How to remove and delete Smart Rules

You can create as many Smart Rules as you need to help automate the personalization process in your templates. However, as your business evolves, you will probably find that your templates and the Smart Rules you need will evolve too. Just as you can create new Smart Rules, you can also remove them when they are no longer needed.

If you’re new to Smart Fields and Smart Rules, then please read this article first.

Before you can make use of the Design tab to delete Smart Rules in documents and in presentations, you'll first need to: 

• be subscribed to the Premium plan or higher, and
• belong to either the QorusDocs Admin or Designer user roles

In this article, you’ll learn how to: 

1. Remove an instance of a Smart Rule
2. Delete a Smart Rule from your QorusDocs Hub

1. Remove an instance of a Smart Rule

Removing an instance of a Smart Rule means removing it from a place where it was inserted. If a Smart Rule has been re-used and inserted three times in one document, remove one instance means that they’ll still be two other instances of the Smart Rule present in that document. That Smart Rule is also available for re-use in other templates and content when you simply remove an instance.

If you’d like to completely remove all traces of a Smart Rule from your QorusDocs Hub, then, you can skip ahead to the next section below. If you only want to remove from one place in a document, then continue reading.

To get started, open the document or presentation you'd like to remove Smart Rules from.

Next, click on the more menu, then on the 'Design' tab in your QorusDocs Add-ins.

 And then click on 'Rules' to display the list of Smart Rules in that document:

As we mentioned above, Smart Rules can be used multiple times in a document. The number next to the gear icon and to the right of the name of a Smart Rule indicates the total number of occurrences of the Smart Rule in the current document or presentation.

QorusDocs also keeps track of each Smart Rule instance, as Smart Rules can be inserted into several documents or presentations. To view all the instances of a Smart Rule, either click on the name of the Smart Rule, or on the number itself: 

When you do this, the panel expands to reveal a list of instances for that particular Smart Rule.  

Clicking on any one of the instances (Instance 1, Instance 2, Instance 3, etc.), will jump you straight to the place in the document, where that instance can be found. This way you can very quickly and easily see where the Smart Rule has been used. 

To remove an instance of a Smart Rule, click on the trash can icon that appears next to that instance: 

To remove the Smart Rule from the document or presentation completely, simply remove all instances of that Smart Rule.

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2. Delete a Smart Rule from your QorusDocs Hub

To ensure that a Smart Rule can no longer be used in any document or presentation, you must completely delete it from your QorusDocs Hub.

Before you can delete a Smart Rule from your QorusDocs Hub completely, you'll need to first remove all instances of that Smart Rule from the current document or presentation (see above) you're working in. 

Once the Smart Rule no longer exists in the document, you'll find it at the bottom of the Design panel, under the header 'Available in your hub'.

To completely delete a Smart Rule, click on the gear icon next to its name: 

This will open up a new window, where you can delete the Smart Rule: 

IMPORTANT! Deleting a Smart Rule from your QorusDocs Hub does not remove the Smart Rule from any other documents and presentations where it might have been used.

If you delete a Smart Rule from your QorusDocs Hub, the Smart Rule will no longer work - even if that Smart Rule still exists in some documents or presentations.

This means that it's a good idea to first remove as many instances of a Smart Rule as you can, from all the documents and presentations where it has been used, before deleting the Smart Rule entirely from your QorusDocs Hub. 

Alternatively, whenever you encounter an orphaned Smart Rule that no longer works but is still present in a document, you can manually delete the content control box that represents the placement of the Smart Rule, from your document. You can do this by right-clicking anywhere inside the content control box in the document, and then on 'remove content control' in the contextual menu: 

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