Word Templates

If you already have Word documents that you have been printing out to use as data capture Forms, this means that with a few minor changes, you can reuse these as data templates.

This functionality works similarly to a Microsoft Word “mail merge” in that the system produces output based on pre-formatted templates. 

The template contains the static (non-changing) text, images, and formatting wanted in the final output.  
It also includes placeholders where Form entry answers will go. 

For example, imagine you have an Inspection Form and want to export the Inspection Data captured on the app as a standard letter.

You could create a Word template that sets out the standard text of the letter along with placeholders for where various Inspection answers should go. 

In this article 

• Adding a Template to a Form
• Testing Your Templates
• Troubleshooting / Common Issues
• Example Template - "Kitchen Sink"

Adding a Template to a Form

1. Identify the Form requiring a custom output template.
   If you don’t already have a Form, you can quickly create the Form using the Form Screen Designer.
    
2. Create a new or use an existing Word file.  
   If you already have Word files you've been printing to use as data capture Forms, these can easily be reused as a template.
    
3. Go through your Word template and insert placeholders wherever you want the system to insert answers from data entries of your chosen Form.
   
   Placeholders are entered using the unique data name of the Form field, wrapped in curly braces – e.g. {{dataname}}
   
   So, for example, if your Form has a field with the data name of “LastName”, then you can instruct the system to inject the answer for this field wherever the placeholder {{LastName}} appears.
   
   Any formatting (font, color, highlighting, size, etc.) that you apply to the placeholder will be honored by the system and applied to the answer value inserted. 
    
4. Once you have inserted all the placeholders needed, upload the Word template file to your Form screen.
   There are two places where you can add a template to a Form:
   • Form Level
     If you add a template at this level, you are instructing the system to use this template as the default whenever a PDF is generated.
     Upload your template using the "Word Template" field in your Form's Settings page.
   • Connector Level
     This template is specific to one or more Connectors but should not be used as a default. Upload your template using the "add data template" link on the appropriate Connectors in your Form's Connectors page.

Testing Your Templates

Assuming you have at least one existing Form entry, you can test your templates reasonably quickly by using the Data area.

Search entries against your Form and the version you uploaded your template on the Data page.
Once you have some Data results, hover over a row and click the Export option to get an instant look at your template output.
 

Troubleshooting / Common Issues

Your generated docx output does not open in Word, giving errors such as "unreadable content" or "file is corrupt and cannot be opened."

The issue concerns the docx template used in your Word data template.

Usually, this means that your Word doc is linked under the hood to an inaccessible docx file (usually located on your PC or a network drive).

Now this docx file is not available to the Appenate platform when it generates the file and naturally is not found when you open the Word output file on another machine.

You need to clear the docx template of your Word file, which will let the Word file default to the standard "Normal" docx template.

Follow the steps below to clear the problem docx template:

1. Display the Developer tab in the Word ribbon, and navigate to the Developer tab.
2. Click the Document Template tool. Word displays the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box.
3. Clear whatever text is found in the Document Template field (even if it says "Normal").
4. Click OK to reset the Word doc to have no required/attached docx.
5. Close the dialog and save your Word template.

You're using tables in your Word doc and merging cells vertically.

This can cause null ref errors requiring a template redesign of the problematic vertically merged cells, without vertically merging cells.

Example Template - "Kitchen Sink"
 

If you're the kind of person that likes to jump straight into the deep end, then take a look at the attached docx file below :)

This is a "kitchen sink" example of most of our functionality for Word data templates.