Stringing global questions together is a particularly effective way of optimising your template and questionnaire. This will reduce the number of total questions while facilitating greater flexibility within a template. A series of interconnected global questions can help the user quickly set up different versions of one type of contract. There are several ways to link global questions to each other in the Template Creation Tool. For full instructions on creating and editing the various template components, see the designated pages of this knowledge base.
1. Clause inclusions. You may use clause inclusions for simple include/exclude-constructions. If global question 1 is answered affirmatively (or negatively, as the case may be), then global question 2 is triggered, and if applicable global question 3, then 4 and so on. Only when the final question in the sequence is answered affirmatively (or negatively) will the actual content of the clause be inserted.
a. Create a clause and set its styling to Default – no space after.
b. For the above clause, create a clause inclusion linked to a global question.
c. Create a new subclause. If this subclause will contain the actual content, select an appropriate styling. Otherwise, set it to Default-no space after.
d. For the new subclause, also create a clause inclusion, linked to the follow-up global question.
e. Repeat insofar as more follow-up global questions remain.
This would result in the following type of template structure:
2. Choice trees. These are more versatile than clause inclusions. Choice trees allow for different versions of one clause to be inserted and different global questions to be triggered depending on your answers. They are also practical if no content should actually be inserted at all. Consider a scenario in which the order of global questions in the questionnaire is not quite logical or might actually change depending on certain answers. By creating a string of effectively empty choice trees connected to global questions, you can easily dictate when and in what order the questions will appear.
a. Create a local choice tree and link it to a global question. Note that you can link multiple global question answers to one local answer.
b. In case of include/exclude-constructions, consider using the Insert text if not-checked setting for a choice option (under Edit the choice-option name, provided that the advanced functionalities switch has been enabled). This will create a virtual ‘not-checked’ option. If the real choice option is not checked, the questionnaire will automatically trigger the not-checked one and insert whatever that includes.
c. Within any applicable (not-checked) option, create another local choice tree and link it to the follow-up global question.
d. Repeat insofar as more or alternate follow-up global questions remain.
This would result in the following types of template structures:
3. Local choice options. It is also possible to link global questions to individual options of a local choice tree. The answer to a global question will then determine whether the linked local choice option is included or excluded. While this only affects the visiblity of local choice tree options, it can be used as another prerequisite for a follow-up global question: if the answer to global question 1 means the linked local choice option is included, the user will still have to pick that option before global question 2 (included under the local choice option) is triggered.
This would result in the following type of template structure:
4. Global choice options. The answer to one global choice question can trigger another global question of any variety. This can be employed to cause some content (such as a number or phrase) to be automatically inserted wherever the first global question is triggered. However, it also allows you to create a series of follow-up questions in much the same way that empty choice trees do.
a. Edit the global question and click the designated answer’s pen icon (Edit global question answer).
b. Insert the tag of the follow-up global question in the Replaceable text field.
c. Insert the tag of the first global question where applicable within the template.
d. If more global questions should be strung together, repeat steps a and b for the second and each subsequent global question.
Note: whatever global question is tagged in the Replaceable text field will be directly inserted into the template and therefore the eventual document. Tagging a global edit-field or date-field, for example, will result in text being inserted. However, this only applies when the initial global choice question itself is directly tagged in the template. It does not apply if that global choice question is only linked to building blocks, clauses or local choice trees.
