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Create your own document templates using Merge

Daniel
  • Updated

In addition to using the Print options to print the pre-built document templates such as quotations, orders, letters etc. You can also create your own documents which can be designed by you. You could use them instead of built-in documents or for additional purposes too. For example welcome letters or marketing material.

EQ links with Microsoft Word to merge documents. If you do not have Word you can use the EQ Word Processor, EQ WP. (EQ WP works with .DOC and .DOCX files).

This article covers:

In a separate article, you can read How to merge your own documents. 

 

Pre-requisites to make your own documents

You can merge documents in EQ Professional or EQ Foundation.

Using Microsoft Word will provide you with greater layout options when creating documents but it is not a necessity to have Microsoft Word on every computer that you will use EQ merge documents.

If you do not have Microsoft Word installed you can use the EQ Advanced Word Processor. 

Before you begin, set this setting in EQ:

System Config > System > Word Processor:

 

Select your Word Processor option:

EQ WP Standard Only select this if instructed by support
EQ WP Advanced Select this if you do not have Word on your EQ PCs
Microsoft Word (97 onwards) Select this if you do have Word on your EQ PCs

 

Click Update to save the settings and continue.

 

How to create a new document template

  1. From the main EQ toolbar, click the arrow under Merge Document and select Word Processor:



    Depending on your Word Processor setting (above) either Microsoft Word, or EQ WP will open, at a new blank document.

  2. Create your document with your chosen wording, formatting, logos and anything you wish to include in the document.
    For example you could be writing a letter to your customer about payment stages, or you could be creating a quotation with product information.

  3. Add merge fields as text into your document.

 

Add merge fields

Refer to the Merge Fields article which lists out all the fields of information that EQ can provide for you. The <tags> will act as placeholders in your template. When you merge the document they will be replaced with the actual information.

For example, a basic letter could look like this: 


 

Add bookmarks (in Word)

As well as adding plain text you can use tables which will expand as the data requires. For example a quotation template could look like this:

 


EQmergeBookmark.gif

  1. Create your table in Word using the Insert tab and draw out the required rows and columns.

  2. Enter the column headings onto the first row (or leave row 1 blank if you don't want to display headings).

  3. Click into the first cell of the table.

  4. Click Word's Insert menu and pick Bookmark:
  5. Type the name of the bookmark you want to use (refer to the merge field list)
    The example below uses the bookmark Contents to list all products.

  6. Click Add:



    Only add 1 bookmark per table.
    If there are multiple tables in 1 document, the Bookmarks screen will list all used bookmarks.
  7. Click OK to save the merge fields.

  8. Once you have finished editing your document in Word save the document.

Add bookmarks in (EQ WP)

 

  1. Create a table (Using the menu Table > Insert > Table)
     
  2. Click in the top left cell of the table
     
  3. Click Insert > Bookmark and type in the name of the bookmark then press OK.
  4. A small grey text icon appears (highlighted in yellow below) in the table to denote that it has a bookmark.



  5. To delete a bookmark from a table, click into the top left cell of the table. Then click Edit > Delete and you will see the grey icon disappear from the cell.


 

How to save your document

Once you have edited your Word document with all the text, merge fields and bookmarks you need, you need to save it to use as a template.

It is easiest to save it into your My Letters folder within the Easyquote folder because this will be shared on  your network so all users can access it. For help finding that folder see the article File Location Settings.

You can save the document anywhere you can access.

In a separate article, you can read How to merge your own documents.

 

Example table with merge fields and bookmarks

Table view in Word whilst you are editing it, with merge fields shown and Contents bookmark added to this table:




When you merge the document, the table will expand to show 1 row for each product record like this:

 

 

Once you have created one or more document template, you can learn How to merge your own documents.

 

See also

How to merge your own documents

Merge fields and bookmarks list for word processor documents

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