Creating variables with Pathagoras could not be easier. You use only standard keyboard characters.

   If you are starting from scratch, type an opening square bracket, a variable sounding name and then a closing square bracket.

   If you are Pathagorizing an existing document, peruse the document for places where personal information currently exists. If the text is currently a personal name, change it to a variable sounding word and then put brackets around it. So, change "Abraham Lincoln” to "[FirstName] [LastName]" and you have done it.

   These are variables: [Client Name] [Quantity Ordered] [Date of Contract].

   Note the following:

•You can manually add variables by hand typing them into your source documents.

•If you work with documents that you obtained from a third-party which already contain bracketed variables, you actually have a 'Pathagorized' document. (And you can add even more variables to those documents if you wish.)

•If the same name (e.g., "John Doe" is in numerous places throughout the document, you can use Pathagoras' Create Variables Wizard to convert each instance of personal text into the desired variable.

•When deciding on variable names, keep the end user's reaction to the variable in mind: “[Date Contract Signed]” is probably better than “[Date].”

   Check out this video on creating and using simple variables:

Creating Simple Variables

  Modifying variable names: Sometimes the name you initially select for a variable turns out not to be the 'best' choice. Not to worry. You can easily change them to a more appropriate value. If you are just getting started, and have only created a few variables, manually changing them is probably the easiest course. But if you have spent a lot of time creating variables before you decided a different name(s) was in order, see Search & Replace for suggestions on how to make those changes in a global fashion.

See Also   Converting HotDocs variables.