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Clausery

Template syntax

Clausery templates are ordinary .docx files with tags. Formatting is yours: whatever style a tag has in Word, the answer inherits.

Tags

Write in WordMeaning
{client_name}Replaced with the answer. Names use letters, digits and underscores.
{#has_spouse} … {/has_spouse}Conditional section: kept when the answer is yes (or truthy), removed otherwise.
{^has_spouse} … {/has_spouse}Inverted section: kept when the answer is no.
{#children}{name}, born {dob}{/children}Repeating group: the content repeats once per item, and tags inside refer to that item.
{_today}Today's date in the workspace date format.
{_firm_name}The firm name from Settings.
Type the braces as plain characters. Word's smart quotes are fine, but tags must not be split by formatting changes in the middle of a name (for example half bold): keep each tag in one run. If a tag is mangled, Clausery tells you which one when you upload.

Conditional sections

A section tag can wrap a few words, a sentence, a whole paragraph or several paragraphs. When the opening and closing tags are each alone in their own paragraph, the paragraphs themselves are removed, leaving no empty lines:

{#has_guarantor}
GUARANTEE
The Guarantor, {guarantor_name}, guarantees the obligations of the Tenant.
{/has_guarantor}

Questions that appear only inside a section are automatically shown only when that section applies. A section can also be driven by a calculation instead of a yes/no question: in the designer, change its type to Computed and give it an expression such as amount > 10000.

Repeating groups

Use a repeating group for anything that comes in an unknown number: parties, attorneys, beneficiaries, schedule items.

The following attorneys will work on the matter:
{#attorneys}
• {name}, {role} — {rate} per hour
{/attorneys}

Inside a group these extra tags are available: {_index} (1, 2, 3…), {_count}, and the conditions {#_first} and {#_last}. The last one is useful for separators:

{#parties}{name}{^_last}, {/_last}{/parties}

Table rows

Put the opening tag in the first cell of a row and the closing tag in the last cell of the same row; the whole row repeats:

DescriptionQuantityAmount
{#items}{description}{qty}{amount}{/items}

Line breaks

Long-text answers keep their line breaks, so an address typed on three lines comes out on three lines.

Headers, footers and footnotes

Tags work anywhere in the document, including headers, footers and footnotes.

Naming tips

Clausery guesses the question type from the tag name. You can change it afterwards, but good names save work:

  • *_date, signed_on, deadline → date
  • *_amount, fee, salary, rate, total → money
  • *_years, *_days, count, quantity, percent → number
  • *_email, *_phone → email, phone
  • address, description, notes → long text
  • has_*, is_*, include_* as section names → yes/no condition
  • Plural section names with tags inside (attorneys, parties) → repeating group
  • Shared prefixes (party_a_*, client_*) → grouped into a section of the questionnaire

What is not supported

  • Nested repeating groups (a list inside a list). Nested conditions inside a group are fine.
  • Images or raw XML inserted from answers.
  • Legacy .doc files: save as .docx first.