Letterheads:
BaseTemplate is an option, but does not give you much control:
When it comes to inserting letterheads on your templates, there are different techniques you could employ. Should you have a very simple letterhead, 1 header with 1 footer that do not change then the BaseTemplate command is acceptable. This article addresses how to implement that solution. However, most often this is not the case. Headers and footers change according to the branch and the author of the letter.
IncludeTemplate or InsertTemplate, the better options!
The more flexible options, which would allow for more complex letterhead needs are either IncludeTemplate or InsertTemplate. To outline how it works, consider the following:
Where “Header logo”, and “Contents of Footer” are saved as individual templates. It is important to note that when saving those templates, the logo should not be in the header or footer. For example:
Do the same with the footer.
Ensure that:
- Your margins are the same on the header and footer, and on the main letter templates.
- Your desired styles are set across all templates. Avoid Normal!
- You set the header and footer “second page” correctly with numbering. Subsequent pages could even have different logos with different included templates, making it very flexible.
- The differences between IncludeTemplate and InsertTemplate are outlined in this article but essentially you would use IncludeTemplate when you know the name of the template you want to include. Use InsertTemplate when you want to build the file name from input from the user or a data source.
- The idea in the pictured header is that the branch address is linked to the Author of the document. The branch and Author details are stored in a database, likely Azure AD, and that data can be accessed by XpressDox templates. Although we don’t have a connector directly into the AD, we do link to SQL and other data sources, and a script can be written to send data from the AD to a database which XpressDox can read. The data elements pictured above are the same as the fields in the database. In order for the user to have as little interaction with the process as possible, make use of the LinkToDataSource command, linking a field in the template to the datasource.
Read here for information on where to save your letterhead.
