The Word add-in

Sliick Docs for Microsoft Word is an add-in that lets you build Sliick Docs templates inside Word. You write the document the way you want it to look, drop in merge fields from a picker that knows your org’s objects and fields, and save it to Salesforce as a Word-file template. From then on, Sliick Docs uses it to generate finished documents from a record, a Flow or a batch, with each merge field replaced by real data.

It is written for the person authoring templates. No coding is required.

Before anyone can connect, a Salesforce admin does a one-time setup in the org: install the package, assign the right permission set, and turn on Enable CORS for OAuth endpoints. See Org setup for admins. Authors can still try the add-in in demo mode before that is done.

What you can build

A template is an ordinary Word document with merge fields in it. A merge field is a placeholder such as {{Account.Name}} that is replaced with the real value when the document is generated. You can insert:

• Fields: a single value from the record (account name, amount, close date), or from a related parent (the account owner’s email).
• Repeating tables: one table row per related record, such as every contact on an account or every line item on an opportunity.
• Conditions: content that only appears when a rule is true, such as “show the premium clause only when revenue is over $50,000”.
• Built-ins: today’s date, the current user’s name, and similar.
• Images and barcodes: a picture from a field that holds a Salesforce File, or a Code 128 or QR code from a field’s value.

Everything else in the document, including your fonts, logos, tables, headers, footers and page layout, is kept exactly as you authored it.

Install the add-in

The add-in is listed in Microsoft’s add-in store (AppSource), so most people install it themselves in under a minute:

• From the store: in Word, go to the Home tab, click Add-ins, search for Sliick Docs, and click Add. This works the same in Word on Windows, Mac and the web.
• Deployed by your admin: larger organisations often push the add-in to everyone centrally. If so, it is already on your ribbon and there is nothing to install.

Either way you end up with a Sliick Docs group on the Home tab containing a Template Builder button. Click it to open the task pane down the right-hand side of Word. You can work in the document and the pane at the same time.

The task pane at a glance

Three tabs: Build, Check and Save. They sit under the pane’s header once you are connected. Nothing you have set is lost when you switch between them.

• Build: the field browser, and everything you insert into the document.
• Check: the tag check for the whole document, headers and footers included.
• Save: where the document goes into Salesforce, and where you generate a test document from it with a real record.

The header, above the tabs, holds:

• A coloured dot and a context line naming the org you are connected to and the base object your tags resolve against, for example acme.my.salesforce.com · Opportunity. An amber dot means demo mode (sample data, no org); a green dot means you are connected.
• ▤ My templates: the templates already saved in Salesforce for this base object.
• ⚙ Settings: demo or connected mode, the connection itself, and Diagnostics.

The bar at the bottom of each tab holds that tab’s buttons, and is where the pane answers you (“Generating…”, “Saved”, “Pick a template first”), so you never have to scroll back up a long field list to see what happened.

A count on the Check tab appears once you have run a check: red is the number of things needing attention, grey the number of tags checked and fine. No count at all means the document has not been checked yet, which is not the same as “no problems”.

The Build tab

• Object selector (the top dropdown): the Salesforce object the template is built for. Pick this first, because it drives every field below. A template for Accounts is generated from an Account record, a template for Opportunities from an Opportunity. This is the only place you set it; the Check and Save tabs show it read-only. Changing it clears the last tag check.
• Search box: type to filter the fields by name. Enter inserts the top match.
• Field groups, each collapsible: Fields (the object’s own), Parent fields (reached through a lookup), Running user (whoever generates the document), Built-ins (today’s date, the current date and time) and Related lists (repeating tables).
• The bar at the bottom stays put while the list scrolls: + Condition, + Table, and More ▾ for + If blank, + Image and + Barcode. Buttons your org’s Sliick Docs version cannot handle are not shown at all.
• Smart cursor: put your cursor inside a repeating list and the pane switches to that list’s fields. Select an existing tag and an Edit card appears that reopens it in the matching panel.

Where to next

1. An admin completes Org setup for admins.
2. You connect the add-in to Salesforce.
3. You insert merge fields, tables and conditions, then check and save.
4. You generate a test document and publish.

For what the add-in does with your data, see the Word add-in privacy policy.