How to set up Microsoft Word as your Template Editor

An introduction to advanced Microsoft Word™

We have adopted Microsoft Word as our template-building program because in our view is it the most advanced and widely used word processor available. That said, many of the features of Word that are used in Document Templates may not be familiar to even a regular user. You may wish to engage a professional Microsoft Word user to assist you complete your Document Templates with each of the following elements to ensure a consistent end product. We are able to assist with this process.

Set out below is a brief explanation of some of the more common Microsoft Word functionality that is used in document automation.

Setting up Microsoft Word™

Downloading the Word Add-In

SYNTAQ has an ‘add-in’ that assists in the design of your templates. The add-in extends the functionality of Word to include special functions. This add-in is only available for Microsoft Windows users using MS Word 2010 or above on a Microsoft Windows machine (sorry Mac users!).

We recommend that you download and install our add-in as it will assist you design and trouble-shoot your templates. 

Working with Mergefields

Perhaps the most important element of Word for document automation is the mergefield. A mergefield is a native MS Word field that is inserted into the Document Template when it is being designed, and which is then either:

• Replaced with ‘content’ entered by the user when the Document is assembled; or
• Activates code to change elements of the document, e.g. removing conditional content using an {IF} statement.

Mergefields can have ‘Switches’ included in them that control elements of the content within the mergefield, e.g. by making all of the content capitalised, or changing the presentation format of numbers.

Exposing Mergefield Contents

Before you start we recommend that you set up Word so that you can see the content of the mergefields and other properties that you are entering into the document. If you are using Word in Windows then you can toggle the default appearance by using the keyboard shortcut 'Alt + F9' (or possibly 'Alt + Fn + F9' depending on your keyboard). 

Closed mergefields appear as if enclosed by double angular brackets as shown in the image below. 

This view is best suited to viewing the overall content of your document. It is important to note that editing the field name (here, Fund_Name_txt) in this closed view is merely superficial and will not alter the field whose data gets pulled into the document. If fields, sometimes referred to throughout our documentation as Short Ifs, are much harder to identify if your document is showing mergefields as closed.

Open mergefields appear as if enclosed by braces (curly-brackets) as shown in the following image.

This view is best suited to editing your mergefields and similar content. Editing a field name with the field open will allow you to alter the field whose data gets pulled through from the form. Short Ifs are best viewed in this manner. If something is not assembling as you expect, viewing your document in this way is highly recommended for identifying any template coding errors.

If you do not want to toggle the field codes for the entire document you can right click on individual fields and select 'toggle field codes'. This will switch a single field from closed to open and visa-versa. If you update the field, or reopen the saved document, all fields will return to the last set default of either all open or all closed.

Automatic clause and paragraph cross-references

Often document automation is used to automate a document (e.g. a legal agreement) that is made up of numbered clauses or paragraphs. Furthermore, many documents rely on one clause referring to another clause by number, e.g. “Clause 1: Subject to the condition in clause 3, this clause say [ABC]..” The reference to clause 3 in clause 1 is a ‘clause reference‘.

The potential issue with clause references is that they can get out-of-sync if the document automation process removes clauses or adds clauses in between the main clause and the referenced clause.

The issue of out-of-sync clause references is dealt with by using automatic paragraph Cross-references. The Cross-reference inserts a native MS Word Field into the document that is hard-coded to refer to a particular paragraph’s content in the document, irrespective of its number. When the numbers of each paragraph change, the Cross-reference is updated to continue to refer to the correct document content.

You often need to update all of the Cross-references in a document prior to printing. This can be done by selecting all of the Document’s content (Control-A/Command-A), and then by pressing Function Key (F9). This will also update any other Field content and Document elements, such as Tables of Contents, etc.

Bookmarks

A Bookmark is content within a Document that can be referenced in another part of the Document. The content is ‘bookmarked’ by an MS Word function, and a copy of that content can then be inserted into the Document by using a Cross-reference to that content. This can be handy when you want to refer to a heading in another part of the Document, e.g. the title of a schedule to an agreement.

Styles

Using Styles in Microsoft Word is very important to ensure that your end Document has a consistent and professional look. Basically, a Style is a set of rules about how the content of a Document is going to be formatted and set out. In our view, every bit of content within your Document Template should have a Style element applied to it.

You can adopt Styles that are native to Word (i.e. what applies when you first open a blank document in Word), or which belongs to a particular Style set (or Theme) included with Word. You can also adopt your own Styles and create new ones as you need them.

Custom numbered paragraphs

If your document is a legal agreement, then most of the paragraph will be numbered into clauses. Numbers should be automatically applied to paragraphs, rather than ‘hand-written’ by the person preparing the numbers. This will facilitate automatic updating of the numbered paragraphs themselves, as well as any Cross-references to the numbered paragraphs.

Word has both simple ‘numbering libraries’, as well as custom numbering and ‘list’ libraries.

Document and paragraph settings and rules

When a Document is automated the person designing the Document Template does not necessary know what the final Document is going to look like when it is assembled by the User. This is because the User will make choices that determine what content is assembled into the document, including what paragraphs are included and excluded.

For this reason, it is not possible for the Document Template designer to predict things like where page breaks are inserted, and paragraph placement.

In order to avoid ‘orphan paragraphs’, and headings being on one page with the content on the next page, it is possible to set rules for how content will be displayed if certain conditions are met. The most common is to set rules for the formatting of the Document and paragraph.

Keep with Next

This is a paragraph formatting rule, and it is often applied to headings. This ensures that the heading is not left on one page with the content of the following paragraph on the next page.

Widow/Orphan Control

This is a paragraph formatting rule, and it will ensure that a page does not start with only one line of the paragraph started on the page before. It will ensure that at least two or three lines of the paragraph are included on the next page.

Setting up your preferences and views

Finally, it is a good idea to set up Microsoft Word preferences and views to assist you in the Template Document design process.

Field Code and Content

Because you will be working a lot with Fields and their code and contents, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the display preference that enables you to toggle between displaying the Field code (open field view) and content (closed field view). If you are working with a Document Template that is displaying the Field content, then you can ‘toggle’ the individual Field to display the Field code by right-clicking on the mouse over the Field and selecting ‘toggle field codes’. See 'Exposing Mergefield Contents', above, for more details

We also suggest that you turn on ‘field shading’ so that you can see what elements of the Document Template are fields. This is helpful for spotting fields quickly and for identifying non-empty Short If statements in the closed field view.