Edition: Professional, Business, Enterprise
User-level: Assistant Administrator, System Administrator
Previous steps: N/A
What are document templates?
Document templates allow you to automate the process of creating client documents such as invoices, project letters and proposals. By adding bookmarks and tables to the template, you can pull data directly from Synergy to your documents.
Create a new Document template
Create a new document template by completing the following steps below:
Go to Organisation menu > Settings > Templates > Documents
Press 'Create' in the top right hand corner.
Select the template 'type' first, I.e whether this template will be an invoice or proposal. This will determine what is available to populate the document with (bookmarks and tables).
You will then need to choose whether you want to upload one of your existing documents, create a blank document, or copy one of Synergy's sample Templates.
Create a blank document
Select 'Create' to the right of Blank document in order to create a blank word document and add the bookmarks and tables you require.
Upload document
Upload an existing document such as an invoice or proposal to populate using the Synergy bookmarks and tables. (Optionally you can drop and drag a file into the box.)
Copy Document
To edit one of Synergy's existing document templates select a Template from the 'Copy document' dropdown menu. This will create a duplicate of the existing template for you to edit, so if you make any mistakes you will always have the original Synergy template to reference.
Edit document template details
The edit document template page opens, in which you can update the following details as required by clicking into the text boxes:
Name change the name of the template to be identified easily when shown in a drop list.
Description to explain to staff why to use this template, which is important if you have multiple templates for a template type.
Preview icon - once saved you can click this to preview your template with Sample data.
This template can be used by control who has the ability to use the template, e.g., User access level and above allows all staff access to the use this template.
Status put your template in Published or Draft status depending on what you require. Your template will not appear on the relevant drop down list for selection if it is in Draft.
Default file name select a file name from the drop down list, or type a default file name to be used by this template. This is not available for invoice or credit note type documents.
Default folder choose which folder in the project / contact / staff record that the created document should be saved into automatically. This option isn't available for invoice or credit types.
Save will save any changes you have made to your template. In order to view a preview of the latest details added, or to apply any new bookmarks/tables for editing in the Word document, you will be required to save firs
Update the bookmarks
Add or remove bookmarks so that the information you get into your generated document is correct.
In the edit template screen click the 'Select bookmarks' option.
Expand the groups of bookmarks on the left side. These are grouped by data type.
Select the '+' icon to the right of each of the bookmarks that you wish to add. (If you want specific information to be shown more than once, you will need to add multiple versions of the same bookmark.)
Press the red 'x' to the right of 'Selected bookmarks' to delete any unwanted bookmarks.
Press 'Save' in the top right hand corner of the Bookmarks window.
Note: Save the entire Document template between stages to avoid losing work done should you accidentally navigate away from the page - this page does not auto-save changes.
Edit the Document Tables
From the 'Edit template' screen, click the "Select tables" button.
On the left hand side, you will see all table options for the type of Template you're editing. On the right hand side you'll find any tables already added to the Template.
Add additional tables by selecting the green plus on the right of the table name. You can edit this table by selecting the pencil to the right of the table name.
Click the save button to confirm the table choice, and apply any changes you've made to the table. Click "Select other tables" if you'd like to keep adding and modifying tables.
When you have finished editing, ensure you press save in the top right hand corner.
Notes:
Save the entire Document template between stages to avoid losing work done should you accidentally navigate away from the page - this page does not auto-save changes.
Changes aren't automatically saved on the table, if you need to undo 1 change, it is best to undo the change manually, do not click Cancel - you will have to re-do your entire table again from your last save point.
Update the Word document template
To format where in the document you would like the data from Synergy to be pulled through to, you will need to edit the bookmarks in Word.
In the edit template screen, click the 'Download file' button. Open the downloaded file.
Delete any of the non-applicable bookmarks and tables. Edit the footer, header and body of the document to match your desired layout.
Cut and paste the Synergy bookmarks into the required positions within the text (see more on Bookmarks for more information on moving bookmarks to make sure you do it right).
Edit the table properties, edit the location of the Synergy Bookmarks. Apply font sizes, colours, paragraphs or line spacing etc.
Save the word document.
Go back to the edit template page in Synergy.
Click the "Upload edited file" button
Find the file (likely located in your DOWNLOADS folder unless moved), and open it.
Save in the top right hand corner.
Note: Your template will not automatically update itself within existing invoices - you will need to use the Switch layout option on the invoice page, and re-select your newly updated Template in order for it to reflect changes made.
Important notes about Microsoft Word
Cut and paste - when you copy the bookmark make sure you the 'brackets' around the bookmark name like [|Current_Date1]. These brackets identify the Synergy bookmarks and are required to stay attached to the bookmark name to be able to populate with the Synergy data when creating the document output.
Broken bookmarks/Bookmark brackets are lost - If the brackets are lost by mistake, you can highlight the text and click the 'Bookmarks' icon in the 'Insert' ribbon of MSWord, select the bookmark and then click add to reapply the bookmark to the text - which will put the brackets back to where they should be. See Turning bookmarks on in Word from our Basic Editing in Document Templates article to make this process easier to troubleshoot broken bookmarks.
Add duplicate bookmarks - Add the required bookmark to the 'selected' list multiple times if you want to show the same information in different locations in the document. Each bookmark can only be in the Word file once. E.g. [Current_Date] and [Current_Date1] would both be shown in the edit bookmarks panel to show today's date in two places in the document template.
Don't delete bookmarks - Don't delete bookmarks from the Word document, first remove the bookmarks from the Template edit page > Bookmarks, then save - download, and the unwanted bookmarks will be gone, you can then remove the text related to the original bookmarks. Doing it the other way around will re-add the unwanted bookmarks you deleted from the Word document to the bottom of your newly edited, uploaded, and saved template.
Tips:
Each Synergy organisation includes sample templates for each document template type: Invoice, credit note, proposal, project, contact, and staff document types.
There is a restriction that only one template of each type can exist for the Synergy Professional product. Edit the sample documents that Synergy provides for each type of document if required. Additional templates cannot be created for this product level.
Have multiple document templates for each document type with the Synergy Business or Enterprise products. Edit the sample templates provided, or add extra templates to cater for different types of business cases.
Where to next?
What other features does this relate to?