Templates

Using a template

File > New from Template makes a new document from a template: Letter, Memo, Report, Court Paper (with a certificate of service), Meeting Notes, or one of your own. A dialog asks for its fields, such as the parties' names; your own details ({{Your name}} and the like) are remembered for next time, and date fields get a calendar.

• Insert > Insert from Template puts a template's content into the document you are writing. The parts Caption, Signature Block and Certificate of Service are made for that.
• Insert > Fill In Fields fills in fields left in a document.

Making a template

A template is an ordinary document with blanks.

1. Start from a real document with the layout you want (a paper you have filed, a letter you have sent), or from a blank one. Whatever AhkWord keeps (fonts, spacing, tabs, indents, tables, header and footer, line numbers), the template keeps.

2. Replace each part that changes with a field, typed into the text:

   Type	The dialog shows
   {{Plaintiff}}	a box labelled "Plaintiff" (the name is the label)
   {{Your role\|Plaintiff}}	the box, with "Plaintiff" filled in if it is left empty
   {{Your address}}	a box of several lines (any name with "address" in it); each line becomes a paragraph
   {{Hearing date}}, {{Date}}	the box with a calendar beside it (any name with "date" in it): pick a day, or type the date as it should read ("on or about June 3")

   • The same name used several times is asked for once.
   • Fields whose names begin with "Your" are remembered: your name, address, phone and e-mail fill themselves in next time (the dialog's Forget remembered values clears them). Others (the parties, the case) are asked for fresh each time.
   • The filled-in text takes the formatting of the field's first character: format the whole {{...}} as the text should look.
   • Use square brackets for text to write by hand, such as [The first point.].

3. Save it as Rich Text Format into your Templates folder (%APPDATA%\AhkWord\Templates; the start page's Your templates folder opens it), named as the template should be called. A piece to insert into other documents, such as a caption or a signature block, goes into the Parts folder inside it instead.

4. Use it with File > New from Template, or Insert > Insert from Template for a part. To change it later, open the file itself with File > Open, edit it and save it.

Fields in the header and footer are not filled in: they have fields of their own, such as {page} (see Pages and printing).

A template can also be a Word (.docx), OpenDocument, Markdown, HTML or text file; Rich Text Format keeps everything AhkWord can do, so it is the best choice for templates you make in AhkWord.

Adapting the built-in templates

The templates that come with AhkWord are starting points, made to be changed. Court Paper in particular is generic: courts differ in their captions, margins, line numbering, signature blocks and certificates of service, and the built-in one follows no particular court's rules. Make it your court's (and check it against that court's local rules):

1. File > Open the built-in template: it is in the templates folder beside AhkWord (the Parts folder inside it has the Caption, Signature Block and Certificate of Service).
2. Change it as your court requires: the caption's layout and wording, the margins (Layout > Page Setup), the line numbers (Layout > Line Numbers), the fonts and spacing, and the fields it asks for.
3. Save As Rich Text Format into your Templates folder (%APPDATA%\AhkWord\Templates, or its Parts folder for a part), never over the built-in file:
   • under the same name ("Court Paper"), and yours is used instead of the built-in one;
   • under a name of its own ("Court Paper - Example County District Court"), and it is listed beside the others: one for each court you file in.

Your Templates folder is yours: updating AhkWord replaces the program's folder, built-in templates included, but never touches your templates. To go back to a built-in template, delete or rename yours.

Templates for a firm

A firm can keep its templates (one per court, its letterhead, its standard agreements) in a shared folder, and copy them into each person's Templates folder when they change. Each person's own templates and remembered details stay their own.

Snippets

A snippet is a part with an abbreviation: type the abbreviation in the document, then Space, Enter, Tab or punctuation, and it becomes the part, formatted, its fields asked for, as Insert from Template inserts it. Type ;sig and a space, and your signature block is there.

Insert > Snippets... lists them, and makes and changes them:

• New: give it an abbreviation, and type or paste (Ctrl+V) its text in the box, formatted with B, I, U and Font... Fields such as {{Your Name}} are asked for when it goes in. The text is kept as a part, named after the abbreviation unless you give it another name.
• New from Selection: the same, with the text selected in the document in the box: a signature block, a standard clause, any text, formatting and all.
• Change: its abbreviation, how it fires, and its text, in the same box. Choosing one of your parts (or a built-in one) by name shows its text; changing it there changes the part.
• Remove and Insert Now.

Each snippet chooses how it fires:

• On an ending character (as at first): Space, Enter, Tab or punctuation after the abbreviation. Keep the ending character leaves it after the snippet; without it (as at first), ;sig and Enter inserts the block with no empty line after it.
• At once, as soon as the abbreviation is typed (AutoHotkey's *).
• Case-sensitive: the abbreviation fires only typed as it is.

Abbreviations that aren't words

An abbreviation that is also a word (cos, sig, re) would fire whenever you type the word: start it with a mark, such as ;cos, ;sig. The dialog warns about common words.

Snippets are AutoHotkey hotstrings, which AhkWord.ahk sets up for its own window: they work in AhkWord's document (and, as plain text, in the Markdown and HTML views), not in its dialogs, nor in other programs. With several AhkWord windows open, a snippet fires only in the one you type in. Undo takes the snippet back to what you typed.

In other programs: Export as Script writes the snippets as a small AutoHotkey v2 script of plain-text hotstrings (their fields as their defaults, or [their names]). Run it with AutoHotkey beside your own scripts, and narrow it to some programs with #HotIf if you like. It needs no AhkWord.

The snippets are kept in snippets.json beside your own templates (in AhkWord's folder in portable mode), shared by all AhkWord windows: one made in one window works in the others too. Scripts use Rte.Snippets, AddSnippet, RemoveSnippet, InsertSnippet, SaveSelectionAsSnippet and ExportSnippets (see the API reference).