Builder Glossary

An app represents a collection of information typically required for completing related documents in a specific catalog/matter type.

For example, say you have an Estate Planning matter type. The typical documents you create for clients might be a will, trust, power of attorney, living will, and so forth. You can create an app that groups these templates and asks all the questions in them. Then, when you need to generate a document, rather than address each document individually, you can select the app which contains all the required questions, and which produces the needed documents.

An app consists of one or more templates (and their components) that are typically related. When generating a document or group of documents, an app will determine which questions are needed and then create and save the related documents. For example, if the template you are creating is part of a larger collection of templates/data, you would assign it to an app designed to accommodate all these components. If the template will be used in isolation, it will most likely be assigned to its own app.

A catalog contains object models, variables, templates, formulas, and apps.  

Catalogs in Builder mirror your matter types in Actionstep. Merge fields, custom data, and data collections from Actionstep are made available in a Builder catalog as variables.

An instruction is a command used to do something specific in the template. Some common uses for instructions include: 

• Including or excluding a word or paragraph based on certain conditions being true or false. 
• Repeating variable fields in order to create a list of answers. 
• Formatting data in the document (e.g., applying UPPERCASE to a name)

Builder supports the concept of object models and object variables. An object model contains a generalized set of variables that relate to its main purpose—gathering information about a participant or matter type. Once created, an object model can be used to “seed” object variables, which allow you to create catalog-specific collections of data. For example, an object model for generalized participant type data could be used to create object variables for specific participant types: a client, an attorney, a defendant, expert witness, and so forth. 

An object model organizes generic variables like Name, Address, DOB, etc. into a single grouping. Based on these object models, you can then create party-specific object variables. This approach lets you create the variables once and then pull them into unique variable groups. This simple example shows you how:  

A table model is a reusable list of information (in tabular format) that doesn’t change based on the client or matter you are working with. For example, you could create a table of states/regions/cities along with their postal abbreviations and local government offices can be used across most matter types / catalog models. You create tables so that you can reference the information in them from anywhere within your system.  

Other examples of tables you might create include a table of attorneys at your firm (which could include names, phone numbers, hourly rates, etc.), gender (which could include gender types and associated pronouns), and so forth.

A text template is a Builder component that lets you string together individual variables to create a single data entry point in a completed document. These types of templates are created directly in Builder and can be inserted in a Word document. 

For instance, if you ask First, Middle, and Last Name, you can create a text template called FullName which will combine these different components into a single field.

See also the entries for DOCX Template and File Template.

A variable is the basic unit of data in a document. Variable types include text, number, date, true/false, selection (like groups of possible options), and object (like a table or a model). Variables are like merge fields in Actionstep and MS Word. It’s where data specific to your client or matter gets merged into a document. 

Actionstep merge fields, custom data fields, and data collections are made available as variables in Builder so that you can use them to automate your templates, and data from Actionstep can be pulled into the completed document/record. There are some tricky aspects of using Actionstep-based fields, so please see Understanding How Actionstep Data is Used in Builder and Creating Builder Variables for an explanation.