Word-file templates

A template’s Source Type decides where its content is authored: in the Sliick Docs editor, or in a Word file you upload. An uploaded Word template carries its own text tags, and Sliick Docs merges them and produces the PDF or Word file at generation time. Use this when the document already exists in Word and legal or brand ownership of it sits outside Salesforce.

The easiest way to write those tags is the Word add-in, which inserts them from a picker of your org’s fields, checks them, and saves the document to Salesforce without leaving Word.

What you can write in the file

• Merge fields and conditions. Write merge fields as tags in the document, and wrap optional content in {{#if}} blocks. Nested {{#if}} blocks are supported, so an optional clause can sit inside another optional clause. A file whose tags do not close properly is refused when you upload it, naming the tag, where it is, and how to fix it, rather than being accepted and merging into a broken document later.
• Whole numbers. {{Qty:integer}} renders 120 rather than 120.00, exactly as the Whole number format does in a designed template. See Merge field formats.
• Barcodes. Barcode tags render as real barcodes in the generated PDF and are sized to the document’s own page width. Add :nohri to a barcode tag to turn off the line of readable text that otherwise prints beneath the symbol. A barcode that cannot fit prints its value as readable text instead, with the reason recorded on the template’s info card when you proof it and in the generation history when you run it, so a document is never delivered with a raw tag or an unscannable symbol in it.
• Signature tags. Write {{@Signature:Role:Order:Type}} where a signature belongs and Sliick Docs places the field and builds the signer list from it when the document is sent for signature. See Signature tags.
• Chinese, Japanese and Korean text renders in the generated document, including text that Word producers write as character references rather than as the characters themselves.

The editor for a Word template

A Word template opens on the same editor as a designed one: the top bar, a merge-tag catalogue on the left, a PDF preview of the document merged against your test record in the middle, and a tabbed rail on the right. A Word template chip beside the status pill tells you which kind of template you are in. A published Word template reads Published, and a draft with a fresh proof reads Ready.

The rail has four tabs:

• Source: the Word document the template was built from, with a download link for the exact stored .docx, who saved it and when, the base object, the test record, the status and merge-tag count, and the live release.
• Output: which formats the template produces, and whether a PDF is possible. A readiness block says what stops this document from being a PDF, how long it is, which characters will not appear, and which parts render differently from Word. It is a statement of fact rather than a warning: a Word-only template is not broken. Beside it sit Allow PDF output and Allow Word output, which are your choice and which publishing never changes.
• Template: file name, compliance, watermark, visibility and specific records.
• E-sign: signer roles and signing fields. See Setting up a template for signature.

One Save, on the top bar. A change on any tab is held until you click Save on the top bar, whichever tab you are on. Generate proof and Publish sit beside it. There is no separate Word preview button: Generate proof makes every format the template ships.

The preview in the middle takes the document’s own page size and scales with the window rather than reflowing, so a line breaks where the PDF breaks it. It appears only for a document that can be a PDF.

Proof before you publish

A proof is where you see Sliick Docs’ rendering of your document before a customer does. The PDF is a reinterpretation of your Word file, so a dropped header, a lost picture or a broken table shows up in a proof first. Proofs are listed in the Generated proofs drawer, as they are for a designed template.

• A proof is made in the formats the template ships, and it also tries the PDF whenever the document can be one, even with PDF output off, so turning PDF on later does not start from nothing.
• When a proof cannot make the PDF, it records why. The Source tab and Publish repeat that reason rather than asking you to proof again.
• Saving a new .docx from Word makes the proof stale. Turning PDF output off never does, because that is the way out of a publish stuck on the PDF.

A Word template needs a fresh proof of the current document before it can be published, the same rule as a designed template. Publish goes live once a test record is set, every merge tag resolves, a fresh proof exists and, when Allow PDF output is on, the document passes the PDF checks and the proof actually produced the PDF.

Generate proof and Publish stay clickable when a step is missing, and a click names the step, for example “Set a test record on the template before generating a proof.” or “Generate a proof and check the document before you publish it.” When the document itself is the problem (merge tags that do not resolve, or a PDF it cannot produce), Publish is greyed out and names the fix. A Word-only template publishes even when its PDF checks fail, and turning Allow PDF output off is never refused.

Only a proofed PDF goes live. If you publish a template as Word only and later turn Allow PDF output on, nobody can generate a PDF from it until you generate a new proof and publish. Releases that were already serving PDFs before 3.0 keep doing so. See Proof, publish and versions.

Pictures

Pictures are taken out of your document when you save it from Word, stored with that version, and reused by every proof, add-in preview and publish. That is what makes pictures appear in a proof, and it means everyone who generates from the published template sees them, not only the person who published it.

• A document can carry up to 50 pictures. A save with more is refused before anything is written, naming how many your document has.
• A draft saved before 3.0 has no stored pictures. Its proof refuses with “Save the document from Word again to include its pictures.” One save from the Word add-in fixes it.
• The PDF can draw PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP pictures. A picture in another format, most often an EMF (which Word writes for anything pasted from another Office app and for most vector logos), is named in the readiness block and refused for PDF. An SVG inserted in Word passes, and old Word 97-2003 pictures print.
• A picture missing from the file itself is reported on the proof, the add-in preview and the generation, rather than leaving a silent gap.

New versions

Saving from Word before the template is first published updates the current draft in place. After it has been published, saving from Word creates a new version to review, proof and publish.

New Draft also works for Word templates: the Template Library’s New Draft, or Create draft on the editor’s top bar on a published version, starts the next version from the Word file already stored on the template, re-checked before anything is written. Nothing has to be re-saved from Word. Proof the draft, then publish it.

Publishing again never changes a live PDF. Publish again from stored file in the Template Library republishes from the exact file the live release used, with the current checks. The live release’s PDF and its pictures are carried over exactly as they are, and a republish never adds a PDF the live release does not have. To pick up an improvement to the PDF rendering, or to add a PDF to a template that went live as Word only, create a new draft, proof it, then publish. The library tells you when a newer PDF rendering is available.

Replacing the file directly in Salesforce Files does nothing. A release keeps generating from the exact version of the .docx it was published from. To use a new file, save it from Word.

Source Type is fixed once a template is published. So is its base object. A save that would change either is refused with an explanation, because every release already published was compiled against them.