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List Word templates

Upload and manage branded Word templates for lists

Updated over a week ago

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for setting up and managing Word templates for lists in Legatics. These enable your organization to maintain brand consistency and produce professionally formatted documents.

Note: Word templates can be tricky to setup. If you're having trouble, contact us at support@legatics.com and we can help out!


Before you get started

Please read our article that provides an overview of how Word templates work in Legatics. It'll make setting up list Word templates faster and more straightforward!

Heads-up: The article also explains text and table styles, and how to set them up. Be sure to read that section.


Step A: Prepare your Word files

In this step, you prepare your Word files so they're ready to upload to Legatics in Step B. We recommend following them as outlined to ensure a smoother setup process.

Important: Make sure you're working in a .docx file. Other Word file types - such as .doc - aren’t supported.

1 - Design your template

You can fully customise your Word templates to reflect your branding - cover pages, headers, footers, and more. This is your opportunity to create a modern, professional look that matches your house style.

While we can’t assist with the design itself, this is the ideal first step before diving into the technical setup. We recommend involving your design or marketing team to help ensure your templates are polished and on-brand.

Images: If you're adding images to your template, set them to wrap behind text and send them behind text

2 - Add text style for table titles

You need to create one text style (see this article to learn about text styles and how to create them). This controls what the titles above tables look like in the exported document.

Hint: Give your style a clear, easily recognisable name - such as LegaticsTable Title. This makes it easier to identify the style when the template is uploaded.

3 - Add table style

You need to create one table style (see this article to learn about table styles and how to create them). This will control what all tables in the export look like, being the status key and the list content itself.

Hint: Give your style a clear, easily recognisable name - such as LegaticsTable. This makes it easier to identify the style when the template is uploaded.

4 - Add placeholders

You can insert placeholders into your template to automatically pull in specific information from the matter. When the export is generated, these placeholders are replaced with the relevant data.

Placeholder

Populates with

matter_name

The name of the matter

matter_description

The description of the matter

client_number

The number given to the client of the matter

matter_number

The number given to the matter

download_type

The name of the list

download_date

The date the list was exported by the user

table_placeholder

The data in the list

When adding placeholders, keep in mind the following:

Mandatory placeholders

You need to include table_placeholder for your templates to work. Only include this placeholder once.

Optional placeholders

All other placeholders are optional. You can use them as many times as you want.

Improving placeholder recognition

To make sure placeholders are recognised, when you add placeholders into your templates:

  • Copy and paste the entire placeholder text into the desired location in your template (don't type it manually).

  • Avoid editing placeholders manually. If changes are needed, delete and reinsert the placeholder.

  • Remove any spaces after placeholders


Step B - Upload your Word files to Legatics

Follow the steps below to upload each Word file you created in Step A. Complete all the steps in this section before uploading another Word file.

1 - Upload your file

  1. From the Admin System, go to Templates > Word from the sidebar.

  2. Select the Lists tab

  3. You'll see two upload boxes: one for Landscape templates and one for Portrait templates.

  4. Upload your template file into the appropriate box

2 - Assign styles

After uploading the file, you’ll need to assign the styles you created in the Word file so Legatics knows which style to apply to each element in the export.

Good to know: Both landscape and portrait have the same styles

Table title style

Select the text style you created in Step A2. Note: This field will display all text styles from your Word file, so be sure to select the correct one.

Table style

Select the table style you created in Step A3. Note: This field will display all table styles from your Word file, so be sure to select the correct one.

Sections inside table

Lists can have sections, which group rows together. Sections can be at multiple levels. In the exported document, each section appears as a merged cell spanning the width of the table.

You’ll need to specify the following for sections:

Fill colour

For 3 section levels

Text colour

For the text inside each section level

Note: The fill and text colour set for Level 3 will also apply to all subsequent levels

To set the colour:

  1. Click the colour box to open the colour picker

  2. Enter your colour using RGB, HSL or HEX values

  3. Click outside the picker to save your selection

3 - Test your template

Before saving your changes, click Test in the bottom right corner to download a sample file populated with dummy data. This allows you to preview how your template will look to users once it's live.

4 - Save your settings

Once you're happy with the setup, press Save to apply the template.

Great job: The template will now be available for anyone using your matters.


Managing templates

Replacing your Word file

If you want to replace your template Word file, simply press Replace next to the template's name. This will let you pick a new file to upload. Once it uploads, you'll need to follow the steps above to apply it to your environment.

Downloading your Word file

To get a copy of the underlying Word file template, simply press Download next to the template's name. This is helpful if you want to change the template, and means you don't have to save it somewhere internally!

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