How-To:PDF Template

This guide demonstrates best practices for creating a PDF Template based on a third party's PDF document (e.g. forms from banks, governments and other institutions).

For a general overview of creating a template, review the "Create Template" guide.

1. Open the New Template window (see the Create Template guide).
2. Click “Upload” and choose the PDF file you want to use as a template.
   
3. After uploading the PDF, name the template (by changing the description). If you wish to group the template by a category, enter or select a category name.
   
4. Navigate to the "Content" menu and click refresh. If your PDF file was sourced from a third party and has editable fields, you will likely find numerous meaningless content names appear. This is because the third party has not named the various form fields.
5. To have the best templating experience we need to give the fields within the PDF template meaningful names. Start by clicking “Edit” to open the PDF file.
   
6. We recommend using Adobe Acrobat to edit the PDF file. Within Adobe Acrobate, open the field editor or use the "Prepare a Form" function to generate fields. You should give the fields meaningful names as these will be the names that appear in the "Content" section of the ContactsLaw template editor.
   

   
7. Once you have finished generating and naming the fields in Adobe Acrobat, save the document and click "Check In" in the ContactsLaw "Edit Template" window.
   
8. Click the "Refresh" button in the "Content" window. Your newly generated/named fields will then appear.
   
9. Next proceed to the “Assets” and add the assets that you are going to draw upon to populate the Content fields.
   
10. Proceed to map the content fields in the document (referring to the Assets selected). The easiest way to do this is to click the “Browse” which will then give you the list of assets and different attributes that can be drawn on.
    

    
11. Select the asset/attributes for each content field. You can also apply formatting. See Document Template for an explanation as to content fields and formatting).
    

    
12. You can test your template at any time by clicking "Test Template" which will use generic information to populate your template fields.
    

    
13. To correct any faults or issues with the template, you can return to the "Content" menu to alter the mappings.
    
14. The template will then need to be Configured.