Form Templates Overview
Project Center uses templates to gather and display project information in the forms, reports, account notifications, reminders, transmittals, and file transfer notifications that are created and sent from Project Center and Info Exchange. The templates that are used to format the displayed data are Microsoft Word (.DOCX) or Excel (.XLSX) files. You can edit the files to create new template styles to fit the needs of your company. A template style can be just a new company logo, new template folder, or both.
Administrators can:
● Specify the company logo at install time and change them in the Project Center Administration activity center;
● Specify a template style for each project;
● Set the company name and logo in Project Center form headers.
● Specify form template styles in the Notifications/Forms tab under the Servers tab of the Project Center Administration activity center.
● Associate any single form template style with a project. The project form template style is defined in the Template Style for Forms and Notifications field in the Create Project dialog box or the Edit Project Settings dialog box.
The <Project Center Server Default> form template style applies to all projects on a Project Center Server for which the Template Style for Forms and Notifications field in the Edit Project Settings dialog box has not been specified.
Form template styles can be used for multiple projects. Project Center ships with a set of default templates, and those templates need to exist in a template style. If a template for a particular form does not exist, an error will occur.
Form templates are stored on the Project Center Server machine in C:\Newforma\Templates\Tenth Edition.
Microsoft Word templates
You can generate forms, reports, and documents from Word templates that you create with special Newforma field tags and Microsoft Word mail merge fields from Project Center and the Newforma Contact Directory,. The data from an XML file is placed into these fields and formatted.
These Newforma Word templates enable you to:
● Design form templates in Microsoft Word, using Newforma field tags and Word standard mail merge fields;
● Define regions in the document that expand or repeat, such as table rows;
● Define optional regions that are only displayed if there is corresponding data in the XML file;
● Insert checkboxes for true/false values;
● Insert hyperlinks and images.
Newforma supplies Word .docx templates for all project item types. These templates are used when generating transmittals and for View Form tasks. A Word template is also provided for all notifications:
● GenericNotification.docx - This template is used for all Newforma email notifications.
● AccountNotificationEmail.docx - This template is used to notify external users of their Info Exchange username and password.
● InternalAccountNotificationEmail.docx - This template is used to notify internal users of their username and password.
● ResendLoginInfo.docx - This template is used to re-send login information to users.
● AutoUpdateClientNotification.docx - This template is used for the automatic client update email notification.
The supplied .docx templates are the default Project Center templates (except for the transmittal template). If you do not want to use them as the default, simply rename them, which will make the original .XSL templates the default templates used by Project Center.
Newforma Word templates are comprised of various elements including:
● Fields;
● Sections in the document that expand or repeat, such as table rows;
● Optional sections that are only displayed if there is corresponding data in the XML data source;
● Checkboxes for true/false values;
● Hyperlinks;
● Images;
● And much more!
Building your forms in Word is similar to building templates that employees would otherwise fill out manually. Here are some of the features you may choose to use within Word for building your templates:
● Headers and Footers (including second page headers and footers) to show logos, address tags, and other firm-identifying information;
● Tables for positioning information in compliance with firm graphic standards;
● Adjusting page margins, orientation, and size (including international A4/A5 sizes) according to firm graphic standards;
● Word Styles for ensuring maximum graphics compliance.
Microsoft Word templates are stored on the Project Center Server machine in C:\Newforma\Templates\Tenth Edition.
Although Microsoft Word is necessary to edit and create templates, it is not needed to view forms or reports generated from Word-based templates.
Getting started using Microsoft Word templates
The following topics explain how to create, edit, and use Microsoft Word templates:
● Modify the Supplied Microsoft Word Templates or Create New Word templates
● Basic Form Template Modification
● Advanced Form Template Modification
● Understanding Newforma Field Tags
Create and generate form letters
To create and generate form letters from the Newforma Contact Directory, refer to the following topics:
Report and Form Template Files and Sub-Folders Reference Guide
Use the following topic as a reference for template file sub-folders, usage, formats, and naming.
● Report and Form Template Files and Sub-Folders Reference Guide
NF tag reference guide for forms
NF Tags are MERGEFIELD type Word Fields. For Newforma mail merge functionality, refer to the following topic for available tag options and their usage:
● NF Tag Reference Guide for Forms
.XSL form templates
.XSL form templates were used prior to Project Center Tenth Edition. The legacy InfoPath forms and notifications (.xsl, .xsn, .xsd) and Excel 97/2000 reports (.xlt) are still supported, but only for legacy compatibility. All new customizations will use the new formats described above.
About InfoPath
InfoPath is an application included in Microsoft Office 2007 Suite (in the Enterprise, Ultimate, or Professional Plus editions, or you can purchase it separately) that enables you to create and deploy electronic forms using a drag and drop interface without having to know XML. When you create a template form in InfoPath, the data is saved as industry standard XML, but you don't need to know XML to use InfoPath to design a template or fill out a form. InfoPath provides a way of creating and editing templates for forms that can be saved as .XSL style sheets, which Project Center uses to render your custom forms.
For additional information about customizing and using your own form templates, see Customize and Use Form Templates.