We get that your brand is important. That’s why data in your matters can be downloaded into perfectly branded (and perfectly formatted) Word documents. This article sets out the templates available, and how you can manage them.
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
🧑🎨 Involve your design team
You can really customise your Word templates. From cover pages to the design of the table, this is your change to make your firm look modern and unique. We really recommend getting your internal design team involved.
The better your templates look, the more impressed users and client will be!
🤔 Templates you can upload
We have two templates that, when uploaded, apply to every list your users make.
Landscape | Applies when a user downloads a list into Word or PDF |
Portrait | Applies to the index available when a user downloads a zip of file in a list |
In the future, we're going to be giving users flexibility to decide whether to use the landscape or portrait orientation in the situations above.
🗽Example templates
These templates should help you understand the art of the possible!
Template | Example with placeholders | Example from platform |
Landscape | ||
Portrait |
Adding your first template
The steps below apply to both the landscape and portrait templates.
Step 1: Prepare your templates
Templates must be docx files
If you need help setting up your templates, reach out to us at support@legatics.com
Style your template
You can add cover pages, footers and headers. Really, it's up to you how lots of the template looks. So make it look beautiful!
↗️ Make sure font styles are based on "Normal"
When you're using font styles in your document (including in tables), make sure that style based on is "normal" (see the screenshot below).
🖼️ If you add images
Make sure they are wrapped "behind text" and "sent behind text"
Placeholders
Each template allows you to add placeholders (eg the name of the matter) that get populated with data from the matter when downloaded.
You can add the below placeholders anywhere in your template. All placeholders can be added in multiple locations except for table_placeholder (only use this once)
↗️ Make sure you
Copy and paste the entire placeholder text (don’t type it individually)
Don't edit placeholders. If you do, delete the placeholder and copy the entire placeholder text back in
Remove spaces after placeholders: These can sneak in, remove them!
This will ensure that your placeholders are recognised by Legatics.
Placeholder | When the template is used, this will populate with |
matter_name | The name of the matter |
matter_description | The description of the matter |
matter_number | The number given to the matter |
download_type | The name of the list
For example, a user has a list called “Documents List”. Download type would put “Documents List” into the Word document |
download_date
| The date the list was exported by the user |
table_placeholder | The data in the list (this placeholder can only be added once) |
Custom styles
You need to create custom text styles and table styles in your templates, which we apply to certain data that's downloaded into the template.
Title style | We insert a "Status key" table setting out the progress of each item in your list. Above this table is the text "Status key".
You need to create a text style in your Word document to apply to this text. |
Table style | Word templates for lists have two tables. One for the "Status" key and another for the list data (obtained from
You can customise how these tables looks by creating a table style in your Word document, |
↗️ Best practices when using styles
Create new custom styles: We can't recognise default Word styles. You should create new styles.
Naming convention: To make it easier to find your style later, call them "Text style - Legatics" and "Table style - Legatics").
Remove any table or text that has the custom style: We can't recognise custom styles if there is text or a table in the document that applies the style. So make sure your styles aren't used in the template.
Table styles
The below table contains helpful information to keep in mind when creating table styles
Formatting of sections | Users can create sections to group items in their list. You can control the formatting of sections by using Apply formatting to > header row
⚠️ You can't control the section fill colour or text colour from here. This is done when you upload your template to Legatics.
 |
Formatting of sub-sections and number column | Users can create sub-sections, and each list has a number column. You can control the formatting of both by using Apply formatting to > first column
⚠️ You can't control the sub-section fill colour or text colour from here. This is done when you upload your template to Legatics.
|
Specify width of table | You cannot specify the width of the table (or the columns in them). This is done automatically by the system in proportion to the user’s table in Legatics (eg if the first column in their Legatics list makes up 50% of the width of their table in Legatics, then that column will take up 50% of the space in the Word download) |
Keep with next | This feature in Word doesn't work with our system. This means you can't apply "Keep with next" to sections or sub-sections to stop sub-sections being the last item on the page. |
Step 2: Upload your templates to Legatics
Upload file
Log into the Admin System and go to Templates > Word from the sidebar. You'll see two upload boxes, one for landscape templates and another for portrait templates. Select the template you want to work on and upload your file.
Apply settings
Once the file is uploaded, you'll see the below screen. Enter the following settings:
Title style | This shows you all of the text styles available in your template.
You need to select the text style you created that you want to use as your title style. |
Table style | This shows you all of the table styles available in your template.
You need to select the table style you created that you want to use as your title style. |
Table sections | Legatics lists support sections, which can have different levels. When these are downloaded into a Word table, they become a row that stretches across the table.
You can specify the
These can be customised for first two levels of sections. Any fill colour or text colour applied to the 3rd level is applied to all subsequent levels. |
Step 3: Test your template
Before you save your changes, press "Test template" to download an example file with dummy data. It will help give a realistic sense of what users will see when your template is saved.
If you want to test the template on one of your own lists, you'll need to save it first.
Step 4: Save your template
Once you're happy with the setup, press Save to apply the template.
The template will now be available for all your users. Congratulations!
Replacing your template
If you want to replace your template, 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 template
To get a copy of the underlying 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!
Example documents