Normally, a global question on the very first page of the questionnaire if it has been triggered anywhere in the template. This can be delayed, however. The Template Creation Tool allows you to indicate for each global question whether it should appear at the beginning of the questionnaire, or rather where it is actually first triggered. This may be more practical if the global question does not concern a primary element of the contract, or if it needs a specific context to be understood, or if it’s a follow-up to another question, for example.
A. BASIC CONFIGURATION
1. In the Template Creation Tool, click on the template name at the top of the outline.
2. Click Modify the Questionnaire elements (question formulation, default answer or explanation).
3. Tick the checkbox next to any applicable global question.
4. Click Save & close.
B. ADVANCED USE
Sometimes, you may want more control still over when a global question appears in the questionnaire. Doing so might be better for the question’s context, or it might just reduce the number of pages in the questionnaire. It’s often better to have one page with multiple questions than several pages with one question each.
It’s possible to trigger a global question anywhere between the start of the questionnaire and the exact place where it should first insert (or omit) any text (i.e. earlier than the Ask when first triggered setting would ordinarily cause it to appear). It should always be set to Ask when first triggered as described under section A above, but its insertion into the template depends on the question’s characteristics. There are three approaches to this.
1. Choice question without replaceable text
A global question can be triggered anywhere simply by inserting its tag (e.g. “[gq.Question]”). If your global choice question’s answers do not have any replaceable text, its tag will never inadvertently cause any text to be inserted. It’s therefore enough to insert the tag into the clause where you want the question to be triggered.
For example, let’s say the global question Mutuality of the template Confidentiality agreement has no replaceable text. You can verify whether that’s the case or not by editing the question’s answers and check for each of them if the Replaceable text field is empty:
Assume that this global question would normally be triggered in the clause Whereas, but we want it to be triggered in the preceding Party block clause already. Because no text will actually be inserted, the tag can be placed anywhere in the clause or any of its subclauses. Both of the following places would be perfectly valid:
Note: a tag’s position within a (sub)clause will still affect the order of questions on a single page of the questionnaire. In the first screenshot, the global question would be asked before the contract title – which would be odd. In the second screenshot, because the tag is put at the end of the clause, it would follow the contract title question instead. You can of course use this to your advantage if you want to ensure global questions are always asked in a specific order.
2. Choice question with replaceable text
Let’s reuse the previous example, but this time the global question Mutuality does have replaceable text:
Inserting the global question tag will result in the selected answer’s replaceable text being directly inserted. That is not the intent, but the same effect as before can be achieved in a different way: by inserting a functionally empty choice tree, linked to the global question. When a global question is triggered through a choice tree instead of a direct tag, the Replaceable text field is ignored. When that choice tree’s choice options are completely empty, nothing will actually be inserted into the document.
The scenario depicted in the first screenshot under 1. can then be reproduced as follows:
Note: this can also be used to create a chain of follow-up global questions, where a choice option includes yet another empty choice tree or the tag of another global choice question without replaceable text.
3. Other global questions
The two previous methods do not work for other global questions, because they will always insert text. That cannot be avoided, but it can be obscured.
Let’s say that the Confidentiality agreement template includes the defined term ‘Purpose’. The term is referenced in the Whereas clause, but its exact meaning is given through a global edit-field question (Description of purpose) tagged in the definition. Questions in definitions only appear at the end of the questionnaire, so it would be useful if the question could already be triggered in the Whereas clause.
To do so without changing the appearance of the eventual document requires a few steps:
a. Ensure the Show advanced vs. all basic functionalities switch is enabled.
b. With the (sub)clause where the global question must be triggered selected, click Insert a new contract clause (indented). A pop-up will appear.
c. Insert a clause name.
d. Open the Formatting deviations subtab and change Text colour to white and Text size to 0 (zero). Optionally, you can also change Text alignment to Right aligned. What the first two settings will accomplish is that the text inserted through the global question effectively becomes invisible.
Note: in Word documents, your spell checker may still respond to the minuscule white text and underline it if it detects any errors. That unfortunately cannot be helped, but in a final, ready-to-sign PDF this will not be an issue and should therefore not keep you from applying this method.
e. Click Insert.
f. For the new subclause, select the styling Default – no space after. This will prevent the interruption of numbered lists or insertion of redundant whitespace.
g. Insert the global question tag into the subclause.
h. Click Save the changes made (or press Ctrl + S).
Note: it is of course also possible to combine this with the previous methods to collect and order different types of global questions in one place.
