In FlowShare, you can use your own Word template by adding it as a DOTX file. This template can be chosen afterwards for your Word exports.
Prepare a DOTX template
You simply create a new Word document from scratch and add a cover page or background to your pages. You can also add further information (page number, date) or a logo in the header and/or footer. You can also add additional pages after your cover page if you like. Once you have finished your design, save your template as a DOTX file.
Custom template styling (from 3.1 version)
These are the styles that can be used in custom DOTX templates:
Title - Used for the project title
Subtitle - Used for the author and company metadata
TOC Heading - Used for the TOC heading text
TOC 1 - Used for 1st level heading in TOC
TOC 2 - Used for 2nd level heading in TOC
Heading 1 - Used for section headlines
Normal - Used for normal text in the slide descriptions
To configure Styles in Microsoft Word, navigate to the Home tab and locate the Styles gallery in the ribbon. Right-click on the specific style you wish to change and select Modify to open the formatting dialogue. Within this menu, adjust your desired font, spacing, and color settings, then select OK to apply the changes on the custom document template.
DOTX improvement from FlowShare 3.0 version
With the release of FlowShare 3.0, we’ve introduced enhanced flexibility for your automated documentation. You now have better control over your Word template cover pages using our new dynamic placeholders. You can insert and format the following tags anywhere on your title page to match your corporate branding:
[%fs% project title]– Automatically pulls your specific project name.[%fs% author]– Displays the name of the content creator.[%fs% affiliation]– Includes company or department details.
Because these are standard text tags, you can adjust the font, size, color, and alignment directly in Word, ensuring your professional guides look exactly how you want them.
Note! These placholder variables are only experimental and available only in FlowShare 3.0 and will not work in previous versions!
Integrate your Word template
Click on the Export icon in FlowShare menu bar.
Select the Word/DOCX format.
Click on the ”Add template” icon to add your custom template.
Now browse and select your template. Only files with .dotx format are allowed. Click on the “Open” button.
You have imported your DOTX template into FlowShare!
Your template is now available for selection in the thumbnail view. When you export with this template, your recorded steps will automatically be appended to your pages from the template.
How will it look like?
The current export layout is simple and consistent:
The text description is positioned above the image. Do you need the image first?
Fonts, colors and logos are not inherited from the FlowShare file.
The steps are automatically appended to the pages in your template.
Unlike the PowerPoint template, you don’t need to define the layout of the title, image, and text. FlowShare takes care of everything automatically during the export, but it also means you cannot make manual adjustments.
New DOCX rendering engine with 3.1.4 version
We've introduced a new DOCX exporter with a completely redesigned renderer that's faster and more reliable than before. The new implementation processes documents more efficiently with minimal temporary file usage, and works seamlessly with OneDrive and other network folders.
If you experience any issues or you prefer the previous renderer, legacy templates are still available - simply create or select a template with "(Legacy)" in its name.
Advanced customization with Custom Quick Parts
Starting from 3.1.4 version we give an experimental feature to the custom DOTX templates using the Quick Parts option in Microsoft Word that provides reusable components to make the template editing more flexible.
These are the most known Document Properties to be used in the custom DOTX templates:
Title - Used for the project title, coming from FlowShare
Author - Used for the author field that is coming from FlowShare
Company - Used for the company/affiliation field that is coming from FlowShare
Special building block to the beginning and end of document
We prepared FlowShare to look for a special building blocks that are inserted to the beginning or the end of the document, if configured. With these you have more flexibility to create documents that meet your documentation needs.
FlowShare Document Beginning - Create an AutoText building block if you want to insert something to the beginning of the document, after the TOC but before the FlowShare steps.
FlowShare Document Ending - Create an AutoText building block if you want to insert something to the end of the document, after all FlowShare steps.
You can download a sample DOTX file at the bottom of this page to see how these building blocks are configured.
How to add these blocks?
First when you want to add a block, follow these steps:
Insert the text that you want to add to the beginning or end of the document.
Format the text as you wish.
Select the text you want to add.
Hit
Alt+F3and give this exact name to the block: "FlowShare Document Beginning" or "FlowShare Document Ending". Make sure the current template file is selected in the “Save in:” dropdown!
Now you can remove the text from the template as it was needed only temporarily.
Save it and test it in FlowShare if the customized blocks are inserted correctly into the final DOCX export.
How to view/edit these blocks?
You can view the blocks in the Insert menu, behind the Quick Parts menu and the AutoText and also in the Building Block organizer section. You will find the part with the mentioned name there. If you want to edit it, follow these steps:
Insert the existing AutoText somewhere in the template so it becomes visible and editable.
Edit the text and make the necessary modifications.
Select the new text.
Hit
Alt+F3and save it with the same name, e.g. "FlowShare Document Beginning" or "FlowShare Document Ending". The changes will overwrite the existing blocks.Remove the text so you finalize the DOTX file.
Save the template
Go to FlowShare, remove the old template and add the new modified version.
We hope you will find this functionality useful. Please reach out to our Support if you have any questions or feedback!
Note: To export to custom DOCX templates, Microsoft Word must be installed on your computer!
Note! This feature is available only for FlowShare Enterprise users and is not included in the free version.