See Also: Creating Document Templates
Trackops offers the ability to automatically produce reports, letters, and other standard forms through the use of "Document Templates". Document Templates can be created using Open Office (an open source word processor), Microsoft Word, or Google Docs (an online word processor).
Note: If you already have templates created in another word processor, open them inside Open Office or Google Docs, double check the formatting, and then re-save them in ODT format.
Creating a document template is as simple as inputting pre-defined variables into your document, and then uploading it to your Trackops system. To access a list of available variables, go to the Settings tab, click Document Templates, and then click New Document Template. From here, click the View Template Variables link (shown below).
Tip: For a sample report template, download one of the attached sample reports below. Please note, variable names inside the sample report may differ from your system based on your custom field names. Before uploading the sample template, compare the variable names in the document to those listed in the "View Template Variables" section.
Customizing the Document Template Filename
Using the Filename template field on the document template configuration you can control the naming strategy of the generated document. This field supports the use of template variables so you can tailor the name of the generated document to include the date, subject, or other useful information.
Leave this field blank to allow the system to auto-generate a template filename.
Associating your Document Template with the correct Case Types
Once you have uploaded your document template, make sure you check the boxes next to the case types that you want this document template to be available for. This allows you to ensure that case type specific documents don't appear on cases where they have no use.
Now that the document template has been uploaded to the system, you can generate a new document from inside a case (of the appropriate case type).
Troubleshooting Word Document Generation
Word experienced an error trying to open the file.
If you receive an error message trying to open the file in word, it usually means in incompatible character or characters has been inserted into the document causing the word to fail.
This issue usually stems from trying to put rich text content (i.e. case updates) into merge field variables. If you are using merge fields, make sure you don't have any rich text content associated with merge field template variables.
This issue can also occur if unsupported characters are entered into a document. We do a good job of looking for most incompatible characters, but if your document is failing on a single case, it is likely due to unsupported / non UTF8 content being stored in field on that case. Double check your content looks correct and generate the document again. If the problem persists, please contact support for assistance. Make sure you attach your document template and a sample case number that is affected.
The font size on case updates is too small or too large when inserted into the document.
The font size is taken from the default font in the document (i.e. usually the first font size used in the document), which could be white space. This can often happen if you've copied and pasted your template from another document and changed the fonts afterwards. If your font appears smaller than the font used in the rest of the document, try changing the font size of the entire document to the desired size.
The paragraph spacing is too big or too small when generating documents.
Generated documents pad paragraphs slightly to accommodate different types of documents. However, if your paragraph spacing appears too large or too small, try adjusting the default paragraph spacing on the document template. In Microsoft Word, click Design > Paragraph Spacing. From here, try choosing different spacing strategies until you find one that better suits your document. Once you set the paragraph spacing on the template, it will carry over to generated documents moving forward.
Sample Report Templates
To help you get started, download one of the sample document templates below. Please note, any subject variables stored in the sample document may differ from the ones you have created in your system. Be sure to compare the variables in your document to the available variables in your system.
- Field Investigation Report.docx - This is a Google Docs template (compatible with Microsoft Word) that does not utilize the Merge Fields features. If you are using Google Docs to learn how to build a an investigation report, this is the recommended sample template.
- Field Investigation Report - Merge Fields.docx - This is a Microsoft Word template using merge fields to define template variables. Merge fields are an alternate method of defining variables and can help create a more structured format, however don't support rich text format (i.e. bold, italic, etc...).
- Sample Report.odt - This is an Open Office report template that should be used with Apache Open Office writer, a free and open source alternative to Microsoft Word. ODT files are fine to use with basic plain text content but do not support rich text or images.