'Create Variables' Wizard

The Create Variables Wizard.

   When the document you want to Pathagorize currently is filled with 'personal data' (names, addresses, sizes, colors, etc.), you can call on the 'Create Variables Wizard to quickly convert the personal data into a [variable].

  By way of example, let's assume that you wish to sanitize a Will that was originally written for, and has lots of instances of  "Janet Q. Doe" and her husband "James R. Doe", her children, "Meenie, Minnie, and Mo Doe", etc. Because what you had created is a perfect example of a well constructed Will, you may wish to turn it into a 'source document' for future Wills.

   The Create Variables Wizard is one of those 'must know' features about Pathagoras. It turns what otherwise might be an arduous process of 'sanitizing' your personal text-laden documents into a cake walk.  (Here, we use 'sanitize' to mean "clean out all instances of personal text, and replacing them with variables.")

   To activate the 'Create Variables' Wizard, press the hot key combination <Alt-V> (for 'Variable'). You will see this overlay, planted in the upper right corner of your editing screen (hopefully out of the way):

Click to enlarge.

Figure 1. The Initial 'Create Variable' Wizard Screen.

.

  Note that there are two sides to the Create Variables Wizard screen, 'left' and 'right', divided by a blue bar. We will discuss these separately in the following pages..

lightbulbsmall The above illustrates an automated approach to 'Pathagorizing' a document one variable at a time. If you wish to convert many items to variables in a single session, you should consider the techniques discussed here:

 Pre-mark document with +[...].

 Using IDB Screen

lightbulbsmall New in Pathagoras v. 2025: Instead of inserting only 'plain-text' variables into your document, Pathagoras allows you to create Microsoft Word Content Controls to handle the replacement of variable text with personal values.Content Controls are discussed and illustrated in a separate section of this Manual beginning on this page.

See Also:

  Variables

  Masks

  'Create Options' Wizard

IDB Drop Down Lists

HotDocs conversions

Drag and Drop

Content Controls