Episode 8: Enhance interactive letter writing with input fields

The Tips & Tricks series is back with an alternative way to wizards of helping authors in the letter creation process. With a new feature introduced in version 7.7 of Business Designer, you can include input fields into your document templates so that the fields are available to authors when they write letters.

In addition to wizards, you now have another tool to help writers populate the document with data. During the design process of the document template with Business Designer, you can add input fields to any element containing variables.

Wizards vs variable input fields

While wizards use a series of dialogs displayed one after the other to prompt the writer for content, variable input fields are presented directly in the document structure.

With both options available, you can choose the right tool addressing your writers’ favorite ways of document creation.

How to design the user input field

User input fields are created directly in the document template for a selected building block in the document structure.

Taking advantage of the forms designer and its predefined form elements such as text input fields, drop-down lists, check boxes and radio buttons, you can quickly define, arrange and validate form fields.

Tip:Make use of the full set of forms features by setting validation rules and selecting a service for dynamic data retrieval.

How authors will enter variable data

Writers will find variable input fields right below the familiar document tree. Selecting a building block in the tree presents the form fields for entering content.

Conclusion

Updating to Papyrus Business Designer for Correspondence Version 7.7 gives you another powerful tool in the document creation process. Variable input fields provide a convenient way for adding variable data while presenting the user-friendly document design and structure.

To find out more about variable input fields in Business Designer, see the Papyrus user documentation or register for our Papyrus Correspondence / Business Designer workshop.

• Episode 1: Customize Lists with Reusable Building Blocks
• Episode 2: Let your Document Speak More than One Language
• Episode 3: Localize Numbers and Dates with Custom Variable Formats
• Episode 4: Choose the right table for your business requirement
• Episode 5: Document Design with Release and Change Management
• Episode 6: Designing Wizards for Interactive Letter Writing
• Episode 7: Finding everything you need in Papyrus Business Designer
• Episode 8: Enhance interactive letter writing with input fields