Generate and publish

Generate a test document

Two steps, both on the Save tab:

1. Save template or Save new version puts the open document into Salesforce.
2. Generate, in the Generate a document section, merges the version that is in Salesforce against a record you pick and downloads the finished file.

Generate always uses the saved version. If you have edited the document since you last saved, press Save first. Otherwise you get a file built from the older version, which is correct behaviour but not what you wanted to see. Generating never changes your document and never creates a version of its own.

The Generate a document section appears once there is a template to merge: when you pick one under Save to, or as soon as you save a new one. It is hidden while New template… is chosen, because nothing has been saved yet.

Generate needs a live Salesforce connection, so it is not available in demo mode.

Pick the record to merge

Record to merge is the first thing in the section. Pick or search for any record of the base object, or paste an Id. Typing one character filters the recent records already on screen; typing two or more searches the whole org, both by word start and by anything inside the name, so “pl” finds “Sample Account”.

PDF or Word

When your org’s Sliick Docs version supports it, a Generate as: PDF / Word choice appears beside the button. PDF is the default, and it is the one worth checking: the PDF your customers receive is produced differently from the Word merge, so a template can look perfect in Word and still lose something in the PDF. If the last save found the template cannot be a PDF yet, the choice starts on Word and says why; you can still pick PDF to see the org’s exact reason. On an older version the choice does not appear and you get a Word file.

The downloaded file

The file is named Generate-<template name>-<date>-<time>, for example Generate-Mutual-NDA-2026-09-24-182837.pdf, with the extension of what the org actually sent. The time makes every run’s name different, so a new file never replaces an earlier one. Word asks where to save it and lets you change the name.

Publish the template

Saving puts the template into Salesforce as a draft. From there it follows the normal Sliick Docs lifecycle, handled in Salesforce rather than in Word:

1. Proof and publish it in Salesforce, which makes it available for generation. Open it with Open in Salesforce, click Generate proof, check the result, then click Publish. A Word template needs a fresh proof of the current document before it can be published. An admin or template author usually does this. See Word-file templates.
2. Generate finished documents from a record, in bulk with Doc Batches, or from a Flow.

Generated documents are saved to Files on the record, and can be emailed automatically depending on how your admin has set things up.

PDF readiness

Word templates publish as PDF. Word output, which keeps your exact formatting, is a switch on the template in Salesforce, and which format is produced is chosen at generation time in Salesforce, not in Word. See Word output.

After you save, the results panel tells you before you publish whether the document can be a PDF, and if not, lists what to change in Word. Some Word features do not survive PDF rendering: text boxes, custom fonts, floating images, and SmartArt or shapes. Fix those in Word, or, if you want to ship the Word version as it is, turn Allow PDF output off on the template in Salesforce. Sticking to tables, inline images and standard fonts keeps a template PDF-ready.