What is an Interactive Form?

An interactive form is a data-gathering window containing multiple questions that interactively change based on user input. In other words, a user’s response to one question may cause one or more additional questions to be added to the window.



Several types of software applications include tool sets for building indigenous, interactive forms. Such applications include BPM suites, contract management applications, and practice management systems. Likewise, there are many software vendors that specialize in applications designed specifically for building interactive forms for general use in any number of different environments—for example, in various aspects of website design.



The most powerful applications for building interactive forms are commonly referred to as document assembly systems (document automation systems). HotDocs, the global leader in document assembly, produces an enterprise-grade document assembly stack of integrated technologies that enable organizations to produce a transaction-ready legal document or set of documents from a single interview (a sequence of related, interactive forms designed to gather data specifically for the purpose of generating documents).



HotDocs interviews, because they are designed to mirror the business-logic structure of the documents in question, can be ultra-sophisticated, allowing not just conditional interactivity, but conditional lists of questions and even nested lists of questions. (In other words, for each item in a list, another list of questions could be displayed.)



HotDocs interviews, in all their power and flexibility, can be designed and built for purposes other than document generation, and in many instances, represent the best option for complex, interactive form sequences within workflows, contract management systems, or any number of other environments.