Your entry point for the 'classic' method of assembling a document starts with the Document Assembly (Libraries & Books) screen. (Click here for instructions on how to display the screen.) The following screen shots illustrate the various elements of that screen. The illustrations reflect the DocAssemDemo library that ships with Pathagoras. The details of each section are explained further below. Figure 1. The initial screen. Select the Library, and then select the Book which contains the clauses you wish to assemble. Figure 2. Options now appear.
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After you choose a 'Book' from the initial screen, the screen enlarges to provide more options*.
*Note: The expanded screen does not appear when 'End User' settings have been selected. The user is taken directly to the Clause Selection screen. See End User Settings.
•Action Confirmation: At the top of the new section, Pathagoras confirms the selection that you made. In the example, we chose the Will folder. The top line indicates that the 'Wills folder' is selected for assembly.
Figure 3. The 'expanded' section of the Libraries & Books screen
•Show on Clause Selection Form:
o'Names' or 'Subjects': You can display the terms on the clause selection screen by the 'Name’ or by the ‘Subject’ assigned to each term. The document Name is typically a short few words. The ‘Subject’ is much more descriptive. (If you study the ‘Will’ and the ‘SubContract Clauses’ books, you will see that the clauses in those books use the more cryptic prefix/suffix pattern for names. More on this below and in other writings.)
o'Clause-sets' are collections of selected clauses that represent complete documents, but which can be called into your document by a single name. Clause-sets are great for standard contracts, simple Wills, etc. Instead of choosing the same X-number of clauses for a standard document, create a clause-set and select just one item. See Clause-Sets.
NOTE: To the right of the ‘Name’ and ‘Subject’ radio buttons in the center panel, you will see a symbol like one of the following:
These symbols visually depict the nature of the clauses in the selected book. Click on each of the various books, and you will see the symbols change as you work your way down. A folder with the letters ‘.doc’ signifies that the book contains standard Word documents. A folder with the letters ‘.dot’ indicates that the terms are stored in the folder as Word templates. A folder with the letters ‘.txt’ indicates that the terms are stored as unformatted ASCII text files. (Pathagoras can assemble those too!) A Glossary is denoted by the gray square box with the ‘G’ in the lower left side. ‘G’= Glossary.
oAdministrative tools reside ‘below the line.’ These tools allow you to perform certain operations on a selected Book
(1) Printable Checklist: You can create a printout of all terms in the selected Book. Use the list just for a handy reference, or print it out as a check-list and ‘check off’ the desired terms for the new document.
(2) Display Folder: You can open the folder or the glossary if you need to quickly access either for editing or other management purposes.
If the Book is a folder of documents, you will be taken to the Windows folder that contains the terms. Everything in here should look familiar. These are simple Word documents. Nothing more, nothing less.
If the Book is a ‘glossary,’ you will be inside the actual glossary document itself. It is a rather simple document. It contains a ‘red line’ that reflects the term’s ‘name,’ a blue line that reflects its ‘subject,’ and the actual text of the term immediately following. While you may not be able to see them, each term is enclosed within ‘bookmarks’ that Word (and Pathagoras) uses to identify the begin and end points of the term. Despite its structure, a glossary is still a just a Word document.
(3) Save text to selected book: If you wish to save the currently displayed document (or a highlighted portion of that document) into the selected book, select this option. Press Next. Pathagoras will call up the Term Works! screen. There, give the new term/document/clause a name and a subject. Pathagoras will place it into the folder or glossary represented by the book. Little could be simpler. No navigation required.
(4) Create DropDown List: You can create a DropDown List of the terms in the selected book. These are very handy, very powerful, always-on, always-active lists that reside at the top of your editing screen which allow you to select any term or form by pointing and clicking. Read more about DropDown lists at this link.
Settings:
In the lower right-hand side of the screen is a button labeled "Settings." Additional setup and administrative tools reside there to augment and personalize the program to your needs. Here are some of the functions:
•Add a new Book into the Library, see Adding a New Book
•Remove a Book from a Library, see Removing a Book.
•Add a new Library to your system, see Creating a New Library.
•Delete existing Libraries from your system, see Deleting a Library.
Right-Click Menu:
If you 'right-click on a Book, you will be presented the following choices:
• Rename
• Repoint
• Open folder or Glossary
• Set Book as "default": It will automatically be selected when the Document Assembly button is clicked.
• Print Lists: A variety of lists are provided.
• Names and Subjects editor: Rename the documents or Glossary terms, and their subjects, via an easy to use table.
See Also: