Field Settings

Fields must have a type, and some fields (e.g. Person and Organization entities) have subfields which allow you to address specific components of a complex data type.

All fields can be named, and this name (with spaces replaced with underscores, e.g. Interest_Rate) can be used to reference the field in the Formula of another field.

If a Formula is specified its result becomes the value.

If desired, a user can override a calculated value that results from a formula by checking the 'Override calculated value' box when viewing the field modal. (Or by simply typing over the field.) While this might be a poor practice for a math calculation (like an interest payment), it is a way to support calculated dates (e.g. first date of employment is second Monday following the date of the employment agreement) that can easily be overridden with specific dates.

The Question is presented when the fields in a document are shared as a questionnaire (for client intake or law firm convenience).

The Description is a place for an even more detailed explanation of the field which is made available in the field modal and on hover when filling in the questionnaire. Both are shown when hovering over a field, empty or not.

Format controls how the data in the field (or subfield) is rendered in the document. Format is the one property of a field that is specific to its instance. (In other words, if you have a field named "Interest Rate" in two places in the document, changing the Question or Description or the value of the field will be replicated everywhere it occurs, but the Format will not. This allows you to use "8%" (Digits) in one place, and "eight percent (8%)" (Word & Digits) in another.

Note that the State subfield (of a Person, Organization, or Address entity) even has formats for variant presentations: 'New York', 'State of New York', and 'state of New York'. That is all part of making it easier to make robust templates that require minimal contextual edits to read correctly.