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primedocs templates can
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be integrated into these four office applications:
Word
Outlook
Excel
PowerPoint
In addition, primedocs can list further document type, such as pdf files, which are simply opened with their respective application when double-clicked upon.
Designs
Designs offer a global definition of the fonts and colors specified in your CI/CD for your entire primedocs solution. The designs are not a template type, but are the basis for all template types in the template hierarchy.
Designs are divided into Font themes and Color themes and are used in the respective Office application in the primedocs tab:
The design fonts define both the fonts (body text and headings as well as additional ones) and the bullet points. The latter is only used in PowerPoint and Excel.
The design colors represent all colors defined in your CI/CD. These are displayed in the lists using the Fill Color, Line Color and Text Color buttons. The colors for diagrams are also defined here.
In the background, the designs in the respective Office application define the Themes in the Design tab.
Die Designs werden in der Organisationseinheit definiert. Da ein Profil jeweils einer Organisationseinheit angehört, kann beispielsweise folgender Anwendungsfall umgesetzt werden: Das Profil von Benutzer W, ist der Abteilung “Wasserwerk” angehängt; ihm wird eine Farbpalette in Blautönen angezeigt und das ganze Dokument ist in der Schriftart “Calibri”. Das Profil von Benutzer E ist der Abteilung “Einwohnerdienste” angehängt; ihm wird hingegegen eine Farbpalette in Gelbtönen angezeigt und das Dokument ist in der Schriftart “Arial”
The designs are defined in the organization unit. Since a profile belongs to an organizational unit, the following use case can be implemented, for example: The profile of user W is attached to the "Waterworks" department; he is shown a color palette in shades of blue and the entire document is in the "Calibri" font. The profile of user E is attached to the "Residents' Services" department; in contrast, to user E a color palette in shades of yellow is displayed and the document is in "Arial" font.
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The designs are already defined by us in the primedocs implementation project in accordance with your CI/CD. Therefore, they only need to be changed in fundamental redesign projects. |
Word templates
primedocs
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for Word is an exceptionally powerful
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tool for the automation
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and efficient generation of documents. The Word templates in primedocs do not follow the regular Word template structure
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, as this would not allow the
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necessary flexibility. Instead,
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a three-level hierarchy is used: style, layout and content.
Style
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The style template is the most basic of all template types, as all templates are based on it. All Word styles are defined here exactly according to your CI/CD and therefore according to your specifications. When a user generates a document, primedocs reads the required
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styles from this
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template.
Layout
The style template is followed by the Word layout templates. Here
the headers and footers (e.g. sender information, logo, page numbers and often also recipient address, date and subject line) and
the settings in the Layout tab in the Page setup group (e.g. the page margins)
are defined.
We define the layout templates in such a way that they are common to the underlying content templates. For example, if you have a series of contracts that differ in terms of content but all have the same header and footer, all these contracts are attached to the same layout template.
The practical thing about this is that if you ever need to adjust the structure of the header or footer, e.g., to move a logo to a different position, you only need to do this once
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in the
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respective layout template. This adjustment is then automatically passed on to every content template that is based on this specific layout template. This saves an enormous amount of time when maintaining templates.
Content
This is where the content is defined, such as fixed text and signatures. This is the lowest and most individual level,
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You can think of this as a pyramid, if it helps.
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which is based on the layout template and the style template.
Which elements are defined in a layout template and which in the
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content template greatly depends on how your templates are structured. It is most important to utilize this three-level model to place all "lowest common denominator" document attributes in headers and footers in the layout template and elements that are specific to each document in the actual
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So together, these three templates define each document you can make available to the user.
Special case: Theme templates
But wait - there is a fourth template type as well. This is the template which contains the document fonts and colours, and this is attached to your User Profile. You will find this theme file (or these theme files) in the Styles category in the admin view you will be working in anyway as a layouter.
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If you switch to the Organization tab of the primesoft tab, and then to “Organization units” in the left navigation, you will see the following, provided you have the necessary access rights, as this requires the Org. units administrator access rights, because this is where you aan build new organisational units. But as a layouter, you typically do not need to do this, but can use the theme templates that have already been made availabel for each existing organisational unit.
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At the right end of the ribbon, you can see the buttons for creating the colour and the font theme. You can edit these directly in XML.
content template.
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Headers and footers can also contain dynamic content, so you can theoretically swap out entire headers or footers depending on what the user selects when generating the document. This is made possible by the use of snippets. |
Let our product experts advise you on the best solution for your templates.
Together, these three template types then define each document that is made available to and generated by users.
Classic Word templates
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These template types are "classic" templates. You can find more information here. |
Theme (classic)
The default fonts (body text and heading) and the color palette are defined in this template type. The templates are used in the Office Designs document function in the configuration and control the Logo and Color mode buttons in a Word document on the primedocs tab.
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If you use classic templates, the designs defined above are not required. |
Layout (classic)
The same description applies to this template type as for the "Layout" template type.
Apart from the definition of Word properties (such as headers, footers and margins), all document functions configured are also inherited here downwards for content and function.
Content (classic)
The same description applies to this template type as for the "Content" template type.
Function (classic)
The function is based on content templates or other function templates. It only contains additional or overwriting document functions (i.e. in most cases scripts or document parameters).
A function cannot be opened in editor mode, so adjustments can only be made directly in Word in the underlying layout or content templates - or via snippets. The function can also be used to link a template to another template group.
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Read more about the inheritance of document functions in our technical documentation: Inheritance concept (classic) and Document generation (classic) |
Outlook templates
This template type can be used to create e-mail templates that can be generated from Outlook for composing a new e-mail.
Signature
With a signature template, the user can add the desired signature in Outlook, which directly accesses their primedocs profile data. Internal signatures, external signatures or signatures for forwarding/replying messages can be created. The signature always appears at the end of an e-mail or the content of an e-mail template.
Classic Outlook templates
Outlook and Word are technically closely related, and you will notice
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some similarities when
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working with Outlook templates. In Outlook, however, the templates are structured a little differently
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.
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We have the following, which are always present:
Mail theme template: This contains the mail styles and the colour theme, embedded into the Outlook file as you would normally embed the colour and the font themes (Options → Colors; Options → Fonts - both of which can be saved as a package, or a new theme here).
E-mail template: This contains all the content that should be pre-filled in when a new e-Mail is opened, not including the signature, which is a separate element.
Signature templates: these contain the signatures - usually one for the internal and one for the external signature.
The following are optional, and may or may not be present:
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Disclaimer template: This contains the company disclaimer, which may for instance be present only below the signature in external e-mails, if so desired.
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These template types are "classic" templates. You can find more information here. |
E-Mail theme (classic)
The E-Mail theme contains the specific style definitions for Outlook and acts as a "style" template for the Outlook templates. The themes are also applied here.
E-mail (classic)
This template type can be used to create e-mail templates that can be generated from Outlook to compose a new message. Alternatively, an e-mail template can be used to send an e-mail from a Word document generated from primedocs. This even includes the Word document or a PDF version of it as an attachment.
Signature (classic)
The same description applies to this template type as for the "Signature" template type.
Disclaimer (classic)
A disclaimer contains legal information about the use of emails or your company's disclaimer. The text of the disclaimer always appears below the signature in an email.
Campaigns (classic)
A campaign template can be used to create campaigns with (unlimited) time limits, e.g. with campaign banners. A campaign can then either be automatically attached to e-mail messages with external recipients or made available to users for selection. Several campaigns can be activated at the same time.
PowerPoint templates
PowerPoint templates, like Word templates, follow a three-level logic, but it is not the same as for Word due to the different logical structure of Word and PowerPoint files.
The three levels for PowerPoint are as follows:
Master template
This template only contains the slide layouts and appears empty when you open it. These layouts are inherited by the layers below.
Slide template
This template contains one content slide used to make a new slide with a slide preview in the "Insert slide" dialog in the primedocs Ribbon.
PowerPoint
Using the slide layouts defined in the Master template, this template contains the slides that ought to be available as content when the presentation is opened.
PowerPoint template (classic)
This template can be used to create a simple PowerPoint presentation in which data from the user, the company or an address interface can be inserted.
Excel templates
Excel template
The Excel template can be used to predefine one or several Excel sheet. In the primedocs tab the same functionality is offered as in PowerPoint.
Excel template (classic)
This template can be used to create one or several Excel sheet in which data from the user, the company or an address provider can be inserted. This template supports using the Document Parameter, Profile Data and the Script document functions.
Other template types
primedocs has two additional template types that can be used for PowerPoint templates:
Image gallery
A template of this type can be used to create an image gallery, which can then be linked in the PowerPoint master and whose images can be used by users in their generated PowerPoints. The image gallery allows you to group images in folders and this way, sort the images thematically.
Diagram template
The diagram template saves diagrams (.crtx files), which are also linked in the master and can therefore be used by users in their generated PowerPoints.
Third-party applications
It is also possible to import non-Microsoft Office templates or documents into primedocs, such as pdf files. For such documents, primesoft simply provides access to these files and opens them with the associated application.
Here are the two ways in which you can make a file available in this area:
External document
Here you can create a placeholder and then import a file directly, save it and make it available to users. Double-click on this file to open it with the associated application.
External file for distribution
This allows you to make a file available to users without them having to open it directly via primedocs. This is the case, for example, when distributing a setup file, a device driver or another file that is not to be opened directly but copied to a specific folder. This automatically packs the file into a ZIP file, which in turn is opened when the user double-clicks on it.