iDocuments PDF Document Manager

First published on: 12/12/2023/3:42 pm

User Guide

Overview

Introduction

This document provides an overview of the iDocuments PDF Document Manager, which allows output documents to be created from a word template or an internal designer format.  If not created, then the default system print formats will be used.

Once you are ready to use the PDF manager, you can enable with the company setting “Using PDF document designer”, without which the default PDF formats will be generated by iDocuments.

PDF Print Templates

Admin>PDF Printing>Document Manager

The PDF print templates are managed from the PDF Document Manager screen.

Each of the PDF print templates can be created or modified from here.

A template can be created for the logged-in company for one of the relevant document types, which are:

• Expense
• Goods Return Note
• Purchase Contracts
• Purchase Order
• Sales Invoice
• Sales Order

A subtype can also be used where the template needs to be differentiated.

• Service
• Item
• Item No Quantity
• Service No Quantity

An additional differentiation can also be made by language.

On the left side of the pane are the document types and subtypes that have already been created and their status.  Along with the actions that can be carried out.

Create

Using ‘Create..’ allows for a full new version to be selected, or a similar from the source template that was selected.  Reset will cancel this creation.

This allows the same source template to be copied to another company, document/subtype, or language.

Revision

Using ‘Revisions..’ allows for a revision can be created.  Close will cancel this creation.

From the additional Actions shown in the Revisions pane.

New Version

Gives you an option to create a revision as a Major version e.g., 2.0 or a Minor version e.g., 1.1 to help with version control.

Publish

This allows you to make the template for the current live version and gives you the option to set a date from when you want the changes to take place, which cannot be altered after the date has passed.

Delete

Allows the revision to be deleted.  Note: if deleted, then a previous version will then be used, or if none are set, then the default system version is active.

PDF Editor

After selecting the ‘Revision’ and then Designer option, there are 3 options along the left-hand side and buttons along the top for processing.

The 2 main ways to create a template are in Designer mode, which is the basic editor for entry of all data, or the simpler MS Word template mode.

Designer

In the Designer mode, each field and text required, along with any formatting must be added (or copied from another one).  You can first select the orientation and any margin changes and then choose the Designer tab to enter the data required.

In the designer, there are tabs for formatting the text you enter, inserting non-text items (table, images, hyperlinks, or full-page lines).

In the iDocuments tab, that is where you will select the system fields that you want to be shown on the output document, e.g. if you select the field for Purchase Order Number, the system will enter #HEAD:PurchaseOrderNumber

The final ‘View’ tab has an option to allow you to view the designer in a full-page mode, to allow for more of the designer to be shown.

MS Word Import

In the MS Word option, you can simply create a template as a Word document and then upload it to the site to use as your template. 

To determine the fields required, you can use the designer option above to select from the drop-down list and copy that text into your Word template.

Once you have your template, you can select the upload location from the right-hand side and then ‘Save’ from the top menu.

Note: if a template exists, you can use the ‘Download’ option to obtain a copy to update or delete it to remove it (Saving a new file does not require the first to be deleted).

Generating an example document

Whichever way the design is created, you can then ‘Save’ any changes at any point.  Note: you need to ‘Commit’ the changes to apply those to the template.

To check the formatting and layout, you can also use the ‘Generate Document’ option to trial the new format before committing the changes.

Optionally, you can select a supplier and document number to see what that data would look like when generated from iDocuments.

Once you are done you can use the ‘back’ button to return to the main page

Changes:

240918 Confirmation of required company setting

240926 Added screenshots for adding new fields to the word template

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