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rcbricker
03-29-2005, 08:09 AM
This template needs to be able to reflect that the letters are legal letters that change based on the state, the applicable laws, the companies involved, and so on.

Certain paragraphs will be needed in some instances and not in others.

Bascially the doc should start with a letter head and an auto date, other than that everything needs to be determined by the person preparing the document. Each paragraph is the same each time it is used (with very small exceptions - like company name, vendor and so on and so forth). This is hard to explain.

I want a spot where I can check certain boxes or make certain choices that will determine which paragraphs to add. Then answer certain questions and have that information changed to reflect this new info like what state the company is in who is preparing the letter and the such.

can this be done?

for an example I will make the following Blah paragraphs

Paragraph A

Blah blah blah <company Name> Blah Blah Blah <vendor name> Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Paragraph B

Blah blah blah Blah Blah Blah <vendor name> Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

and so on.

Killian
03-29-2005, 01:07 PM
Hi there
You'll be pleased to hear, the simple answer to "can this be done..." is yes.
How to do it is of course, is where it gets interesting. The first thing I think you need to do is take a step back and examine exactly what the final goal is, break down each segment of the document, what choices need to be made by the user and whether you want to be able to change any of these choices or edit any of these options. That will determine how to structure the document and the code behind it. Believe me, time spent drawing and redrawing flow diagrams etc now will save hours of frustration later.
From what I understand so far, there are three key elements to this:
1) Standard items such ad the date, address etc. probabbly best preset an the document template as fixed text and auto updating fields
2) user input to set varibles like the company name, vendor, state, etc. Probably best achieved with a well designed user form
3) source data (the set paragraphs to be included). a couple of options spring to mind: you could include all the text in the template as bookmarked paragraphs and delete as applicable or have a source file (Word, text files or maybe a database) and insert as required. Delete as applicable is perhaps a little easier to implement and the template could act a source for paras if the user wants to add one later on.
I've attached an quick example that should help you get started. Its set to run the form when a new doc is created from the template. All the code is behind the userform in the template
Enjoy

fumei
04-15-2005, 10:30 AM
rcbricker - did you get this rolling?

Killian is bang on with: "Believe me, time spent drawing and redrawing flow diagrams etc now will save hours of frustration later." It is very very true. Determining exactly what you need, and when, it crucial to good design.

It is from that you will be able to figure oout the route you need to take. i agree that delete as applicable (using bookmarked text) is probably the easiest ti implement.

So, I am curious if you got your template working.