We have a requirement for a site wide document library that contains simple word letter templates.
From within a customer item on a list we need to be able to select one of these templates and then have the template populate with customer data such as name & address etc.
What’s the easiest way to achieve this? Ideally without using workflows.
Then you shall assign a document template to a content type.
See this blog post, http://sharepointchick.com/archive/2011/01/07/using-content-types-with-document-templates-when-using-quotnew-documentrdquo.aspx
Create fields in your template that display the document properties to "Autofill" them. This is done in the Insert tab of the ribbon, then by clicking QuickParts, then Document Properties.
The end result is that in addition to the File > Info or the properties bar, each property will also appear in the body of the document wherever you have inserted the field for it. These can then auto-update themselves based on the metadata stored with the document in the library (how often they update is a Word setting).
Xpertdoc Letter Management for SharePoint let's user pick a template from the context of a customer record, then generates a new document with customer data automatically merged inside the document.
CGU, an insurance company, estimate they save 0.5 million dollars per year by the efficiency gains introduced by Xpertdoc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqWiFt5dUA&feature=channel&list=UL.
First of all, you should use the technique mentioned before for the document creation based on content type.
As for auto-filling the property fields, I suggest you check out this post that explains how to auto-fill properties when document is added.
You can also opt for a commercial solution such as Harmon.ie for SharePoint to retrieve your templates. They have a free version, if I'm not mistaken.
Related
I am working on sharepoint foundation 2010. I have to add some fields from a list to word 2007 document (automatically of course every time an item is added to the list)( the document contains a paragraph and I have to complete this paragraph from the list fields).. I've searched your site for help and I found an answer that seemed ambiguous to me:
If you create a document library with custom fields (or better yet a content type), Office 2007 documents will include the fields as properties of the document. Word inludes features to add those fields to the document (Insert->QuickParts-Document Property).
You can automate the placement of items on the document by adding a document template to your content type.
Can someone Please give me more details about that method or if exists a better solution.
It's a little bit unclear what are exact requirements.
Using steps provided in quote you can add custom fields to the document - i.e. you need to add some columns to the library and then insert custom fields into document/template. Then if you create new document it will contain information from custom fields. (Something similar like it is described here.
If you have some list and you need do create document in the library with information from the list item you will not be able to achieve it with OOTB SharePoint. You can try to use some third party tool like our product Documents Generator (free version should be enough)
I have created a document library with about 20 columns for storing meta data. The client wants to have search on this metadata with a facility to filter the data based on two values. For example we have two date columns(efective date and termination date) and the results that they wanted to see is files which are having the values between effective date and termination date.
Is there any out of the box solution that i can use for this or should i build a custom webpart. If so, can someone please guide me through....
Create your document library, then in "document library settings" click "Metadata Navigation Settings".
This should give you what you want. You can specify which columns to filter data on. You can stack the filters and by default they appear on the left of the page for users to interact with.
I am relatively new to SharePoint, working with WSS SharePoint 2.0. The "Issues" list template contains an "append-only" comment column. The great thing about this append-only comment column is that it saves a history of the comments entered every time you save, and it clears out the comment field for the next time you edit the item.
I would like to add this column to a custom list. However, when I add a new column, it does not give me an option to add this type of comment column - it only gives options for single or multiple lines of text. Is there a way to do this?
You can create an append-only column by choosing the Multiple Lines of Text option and selecting "Append Changes to Existing Text". I believe this only applies to lists, not document libraries. Other kinds of lists may restrict this, too.
if you're using SharePoint 2007, In the List/Library Settings click Add from existing site columns. Under Base Columns Append-Only Comments should be there. In order for the "tracking" to work Versioning must be enabled for that list/library.
Not having an append-only field in a document library made me pretty sad. But this template made me happy again:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=02C4D1B4-7D53-4B72-B577-3DA23F86EC17&displaylang=en
It's the Document Library and Review template and allows each document to have a "Discuss" button and related discussion thread.
Hey guys, just wondering if their is a simple way to create an Item in a custom list but i need that item to be dynamic. The user can click add more to get another field that would hold the same type of data an unlimited amount of time.
If i could even just add an excel spreadsheet type of field that would work also. But excel wouldnt need to be a requirement on the users machine.
I thought i had read somewhere you could do this using info path but i cant seem to find anything relating to it on google.
The InfoPath feature is called a "repeating section". There is information on how to set that up in Office Online.
If you wanted to achieve this entirely in SharePoint, the problem is that there can only be a fixed number of fields in a list. So you could create as many that would ever be used and just display all of those. Or to make it much nicer for the user incorporate jQuery to hide all of the fields except the first one and provide a button for them to click that unhides the next one.
There is good information on how to access list form fields using jQuery in the question How can I set the default value in a SharePoint list field, based on the value in another field?
I have a Person field in my custom list. I want to have a view that will show multiple fields from that Person instead of the one I had to choose when creating the Person column.
So basically I want to have one column for Person and then in the view see Name, title, email, phone. All of those are valid choices but I can only pick one right now.
I really want to avoid typing in the username lookup for each column I choose to display.
This is SP 2007
It sounds like you need to create a custom fieldtype (with a fieldcontrol) that inherits from the userfield but in viewmode renders out the different columns you need. Is that something along the lines you are looking for?
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/nicksevens/archive/2007/08/31/create-custom-field-types-for-sharepoint.aspx
Note: This link is broken
You probably want a Computed Field. Note that this is not a Calculated Column. A Computed Field is what is used to display the same data is different ways. In SharePoint there is a Title field, but there is also a "Title (linked to item with edit menu)" computed field as well as a "Title (linked to item)" computed field.
See midway down this link for more details. I'm not sure if it will have all of the power that you need, but if it does it is almost certainly what you are looking for if you don't mind getting into the Schema XML file a little.
Could you use a DataView web part for this? If it's just a question of viewing the data that might be suitable.
Came across this thread and thought I'd add a tip. This suggestion is clearly not for every use case, but may work well in situations where you're managing a list rather than allowing manual inputs (verified to work with SP 2013):
Create a spreadsheet with columns to match your SharePoint list that contains multiple profile fields. (for example: name, phone number, email address)
In the spreadsheet, enter the same email address in all of the person/group field types in that row. (e.g., boss#company.com, boss#company.com, boss#company.com)
Select and copy the row(s) you wish to transfer to SharePoint.
In SharePoint, change the list view to "Quick Edit" and paste the row(s) into the grid.
SharePoint will process each field and convert the email address to the profile value you selected during the list setup.