Groups & Repeaters – Blocks/Lists/Tables

Updated October 2024 – Please contact us for the latest DocAssist version if any features below are not available to you.

Groups and Repeaters – Blocks/Lists/Tables enable blocks of content in a document to repeat. An example is an Agreement that contains sets of parties at the top, and signing clauses for the same parties at the bottom.

In order to create a repeater Block, List or Table, you will first need to create a Group. This represents the set of data that can be looped through.

To create a Group

Click on the Groups button on the DocAssist ribbon
Complete the Group specifications including Group Type – Contact/User/Custom/SelectionSync[Index] (see links here for more information on Custom Repeaters and SelectionSync[Index] Repeaters) , Group Name, Item Name and maximum number of instances data can be repeated (optional, if 0 is retain unlimted instances of data are available). Then click the Create button.

Once the group has been created, on the same screen choose which Item Attributes you would like to add to your document and to the DocAssist Pane
For instance, choose Name and click Insert to include on your document. You’ll see a content control is added each time you click Insert.
Double click on an Item Attribute adds that item to the DocAssist Pane. Double click the item again to remove from the DocAssist Pane. When creating a Contact or User Group always add the Name attribute to the pane (in DocAssist version 1.2.1018 and onwards the Name attribute is added automtically to the pane when creating a Contact or User group).
Select the Add button to create new attributes for the group.
Select an existing attribute and right mouse click to change the attribute using the Configure option.

After all required attributes have been inserted into your document, click Close and save changes when prompted.
At this point, you can configure the content in your document that you’d like to repeat. This may mean moving around the content controls that you just added via the Groups dialog, and perhaps combining them with other text. Such as the following (the text in bold is standard text).
Barrister Name: [Barrister [#] Name], [Barrister [#] Address] and their email is [Barrister [#] Email]

To Create a Block, List or Table

Select the text you inserted into your document that includes your repeating attributes and click on either the:

**Blocks** button – choose this option for block text that includes at least one paragraph mark, this option can also include tables, deselect the ‘Within table’ checkbox to retain any blank paragraphs in selection.

Condition

Conditional statements can be added to determine if a Block repeater is required. For example if previous data in a matter indentified if the matter was in lititgation then a block condition could be added to run the repeater for a list of barristers only if a certain condition was previously met and saved to writeback. For example:

‘[Litigated]’=’Yes’

In the above example, ‘[Litigated]’ is the content control and ‘Yes’ is the string text saved back to the matter.

Type – (only 1 type can be selected for each Block created)

Repeat– Uses the default layout, and insert the default layout for each item in the group, UNLESS there is an override for that group count then it will use that ONE layout instead (as the layout is being overridden). Tags with a [#] will be updated as each item is inserted, so it will loop through each item – unless there is an override for that count

Replace– Inserts one layout only based on the count of the group. The default layout will be inserted ONCE, UNLESS there is an override for the group count, then it will use that layout ONCE. Tags with a [#] will only get updated with the last item in the group.

Numbering

Allows for more control of Word Styles particularly where list numbering has been applied to Word style. This may be required where a repeating block either needs to restart numbering for each count in the group or continue the numbering for all counts in the group.

Not Applicable
Restart (numbering)
Continue (numbering)
Reset numbering style only

View

View relates to the Type of Block. For either a Repeat type or a Replace Type the following can be applied, however only one type can be selected for each Block.

Default – if no override is specfied the default block repeater or replace will be applied to all items in the group count.
Override 1 – will apply a repeat or replace for count 1 of the group only.
Override 2 – will apply a repeat or replace for count 2 of the group only.
Override other (specify) – can be selected multiple times as required for any count 3 and above and will apply for that repeat or replace Block as set.

**Lists** button – choose this option for text that needs to repeat in part of sentence, if the selection ends with a content control, ensure that whole content control is selected by selecting one space after the content control or alternatively, select from the end of text to the start of text required for the list repeater. List format allows separators to be added, custom separators can be added by overwriting a separator option.

**Tables** button – choose this option for text that needs to repeat either in one row or multiple rows of a table, cannot contain empty rows, add space before and/or after for formatting requirements. Header and summary rows can be retained using the appropriate checkboxes displayed.

Complete the Tag, Title and Placeholder Text fields in the dialog box then click Insert. This will insert a repeater control into your document and you will no longer see the item attributes as individual controls

Repeater Control in Document

To Test the Repeater

Don’t forget to save your Precedent and test in a copy of the document. Click Test Document on the DocAssist ribbon.
Select the Repeater control and in the DocAssist pane, click on the + symbol to add an item to your Group. You will be prompted to select a Contact, search for an existing contact using the ellipsis button and if not found create a new contact.
If you require another item in your group, click the + symbol again and notice that the set of data you configured has started to repeat in the document.
Click on the trash can to remove an item from the group.