What are smart fields?

This article explains what a smart field is and what types of smart fields are available in the Template tab of Template Designer.

What are smart fields? 

Smart fields enable to create the dynamic elements of a smart template. To create a smart template, specify the source of the dynamic element that should be inserted into the template, typically from the user profile, the response form, or data sources, as well as where should it be populated on the template. This can be achieved by creating smart fields through the Template tab of Template Designer. When the smart template is generated by the end-user, the smart fields will be dynamically transformed into the desired input. 

The example below shows a letter template with the smart fields that retrieve the data from the user profile (highlighted in red) and from the form responses (highlighted in green):

The generated letter looks like:

Type of smart fields 

Once a document or presentation is enabled as a template using Create template in Template Designer, the Template tab will be displayed along with the different smart fields available to use in the current application:

• User profile: insert user profile information in a template.
• Form responses:  insert answers from the response form in a template.
• Data: insert specific data from a data source in a template.
• Text element: dynamically insert text elements from the Library in a document (in Word only).
• Slides: dynamically insert slides from the Library in a presentation (in PowerPoint only).
• Custom text binding: use smart fields and/or functions together for more specialized use cases.
• Custom inline binding: use smart fields and/or functions together in a text for more specialized use cases.
• Custom chart binding: connect a Microsoft Office chart with data.
• Custom repeating group: repeat specific items from an array based on variable data input.
• Repeating item: repeat specific items from an array based on variable data input (only displayed once an adaptive section was created for a Data connector).
• External data: insert specific data from an external data source in a template.
• Group: group elements to set their visibility (in Word only).
• Custom image binding: insert custom image bindings in specialized use cases.