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Welcome to the tfdocs.com (Tree Form Documents) discussion section

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mouser:
Welcome to the discussion section for the Tree Form Documents website (http://www.tfdocs.com).

This is a website that was built to be an online version of my windows desktop application known as "The Form Letter Machine" (discuss the desktop app here).


As a brief introduction:  The tfdocs.com web service provides a way for people to create documents by mixing and matching different terms and sections.

Screenshot:


Visite website:

* http://www.tfdocs.com
Good sample TF doc that:

* http://www.tfdocs.com/form/independent-contractor-programming-agreement
Site changelog:

* http://www.tfdocs.com/content/changelog-version-history

Paul Keith:
How do you import your TFLM files?

mouser:
you know i didn't even think about that, but it's a great idea.. what i will do is add an XML Export feature to a new release of the form letter machine desktop app; then you can use those.

mouser:
Let me talk a little bit about the differences between the desktop application and web version.


* Both share the same basic idea: You design a hierarchical tree-like structure of options, which are used to assemble an output document by mixing and matching sections.
* The web version is much more focused on letting people create tree-form document definitions that are meant to be shared and used by others; it therefor supports wiki-like shared editing of group treeform documents, a discussion thread for each document, document tag cloud, etc.
* Unlike the desktop application, the web version has no graphical nice user interface for creating the tree-form definitions; the web version uses a plain text xml definition that the author provides.
* The web version supports more flexible formatting of output, including things like bolding, italics, section headers, web links, and glossary/mouseover notes.
* The web version supports multiple output containers -- useful if you want to divide up your output document into things like a main body, an appendix, an area for private notes, etc.
* The web version has more robust support for free-form input variables; it knows which input variables are needed and when, and let's the user see clearly when a variable is needed.
* The web version has some nice effects to help you see when text blocks are being added/removed/changed.
* The desktop version support quick customization of the text of any section without editing the tree definition; not so with the web version.
* The web version will soon support PDF export and emailing.
* The web version can be easily expanded to support more powerful conditional blocks and expressions.
* The web version supports hover-over tips on tree items and selected document text.
The easiest way to get a feel for the web version is to check out a sample form and click the "View XML Source" button -- that will show you the xml definition of the sample tree-form document, so you can get an idea of the kinds of things you can do.

mouser:
My next step will be to create some documentation on the tree form xml syntax.

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