RTF vs. DOT templates

Forgive me for posting this to both the TM & HD forum - I wasn't sure which one to pick!

I am using HotDocs 6.2 with Time Matters 7.  I have read in HotDocs help that it is advisable to convert .DOT files to .RTF files to speed up the assembly process.  We assemble thru Time Matters and at the moment, any assembled documents are saved with .DOC extension.  If we change our Hotdocs templates to .RTF, our assembled Time Matters documents will also have .RTF extensions - is there any reason why this is not a good idea?

Are there any other HD&TM users out there who have changed their templates to .RTF? 

Thanks.

Martina

Once you move to HotDocs 6 or later you should absolutely, positively convert your templates to RTF format.

They will assemble faster and we have yet to find a compatibility issue between the different formats.  So, we have found zero negatives and many, many positives.

Convert to RTF.

What happens to Word codes like styles when they're converted to .rtf?

Everything that we have ever used remains in the RTF.  Styles, fonts, everything.  We have yet to find anything that does not work the same.

HotDocs 2005 and HotDocs 2006 process RTF templates and continue to process DOT templates.  The RTF templates output to .RTF and the .DOT templates output to DOC.  During the actual processing or assembly of the template, the form is converted to RTF, assembled, and then the outputted document is opened in word and converted back to Word's native format.

The main reason that people have continued to use DOT templates was originally to allow for post-assembly macros of the documents.  Simply put, RTF does not store any Macro information in the document, whereas DOT and DOC files can store macros which can then be played post-assembly.

The solution with RTF was not to embed the macro in the template, but rather to put it in a template that is loaded with the WORD or OFFICE startup folder and so the macro would always be available. With the new version of HotDocs 2006, you have a new option, to designate a DOT (template file) from which the post assembly document will select and run the post assembly macro.

Now why would you convert everything to RTF.  The simple reason is HotDocs will do it anyway in background.  And if you do the conversion, you will be able to see the occasional glitches and minor discrepancies in formatting the come from such tools.

Cheers,

Seth