Supported Template Formats

ContactsLaw supports a number of different formats for the body of a document template. Different formats offer slightly different capabilities.

Feature Matrix

	Content Markers	Formatting	Fragments	Styles	Emails	Text Messages
Markdown (.md)	✓	✓	✓		✓
Microsoft Word (.docx, .docm, .dotx, .dotm)	✓	✓		✓
Microsoft Excel (.xlsx, .xlsm, .xltx, .xltm)	✓	✓
Portable Document Format (.pdf)	¹
Plain Text (.txt)	✓				✓	✓
ABA/Cemtext Direct Entry File	²
eLodgment Data File (Magistrates Court of WA)	²

¹ ContactsLaw creates an insertion point for each form field in the PDF (using the name assigned in the form). Arbitrary content markers cannot be added. Conditional/repetition blocks are not supported.

² These formats do not use a template body. Each template has a fixed set of content markers, which may be of any type.

Attachments

Markdown (.md)

Attachment functionality depends on the output format:

• Email Message (.eml)
  • Attachments can be inline or otherwise
  • Inline image attachments are only included if they appear within the message body (after evaluating conditional blocks)
  • Inline Cascading Style Sheet (.css) attachments are incorporated into the message body
  • All other inline attachments are ignored
• Markdown (.md)
  • All attachments must be inline
  • Only images can be attached
  • Images link to the DMS App (as they cannot be embedded)
• Microsoft Word (.docx, .docm, .dotx, .dotm)
  • All attachments must be inline
  • Only images can be attached

Microsoft Word (.docx, .docm, .dotx, .dotm)

Attachment functionality is the same regardless of the output format:

• All attachments must be inline
• Only images can be attached