Basic SOAPnote Tags

The sections of this guide are:

Suggestions for Getting Started

To save you time, there are a few suggestions that I have before you dive in.
Have a plan – making a Soapnote is like a reverse engineering process. Start with good clinical documentation and work backwards.

Boilerplate

This is simply text entered into a form. Nothing interactive or customized here. Sometimes simple is better.

Note for example below: To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. For this one, both views of the Latin text below are the same. You can see the active code at www.soapnote.org/sample/boilerplate-2/.

Example:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec turpis metus, blandit feugiat suscipit nec, ullamcorper vel risus. Maecenas ut risus elit, vel varius odio. Fusce et sem nec lacus venenatis faucibus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi nulla lacus, tincidunt vitae dignissim sed, dapibus ut dui. Proin tincidunt justo quis diam ultrices rhoncus. Sed sodales vestibulum felis id dictum. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Proin pharetra tincidunt erat, pharetra gravida est ultricies non. Suspendisse ac lacinia odio. Aliquam nunc lorem, ornare vel sollicitudin non, vehicula vitae orci. Fusce sollicitudin dui varius magna dictum eget imperdiet dolor euismod. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.

Text Boxes

This displays a small text box for entry of a few words.
Optional parameters are name, memo, default, and size

Note for the examples below: You can see the working example at www.soapnote.org/sample/text-boxes/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example 1 – Basic Text Box
[text]

Example 2 – Text Box with Default Text
[text name="text1" default="sample text"]

Example 3 – Larger Text Box
[text default="sample text 2" size=100]

Text Areas

This displays a larger text box for entry of a few words.
Optional parameters are name, memo, cols, rows, fillable, and default

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/text-areas/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example 1 – Basic Text Area

[textarea]

Example 2 – Text Area with Default Text
[textarea name="textarea1" memo="sample text area" default="enter text here"]

Text Areas with Lots of Default Text (Alternative Code)

This is alternative (better) code for a Text Area that allows for a significant amount of default text. It uses an opening and a closing tag instead of having everything inside of a single tag.

Note for example below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/text-areas-alternative/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the example below, as well.

Example:

[textarea]item1
item2
item3
item4[/textarea]

Fillable Text Areas

This is an optional feature of Text Areas.
When this is enabled, this feature allows you to hop between every six asterisks in the Text Area to make your edits. You can hop by clicking on the “Fillable” button or by pressing CTRL plus the left or right arrow. The fillable text can just be 6 (six) asterisks or all the text between two sets of 3 (three) asterisks.

Note for example below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/fillable-text-areas/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the example below, as well.

Example:

[textarea fillable="true"]item 1
item 2
item 3
item 4 item 5[/textarea]

Dates

The Date Tag displays a box for entering dates. A calendar pops up when you click on it (you can also type in the date).
Optional parameters are name, memo, and default

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/dates/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example 1:
[date name="date1"]

Example 2:
[date name="date2" default="today"]

Timestamp

You can use the Date Tag to insert the time the form was opened. You simply set the default value equal to “timestamp”

Note for example below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/timestamp/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the example below, as well.

Example:

[date name="date2" default="timestamp"]

Radio Buttons

The Radio Tag displays buttons where only one item can be selected. In the output, each choice displays with ‘+’ (for selected) or ‘-‘ (not selected) next to each item.

The only required parameter is value.
The only optional parameter is name.

Note for example below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/radio-buttons-2/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the example below, as well.

Example:
Employment type: [radio value="Full Time|Part Time|Unemployed"]

Check Boxes

The Checkbox Tag displays boxes where more than one item can be selected. In the output, only selected items display.

The only required parameter is value.
Optional parameters are name and memo.

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/check-boxes-2/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example 1:
[checkbox value="option A|option B|option C"]
Example 2:
[checkbox name="cb1" value="upper extremity|lower extremity|neck|back|knee"]

Checklists

The Checklist Tag displays boxes where more than one item can be selected. In the output, all choices display with ‘+’ (for selected) or ‘-‘ (not selected) next to each item.
The only required parameter is value.
Optional parameters are name and memo.

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/checklists/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example:
[checklist value="option A|option B|option C"]

The Select Tag displays a drop down box where only one item can be selected.
The only required parameter is value.
The optional parameters are name and memo.

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at https://www.soapnote.org/sample/drop-down-2/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example 1:
[select value="choice A|choice B|choice C"]

Also, numeric values (for calculations) can be set by using the ‘equals sign’ in the name parameter. This comes in handy with calculations (later in this tutorial).
Example 2:
[select name="letters" value="choice A=1|choice B=2|choice C=3"]


Comments 

Comments do not show up in output but do display in the form.
The only required parameter is memo – it is the text that is displayed in the form (but not the result).
You can style it by size (small and large), color (red, green, light green, blue, orange, purple, yellow), and bold or italic.

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/comments/. You can see all the possible comment colors at www.soapnote.org/sample/all-colors/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example 1 (standard):
[comment memo="Text that will not show up in output"]
Example 2 (color):
[comment memo="orange" memo_color="orange"]
Example 3 (size):
[comment memo="large size" memo_size="large"]
Example 4a (italic/bold):
[comment memo="bold style" memo_style="bold"]
Example 4b (italic/bold):
[comment memo="italic style" memo_style="italic"]
Example 5 (everything):
[comment memo="salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic and onions" memo_color="red" memo_size="large" memo_style="bold"]

Link Tags can take you to other web pages or to locations within the current form. They are a huge part of this tutorial, so you’ve probably seen these tags for a while now.

Optional parameters are url, mark, and memo
“url” is the complete web address (including http://).
“mark” is used for internal links.
“memo” is the text to be displayed.

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/links/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example:
[link url="https://www.soapnote.org" memo="SOAPnote Home"]


Marks

A Mark Tag allows you to jump from one place in a form to another. It’s like a placeholder or bookmark in the form. A Link Tag is needed to send the user to a Mark.

The required parameter is name.

Note for examples below: You can see the working examples at www.soapnote.org/sample/marks/. To switch views between the Active Form and Markup Code, click on “View” in the upper right of the page. Then choose “Form” to see the Active Form or choose “Markup” to reveal the Markup Code. You can use the examples below, as well.

Example:
[link memo="go to the mark" mark="mid-blah"]
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah blah blah
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah
[mark name="mid-blah"]
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah
blah