Pipeline’s Document Builder allows you to easily create contracts and other documents using project variables for quick creation of documents to share with your client or team. Document Builder takes out all of the tedious work of recreating elements in your documents, while at the same time letting you customize your own templates that you have already created. Let’s take a look…
Setting Up Your Project Variables
On the left side of the Document Builder you’ll see a list of your project variables.
Project variables are elements such as “Project Title”, “Project Client” and so on that you may want to have in your documents. You can drag and drop any of these variables directly into the text editor on the right side of the screen.
There are a few different pages of variables, all of which you can access by clicking on the variable grouping pull down at the top of the list.
Editing Your Variables
Before outputting a document, it is best to check through your variables and be sure that the are all correct. Next to Project Variables on the Document Builder page, click on Edit.
Nearly all of the variables have fields that you can easily edit, or select between custom, or system definitions of the variables.
Some of the variables allow you save your definition as an account-wide default for use in other projects. Simply click on “Save as Default” for variables like these to use your definition on other projects.
Building Your Document
Once your variables are all set, you’re ready to start building your document. If you selected one of Pipeline’s pre-built templates, you’ll be nearly ready to go. Just make the changes in the text editor that you’d like to customize your template, then save the document, and the template, and you’re ready to export.
If you chose “Blank Document” for your template, you’ll either need to start typing in the document boilerplate and adding the variables you want manually, or you can copy and paste in your own text from another document and then add variables to it.
Saving Your Document
Please note, Document Builder does NOT have auto-save. You’ll need to periodically save your work by clicking on the red “Save” button at the top right of the screen.
Templates
You can also save your current document as a new template for future use, or update a current template by clicking either choice at the top.
Exporting Your Document
Currently, Document Builder only exports to Word documents. Once you export, if necessary, you’ll be able to continue to revise your document in word or other text editor to complete the final version to share with your group. Future editions of Pipeline will have the ability to export directly to Google Docs, and to .pdf.