (one clause provides for ‘married, one child,’ another for ‘unmarried, one child’, a clause for ‘married two or more children”, etc.). With the predicate ‘Yes/No’ feature, you could ask as Question #1 “Is client married?” and in Question 2 “How many children does client have?” If proper clauses are assigned to Question 2, Pathagoras will put the two answers together to display a married with 2 children clause. (Presently, if you want a ‘true/false’ question to predicate a second ‘true/false’ question, it cannot be done. But if the second question were simply a list with two values named ‘true’ and ‘false,’ or ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ or ‘accepted’ and ‘rejected’ etc., that would be an acceptable work around – a list is a list.)

If you need permutations of values more complex than that, then Pathagoras simply cannot oblige. The programming that will allow for infinite permutations is beyond what Pathagoras is intended to handle with its plain text approach.

You will find that the ‘loss’ of not having infinite permutations built into a single clause can be easily (and very simply) overcome by changing your approach to the drafting of source clauses. Believe it or not (and our competitors will ask you not to believe it) it really is okay to have several clauses that are similar in content but that vary in a particular regard. So, following up on the above example, instead of having a single clause that attempts to handle marital status and number of children, just create two clauses, one for married and one for not.