The DropDown List Panel houses the various DropDown Lists along with the control buttons that allow you to personalize the various Lists to your specific needs.

  Note: Before the first list is created, there is only a single button labeled "DropDown Lists". Only after you have created your first list does the panel expand to display the remaining elements.

    At the left side of the DropDown List panel are 6 toggle buttons that control how the DropDown Lists (or items you call from a DropDown List) will behave.

«NewDoc/Insert/Insert Name» Toggle

   At the upper left of the DropDown List panel, you should see a button showing either «NewDoc» or «Insert» or «Insert Name». The button's title indicates the expected action.

•«New Doc»: a new document will be created, and the selected clause inserted as the first element in the new document; or

•«Insert»: the next selection you make from any list will be inserted into the current document at the current cursor location or

•«Insert Name»: the next selection you make from any list will cause the name of the selection to be inserted into the current document at the current cursor location. You will be given the option to insert the document's short name or its full name (with the full address to its folder location).

   The button is a toggle. Click it once to select the 'other' choice.

«Process/Suppress» Toggle:

As you point-and-click in text, Pathagoras default action will be to 'process' any <<*Optional*…>>, <<*Options*…>> and <<*Repeat*>> blocks and to call in any Clause Sets that reside in the inserted text. Automatic processing, however, may on occasion prove inconvenient, especially if you are testing certain actions and do not want the options text 'touched,' or if you want to call in several terms and you want to delay processing until all are present.

Click the Process/Suppress toggle as needed to control whether processing occurs automatically.

   The button's title indicates the expected action.

•«Process»: any optional text, and any other text brought in from the source document within <<double angle brackets>> will be processed.

•«Suppress»: any optional text, and any other text brought in from the source document within <<double angle brackets>> will be processed, but rather will remain in the assembled document intact and untouched.

   The button is a toggle. Click it once to select the 'other' choice.

  See Also: Suppress Processing

Refresh: This button should be needed only in the rare situation where you have created a new DropDown List, but Pathagoras has failed to display it. (If you know that a particular List is not up to date, click the «Refresh» button near the bottom of the particular list.)

Preview: The classic action when you click on an element in a DropDown List is that it will insert a copy of the selected text at the desired location (into a new document or into an existing document, depending upon the status of the NewDoc/Insert toggle discussed above). But sometimes you want to be able to preview the document before committing to it. When 'On' (indicated by a magnifying glass), Pathagoras will display the content of the document you select next in a preview window, along with any comments and usage tips associated with the document. Additional action buttons allow you to insert the text (if it is what you wanted) or to move on to preview another clause. (As noted, the Preview action will show any text that has been placed in the Comments section of the document's Properties section. You should consider adding Comments to your documents to help the end user understand the usage rules for a particular clause. The raw text is nice to see before committing to a selection, but well worded Comments could be more valuable to the end-user. Click here to read more on Document Comments.)

Clipboard: When 'On' (indicated by a clipboard), Pathagoras will send the text of the next item you select from a DropDown List into your system's clipboard. (It's the same action as highlighting text and pressing 'Copy'.) From there you can paste it into the current document, any other document, or any other program (just like any text in your clipboard can be used).

Open File:  When 'On' (indicated by the open file icon), Pathagoras will open the original of the next item you select from a DropDown List. (The 'preferred' document assembly action is to display a copy of the text, never the original. But when only the original will do, such as when you want to edit the original text, the Open File toggle can be a real time saver. Just remember that you have the original document open.) (System administrators can 'hide' this Open File toggle. If you do not see it, but want it, ask your system administrator for access.)

Other Controls:

   At the foot of each DropDown List is a series of options that make each list even more useful and flexible. Here is what you will see when you scroll to the bottom of a DropDown List:

The 'Below the Line' features, Initial Display        
(The very last line, blurred in the sample above, is the full path name
of the folder or glossary to which the List points.
Use it as a quick reference to locate the source of the List items.)

•«Refresh»: If you have added or deleted items to the folder to which the DropDown List points, you should 'refresh' the List to bring it up to date. It takes just a second or two.

•«Open Folder»: Pathagoras knows where everything is. So, if you want to view the contents of the folder to which the DropDown List points, don’t navigate to it. Just click this item and you will be taken directly to it. Open documents, edit them, re-save them. All from this one line.

•«Save Doc To Folder»: Let’s say that you have created (or copied from another source) a section of text (or a complete document) and that you want to save into the folder to which the DropDown List points. Simply click this entry and in no time at all, you can save that text. No navigation. (If the DropDown List points to a glossary, this item will read «Save Text to Glossary». Same idea. Same ease of use.)
 
See Adding Content to DropDown List.

•«Other Settings & Actions». This screen first appears in Pathagoras v. 2013. When clicked it displays an extensive list of options that control the look and feel of the particular DropDown List.

The 'Other Settings & Actions' Display

 

List Settings.

•Show Sub-folders:  Turn the Tree Service ‘on’ and the DropDown List display links to the sub-folders beneath the parent.  (Sub-folders are displayed at the top of the list between curly-braces.) Click on a sub-folder and the list will be re-drawn, containing the files of the selected sub-folder. Any sub-sub-folders will be displayed at this level as well, along with an “{..{Up}}” entry so that you can return to top of the tree.

The folder display possibilities here are quite literally endless. By strategically assigning parent folders, you could conceivably access every folder and sub-folder without ever leaving your editing screen. All navigation as envisioned by Windows could be eliminated.

•Display Names/ Display Subjects: Click as appropriate.

•Sort by Name/Sort by Subject: Click as appropriate.

•List Reset after Insert / No Reset after Insert: This simply indicates what shows after you click on a clause in the list and the list is 'retracted'. If 'Reset' is chosen, the title of the list displays. If 'No Reset' is chosen, the selected item displays, making it a bit easier to (perhaps) choose an item further down in the list.

•Return Cursor to Top of Document / Leave Cursor at End:

✓Choose the former if you want the program to reset itself to the top of the document (so that you can easily review the document from top to bottom)

✓Choose the latter if you want the insertion point (and the display) to be at the document bottom so you can easily add additional text.

•Remove formatting: Sometimes you don't want the clause you are about to insert to contain the formatting with which it otherwise has been saved. Here is the way to insert truly unformatted text.

Toggle Overrides.

In the DropDown List area of the editing screen, there are two toggle buttons that control whether the selection will cause a new document to be created (vs. inserting the selection into the current document and whether the <<Options/Optional/Repeat>> blocks (if any) within the inserted text will be processed or (temporarily) ignored. If you know that the clauses in a certain DropDown List should always be handled in a particular fashion, you can set that in this section. Regardless of the toggle button setting, the setting in the individual DropDown List will be honored.

Other Settings:

•Assign a Template:  Assign a template to any documents created from a term in the list. A template is typically a blank document that contains headers, footers, margins and styles unique to the type of document contained in the list). Once a template is assigned, if to be laid down before any text is inserted in the following instances: (1) the New Doc toggle has been selected and (2) when the item called from the list is the very first item on an otherwise blank page. (Irrespective of the assigned template, if you call in a term into an otherwise blank document that itself has headers and footers, the headers and footers of the recalled document will display.)

•Refresh List: If you have added more items to the folder or glossary, refresh the List to include the new additions. It takes just a second or two.

•Replace List: Place another, completely different, folder or book in place of this DropDown List.

•Open Folder: Don’t navigate to the folder to see its full contents. Just click this item and you will be taken directly to it. Open documents, edit them, re-save them. All from this one line.

•Copy Path: Simply places the name of the folder to which the DropDown List points into your clipboard memory. Handy when you want to navigate to the folder. (But don't forget about the 'Open Folder' button.

•Display as Clause Selection Screen: Create a Clause Selection Screen from the entries in the DropDown List. Very helpful when you want to quickly select and assemble multiple items in the list. Imagine—document assembly of image files. Or Word Perfect® files!

If you want to create a sub-set of this list, display the list as a Clause Selection Screen. Then select just the clauses you want to appear in your DropDown List. Choose the Create DropDown List option and press Next.  Instantly, you have a shorter DropDown list containing a hand picked selection of terms.

Miscellaneous

•Create Printout: Need a hard copy of the contents of the DropDown list? Click this entry to transfer the information to a Word document for editing/printing.

•Delete: Delete the DropDown List from the display.

•Wider & Narrower: (Word 2003 only) Adjust the width of the display with these Lists.

•List information: If you click either the very first or the very last entry in the list, you will see a page of information regarding the list. It may be helpful in determining any unusual behavior of the list.