XpressDox Document Assembly » New in XpressDox

Version 3.11.0 Release

Peter — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:37:40 +0000

2011-09-27 Version 3.11.0

<> permits empty “display data element name” (defaults to the first one) when also including a data element name prefix.
The XpressDox SDK has been released. This facilitates embedding XpressDox into another application and permitting display of the XpressDox interview, and application of XpressDox configuration. The SDK can be used on PCs that do not have Microsoft® Office installed (although Office is still required for the authoring of templates and XpressDox configuration functions).

2011-09-12 Version 3.10.2 (Limited release, Word 2007 and 2010 only)

<> supports backtrack XPATH syntax (i.e. “../” at the start of the path)>>.
A bug in the handling of <> has been fixed.
Template Author filtering has been applied to context menus in the XpressDox Explorer, as well as to the “Run This Template” function.

Version 3.9.3 (2011-07-27)

Peter — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:55:30 +0000

2011-07-27 Version 3.9.3

Functionality has been added to enable XpressDox site supervisors to customise the Shared (or Office) Folders settings in the XpressDox Explorer on a per-department or even per-user basis. This is done by assigning a new property to a data source (only in the Shared Settings configuration) which causes data from that data source to be used as though it were “Standard Data Elements”. Instructions are in the new XpressDox Supervisor’s Guide which can be downloaded in the usual Supervisor location on the XpressDox web site.
The <> function can be used to show the value of a data element if it has one, but if it is empty then the whole paragraph in which the function appears will be removed. It means that something like

<> <> <>

can be replaced with

<>

There have been requests to enable headings and footings to be shown conditionally. This can now be achieved with the <> command. This command will put an invisible field onto the interview, but headings and footings attached to the data element specified in the command will be shown. If the data element (a dummy, it is not available for use elsewhere in the template) is subject to a condition, then the heading and/or footing attached to it will appear and disappear subject to the condition. The full syntax of the command is <>. The Define command now includes the PlaceHolder choice in the list of Data Capture Commands, which means that the PlaceHolder command and the relevant Heading and/or Footing commands can all be defined in one.
Force.com data sources now have the ability to show a search dialog. This is for testing purposes only, as integration with Force.com databases is not envisioned to involve users searching the database from an XpressDox template, but rather in the Force.com application itself.

Version 3.9.2 (2011-07-19)

Peter — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:23:43 +0000

2011-07-19 Version 3.9.2

When data is included into the data set, the sequence in which this happens is:

Data from Standard Data Items in the configuration;
Data from data sources configured as “Use for all templates”;
Data from <> commands.

Prior to this release, step c. was performed before the other two.

The data source name mapping feature now has a “Add Prefix to All Names” button.
The configuration of data sources now includes a feature to handle seriously normalised data bases, enabling the configuration of “lookup tables”.
PDF Form handling recognises XFA form fields in a PDF form.

Version 3.9.1 (2011-07-07)

Peter — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:58:27 +0000

Version 3.9.1 contains some bug fixes as well as the following enhancements:

<> can apply to a <> command in order to permit intuitive handling of highly-normalised databases.
Any number of <> commands can apply to the same data element.
The <> command is implicitly issued for multi-language templates.

Version 3.9.0 (2011-07-06)

Peter — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:19:26 +0000

New features in Version 3.9.0:

Filling PDF Forms. This works with existing PDF Forms which have PDF Form Fields defined in them. The XpressDox feature assists the template author in mapping the PDF Form Fields to either data elements which are typically captured as part of running an XpressDox template. The PDF Form is filled with data from a data set as a result of the <> function being called.
The LinkToDataSource command will link any data element, or rather any data capture control on the interview, to a data source. This enables inclusion of data source data into the data set outside of the <> and <> commands.
A hyperlinkcan be attached to a Heading or a Footing using the <> command. Then when the user clicks on that Heading or Footing the hyperlink is launched.
Conditional capture in the interview has been improved, especially with regard to nested <> commands.
A new feature called “Optimized Parsing” has been added. It will improve the speed with which an interview is created after the user has run a template.

Version 3.8.1 (2011-06-07)

Peter — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:56:27 +0000

New features released in Version 3.8 are:

Integration with Force.com (SalesForce.com). Template authors can configure a Force.com database as a data source. The Search interfaces do not work yet (mainly because Force.com does not support the “paging” concept), but the data source can be used via the new syntax for <> which disallows the search (i.e. the template user provides the ID of the required row, or else the template author provides it).
The <> command can now be provided with a variable value for the id= option and the range= option. For example <)>>. This would require that the data element AccountNumber was already in the data set when the command is executed. This would be done via a preceding <> command, or else by using the XpressDox-in-Word API. This feature will be useful within the web SaaS version of XpressDox, where the initial data passed to the web service will contain relevant id data element(s).
<> supports Spanish. Three new currency short-cut functions have been added, viz. <>, <> and <>. These functions render the relevant currency in Spanish. The Number to Words utility also supports Spanish.
A new number zone has been added – viz. CX. When used in FormatNumber it renders the thousands separator as a space and the decimal point as a full stop (period). For example, <> renders as “1 234.56”.
When XpressDox encounters a syntax error or other error in a fillpoint it will attempt to highlight the offending field in the active document in Word. If the template containing the error is not the active document, then the Word Find dialog will nonetheless still contain the error text (as does the Windows clip board) so that finding it once the relevant template has been opened will be very straightforward.
FormatNumber will now accept invalidly formatted numbers and internally perform a RenderAsNumeric on them. For example, <><> would render the result as “12,345.00”
Condition handling in the interview is much improved.
The “Select Nearest Field” feature has been added – it is a button in the Common Tools menu. It selects either the field in which the cursor is positioned, or the field immediately to the left, or if there is no field to the left, then the next one to the right. It is best to add this button to the Quick Access Toolbar and access it via Word’s Alt button feature.
There is a Repair Addin utility which is installed into the Windows Programs menu when XpressDox is installed. This can be used in the situations when for some reason Word disables XpressDox – the utility will re-enable it. This is quicker than the built-in rather torturous route that is available in the Word Options menu.
Template painting has been enhanced to include syntax highlighting of commands and functions. Commands and functions will be given a different colour from the rest of the field. The colors can be configured in the Template Author Utilities dialog, in the Template Painter tab). Syntax highlighting will be applied automatically by the Command Editor wizards and examples.

Version 3.7.0 (2011-04-18)

Peter — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:36:14 +0000

New features with XpressDox Version 3.7.0 are:

<> and <>, if on separate paragraphs, must be the only text on their paragraph. XpressDox will now issue an error if this is not the case.
When XpressDox paints a template, <> commands will be colored a different color to other fields. The default comment color is gray, but can be configured to another color, as can all the other field colors.
Some new functions (and variations of existing functions) have been added. They are:
1. <> which adds an amount to an existing variable. The default amount is 1, but an amount can be specified in the function reference, e.g. <> will add 1 to the value in variable ‘Counter’, whereas <> will add the value in data element Amount to the value in the variable ‘RunningBalance’.
2. The <> function will help the template author to choose the correct pronoun to use instead of typing “him/her” in the document.
3. <> now has a formatting string “o” which places an “ordinal” day into the formatted date. For example, <> would format the date 2011-04-13 as “April 4th 2011”. The <> function enables superscripting of the “th” in the above example.
4. <> provides a quicker way of specifying the choice of singular or plural value than using <>.
5. <> is similar to <> except that <> does not contain a time of day component. Both <> and <> can be specified with or without formatting. If no formatting is supplied, a default format is used, which can nonetheless be formatted using <>.
6. The template conversion utility will convert common HotDocs® commands directly into XpressDox commands or functions.
7. <> supports a “verbose” version. This works in the same way as for radio button lists, i.e. <>. The drop down in the interview will present the user with the parts after the ~~, and when the user chooses a value, the corresponding part before the ~~ will be placed into the data element Option.

Version 3.6.0 (2011-03-31)

Peter — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:58:29 +0000

An underscore in the data element name is converted to a space when the data element name is used as a caption in the interview.
The Command Editor and the XpressDox My first template document are loaded automatically the first 3 times that XpressDox is loaded.
The <> command is introduced – enables definition of most of the interview-related properties (Caption, Heading, Footing, Tab, Rule, Initial Value, “Choose” command) to be done in one command.
The <> command had a bug when there was a comma in the text. This is fixed.
Prior to this release, XpressDox did not install correctly on a system with Office 2010 and Windows XP (both 32 bit). XpressDox will now install correctly on such a system.

Version 3.5.0 (2011-03-04)

Peter — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:13:19 +0000

Templates coded in some earlier document assembly formats will now run without change (except for conversion to XpressDox template format, i.e. Word 2003 XML), as long as the fillpoints are “simple”. A “simple” fillpoint is one which has no functions or commands or conditional assembly, e.g %[Name], «PostalCode» . Also, the fillpoint name (i.e. data element name) must conform to XML naming (which is always the case with GhostFill, for example, but not necessarily with HotDocs).
There is a new button on the ribbon (or toolbar for Word 2003) giving access to the template conversion utility and other fillpoint delimiter – related utilities. It is in the Advanced Template Author section and labelled “Utilities”.
Some inadequacies in the handling of the naming of merged documents and captured datasets have been fixed.

Version 3.4.1 (2011-01-22)

Peter — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:09:06 +0000

The <> command includes a new parameter which is a prefix to be applied to the data element names which are defined in the file. This enables a template author to use the same file to choose different data elements.
<> will accept a hard-coded file name (in quotes), or a data element name (the data element contains the file name) or a function call (such as ‘concat’) which builds up a file name. That template file (and any other templates which are referred to in other <> commands) is then merged as a separate file using the same data set as was used in the original template.
The <> command has been introduced and is EXACTLY the same as the <> command but is more appropriately named. InsertDocument has been retained for backward compatibility, but will not longer appear in the Command Editor.
The IncludeTemplate, and InsertTemplate commands have a new parameter (“PreserverHeaders”) which will include (or insert) the template and preserve the header and footer (and other section information) in the included template. The default for this parameter is “ExcludeHeaders”.
There is a new function called EndsWith, which complements the (XSLT) function starts-with.
The SetVR function has been introduced and is functionally EXACTLY the same a <>, but has the side effect of removing the paragraph in which it appears. This is to help the template author to eliminate extra empty paragraphs when using <>. Thus <whatever)>> is equivalent to <whatever)>><>.
The template painter now paints <> and <> commands.