Templates

The “Templates” menu group on the “Settings” tab in the main window contains all functions needed to manage an organisation’s templates.

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Figure 1. The “Templates” menu group on the “Settings” tab

Depending on the F2 installation and your privileges, between one and three types of templates will appear in the “Templates” menu group. From the menu group, you can manage document, approval, and case templates. This article covers document templates. Read more about the other types of templates in Create an approval template and Create a case template respectively.

Document templates

You can upload document templates that you can use to create new documents in F2. This is done via the Document templates menu items. The templates must be in Office format.

All users can create private document templates to use for daily work. A document template can be made available for the entire authority or for an individual unit under the authority by a user with the “Template administrator” privilege.

Click on Document templates to open the dialogue below. The dialogue displays all templates available to you.

document templates window
Figure 2. Template maintenance

The dialogue offers the following options:

  • Manage document templates using the menu items (1).

  • Select which template node to view or place new document templates in (2).

  • Sort the templates by the categories "All", "Text", "Spreadsheet", and "Presentation" (3).

  • Search for a specific template within the selected node (4).

  • Select a document template in the list and preview its contents (5).

The menu items of the "Document templates" dialogue support management and maintenance of document templates. The table below describes all available templates.

Menu item Description

"New document template"

Opens the "New template" dialogue. Select which document on your computer or an external drive you want to use as a basis for the document template.

"Properties"

Opens the "Document properties" dialogue. The dialogue shows a wide range of information about the selected document.

"Replace content"

Replaces the current document template file with one from your computer or an external drive.

"Export"

Exports a copy of the document template file to your computer or an external drive.

"Delete"

Deletes the selected document template.

"Show merge fields"

Opens a dialogue where you can select a record whose merge fields you want the "Merge fields on '[record title]'" dialogue to display.

"Document versions"

Opens the "Document versions: [template name]" dialogue where you can manage the versioning of a document template.

Add new document template

Document templates for use in F2 must be created in Office and then imported. Right-click on the folder or unit where you wish to place the document template and click on New document template.

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Figure 3. Create new template

The “New template” dialogue opens. Click on Browse to import the document you wish to use as a template.

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Figure 4. Add new template

Give the document template a title and select the location for the template. Finally, click OK to add the document template.

How document templates are sorted

Document templates are ordered in nodes showing which users can access them. These nodes serve as the location of the templates. In addition, the "All document templates" node shows you all the templates you can access. This means the node will not show you templates from other units, for example.

You need the "Template administrator" privilege to create document templates that are available to the entire authority or to individual units.

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Figure 5. Document templates are ordered in nodes

Document templates are either personal (1), unit specific (2), or standard (3). The three levels of nodes are described in the table below.

Type Description

Personal

Your private document templates only accessible to you.

Unit

Document templates available to the respective unit. A unit’s templates are also available to any subunits. This is reflected in the example in the image above: The user, who works in the Secretariat of the management, also has access to document templates from its parent node, the Doc Authority unit.

The nodes are also identified by their unit type, "Authority", "Department", and "Office". This makes it easier to keep track of the hierarchical structure. The unit type is decided by a user with the "Unit administrator" privilege when the unit is created.

Standard

Standard templates in F2, available to all users.

The template node context menu

The menu items of the context menu available on template nodes are described below.

  • Add template to upload new Office templates. Read more about adding new document templates.

  • Rename folder to change the name of an already existing folder.

  • Delete folder to delete a folder.

  • Create folder to organise the document templates.

The document template context menu

The menu items of the context menu available on document templates are described below.

  • Properties opens the “Document properties” dialogue, which provides information about the document template.

  • Save copy…​ of the document template file, either locally or on an external drive.

  • Replace content…​ of the selected document template file with a file from a local or external drive.

  • Delete the selected document template.

The "Show merge fields" function

You can work with merge codes in your document templates from the window.

Click on Show merge fields to open a search window. Select the record whose merge fields you would like to view, and double-click on it or click on OK. The window "Merge fields on [record title]" then opens, displaying all available merge fields for a record, its case, and its attached documents.

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Figure 6. The "Merge fields on [record title]" window

You have the following options in the window:

  • Copy (1) the merge code you have selected in the overview, or refresh the overview (2) with the latest changes to the record and its associated case.

  • Search for a merge field (3).

  • Filter merge fields (4) to only see one type in the overview, for example the case merge fields.

The "Document properties" dialogue

The "Document properties" dialogue displays the properties from the selected document. You can edit some properties such as the title, description, and external ID.

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Figure 7. Document properties

The fields of the dialogue are described below.

Field Description

"Title"

The title of the document template. You can edit this.

"Description"

A description of the document template.

"Author"

The name of the user who created the document template.

"Written date"

The date the template was created.

"Archive location"

An optional physical location.

"Saved by"

The name of the user who saved the current version of the document template.

"Saved date"

The time and date the current version of the document template was saved.

"File type"

The document template’s file type.

"Internal version"

The internal version number of the current document template version.

"ID"

The internal ID of the document template.

"External ID"

You can add an external ID here. This field is used for case guides, which are part of the F2 Task Guides module.

"Size (KB)"

The size of the document template in KB.

"Template path"

The location of the document template in F2.

"Merge engine"

The merge engine used by the template. Read more about merge codes.

"Approved for"

Identifies the document that the document template is associated with. Read more about remote printing (documentation available in Danish).

"Include upon reply creation when approval is final"

Whether the document will be included in the automatically created record upon final approval in an approval flow. You can toggle this function. This requires the F2 Signed approval add-on module.