Working with the Template Designer

Headlines in this article 

• Open Template Designer
• Enabling dynamics
• Configure dynamic placeholders
  • Insert binding
    • Date
    • Group
    • Image 
    • Text
• Configure document
  • Custom doc properties
  • Page setup
  • Proofing language
  • Image header

• Advanced template configuration
• Review Content Control settings

 

Pre-requisites for using Template Designer

• Templafy Office add-ins version 5.4.2.xxx or higher.
• User needs to have SuperAdmin rights on the Templafy solution.
• "Document Content Updater" (DCU) feature must be enabled. Contact your implementation partner if this does not appear to be enabled, and you believe that it should be.

 

Open the Template Designer

To open the Template Designer, a Microsoft Office program must be open, e.g. Word. When this is open, the Templafy Task Pane will appear on the right side of the screen. From this, select the three dots in the top right corner of the Templafy Task Pane. These will bring up a drop down list, and the ‘Template designer’ option should be selected.

 

Word		PowerPoint

 

Structure of the Template Designer 

There are three tabs within the Template Designer: 

• Elements: allows you to configure dynamic placeholders through a graphic user interface.
• Document: through this, you can configure the document.
• JSON: advanced template configuration, for example page setup and insert images.

 

 

 

First step: enabling dynamics

Before getting started on the actual configuration of the template, there are a couple of necessary steps that must happen to enable the template to contain dynamics.

 

 

1. Click the 'JSON' tab in the Template Designer section of the Templafy Task Pane. 

 

2. Select 'Load Template configuration'.

 

3. The basic Template configuration will appear in the Templafy Task Pane. Click 'Save Template configuration'. 

Important: Set "enableDocumentContentUpdater":true

 

4. Return to the 'Elements' tab, and click 'Create'. 

4 

 

Dynamic placeholders

Word

In Word, Templafy uses Content Controls as dynamic placeholders. Templafy stores the configuration as a JSON code string in the tags field located in Content Control Properties. To view the properties, highlight the content control. In the Word ribbon, choose the 'Developer' tab, select 'Controls', and then click on 'Properties'. 

Note: By default, the Developer tab is not enabled on the Office Ribbon. Information about how to enable it can be found here.

 

Content control properties:

 

Example of content controls in a letterhead:

 

PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, Templafy use Shapes as dynamic placeholders. Templafy stores the configuration as a JSON code string in the Alt Text field in a Shape. To view the Alt Text, right click on the shape, then select 'Edit Alt Text'. 

 

Alt Text field for a shape:

 

Example of a shape used for inserting logo:

 

How to insert and configure a dynamic placeholders:

1. Place the cursor in the relevant place in the document or presentation. 
2. Choose which type of placeholder you need. 
3. Choose the binding (this is the logic that determines which data to insert).
4. Click 'Create'. 

 

2. Choose the placeholder type from these options:

• Date.
• Group.
• Image.
• Text.
• TextElement.

Depending on your choice, different configuration options will be shown.

 

 

For all placeholder types, it is necessary to specify a 'binding', where the logic is set to determine the data that should be entered in the placeholder. 

 

A 'binding' is a tag string that refers to where the choice has been made by the end-user.

For more about tag strings read here.

 

Document tab: Configure document

Under the Document tab, there are a list of options:

1. CustomDocumentProperty 

2. Page setup

3. Proofing language

4. Image header

 

 

 

JSON: Advanced template configuration

 

 

Go to the Developer tab.

From the Controls section in Word, select the desired content control type. Word 2016 supports content controls like Rich Text, Plain Text, Picture, Building Blocks, Drop-Down Lists, Checkboxes and more.

In this step by step process, we will add Rich Text Content Control. 

 

 

Review Content Control settings

Content Control settings and properties can be revisited with Templafy Template Designer, or with the Content Control Properties dialogue in Word.

In Template Designer

Select the content control that you would like to add functionality to. Open Template Designer. The content control properties are visible in the Settings section, when the content control is selected in the Word document.  

It is possible to specify conditions to which the content control should respond in the Visibility Section. Content Controls can be either hidden or deleted if the binding is empty. 

 

 

In Word