This guide will go over document templates, and how you can add placeholders.
What is a document template?
A document template is a document structure that you can use again and again. You can create and save it on your HR-ON Staff platform so you can easily find it the next time you need it. This saves you time and effort as you avoid creating a document from scratch.
The use of placeholders will be expanded below, but in short, a placeholder allows you to easily tailor each document so it suits the employee in question. Once you have the template, this even happens automatically.
Create a document template
To create a new document template click on Create document template. A new window will appear. Assign a name and language for the template. Add an employment type if you need to, as well as a document type. Learn more about document types here.
Below header and footer, you have the option of incorporating your company’s DNA into the document, for example by adding a logo. You can also adapt the size of the document. Conclude by deciding whether the template should be available to a specific department or specific employees.
Click on the tab Edit document template, and scroll down to the editor to write the standard text of the document. You have the option of using a pre existing template from your computer drive, which you can subsequently edit in the editor (please follow the how-to above the editor).
As you can see in the editor, you have different options of styling your documents - for example with different fonts and the like.
At last, get a preview of the document in the tab on the right, and conclude by clicking on Save and close.
Placeholders
You can add so-called placeholders that you can later fill in with relevant information. This happens as you generate the document for the employee in question.
The placeholders could include information such as name, address, occupation, working hours, salary as well as other unique information that only apply to the employee in question. These information's can be fetched from the employee data card and from the company data you have in HR-ON Staff. This process takes place automatically.
Add custom field placeholders
You can add placeholders based on the custom fields you have created on your data card below Settings > Data card setup. For example, you may have created a user defined field on the data card titled “LinkedIn,” which is intended for the employee’s LinkedIn account.
If the user defined field type has been created as a text field or a roller, you can use these as placeholders in the document template. Add custom field placeholder fields below Documents > Document templates > Manage placeholders > Scroll to the dropdown list Add custom field as placeholder > Choose placeholder > Click on Save.
How to add a placeholder
- In the document, click wherever you want to insert the placeholder
- Click on the curly bracket icon { }. You can find it in the formatting line.
- Click on the placeholder you wish to insert for example First Name
- The placeholder will now be added to the document. If you have added a First Name placeholder it will appear like this {{employee_first_name}}. Do not edit the placeholder - simply leave it as it is
- Click on Save and close and go to the employee’s data card and click on Document > Add file or map > Generate document
- Choose the document from the list
- You will now see that the personal information of the employee has been added to the document. Should there be any missing information, you can add this in the right side of the document in the relevant field (see example below)
In addition to this you can add so-called conditional and inverted conditional placeholders. Learn more in this guide.
This guide has shown you how to create document templates. Additionally, we have gone over how to use and add placeholders.