Docentric ribbon tab overview
The Docentric ribbon tab is the main interface for accessing Template Designer features within Microsoft Word. It contains buttons organized into groups that allow you to convert documents to templates, manage data sources, insert tagging elements, preview documents, and customize your workspace.
1. Template group
The Template group contains buttons for converting a plain Word document into a Word-based Document Template and managing its Data Source Package (DDSP) file.
- Use As Template: Converts a standard Word document into a Docentric Document Template by loading a Data Source Package (DDSP) file. This is the first step when creating a new template and enables the use of Docentric-specific features. For more information, see Set up a document template.
- Load Data Source: Loads a DDSP file into your Document Template. Use this when the Data Model has been updated and you want to refresh the Data Source to reflect the latest changes or try your template with different sample data. For more information, see Set up a document template.
2. View group
The View group provides buttons to show or hide various panes and other user interface elements that help you design templates more efficiently.
- Elements: Toggles the Elements pane, which displays the hierarchical structure of all tagging elements in your template.
- Data Source: Toggles the Data Source pane, which shows the structure of the data (schema) available for using in your template.
- Quick Builder: Toggles the Quick Builder pane, which provides a simplified interface for quickly adding tagging elements.
- Live Preview: Toggles the Live Preview pane, which displays a real-time preview of your template populated with sample data.
- Show Tags: Toggles the highlighting of tagging elements to make them easily identifiable during design.
- Paragraph Marks: Toggles the visibility of paragraph marks and other hidden formatting symbols in the document. This is a standard Microsoft Word feature added here for convenience. For more information, see Show or hide tab marks in Word.
- Table Gridlines: Toggles the visibility of table gridlines to help you see table layout and structure. This is a standard Microsoft Word feature added for convenience. For more information, see Show or hide gridlines in Word.
For more information, see Template Designer panes.
3. Preview group
The Preview group contains buttons for generating and customizing document previews.
- Run: Generates a preview document using your template and sample data in the current Data Source. You can choose to generate the preview in Word or PDF format.
- Preview Language: Selects the language for previewing the template. This determines which label translations are used and how numeric and date-time values are formatted. This function is useful for testing templates that support multiple languages.
- Edit Data: Opens the sample data editor, allowing you to modify the sample data used for previewing the template. This allows you to test how your template behaves with different data scenarios.
For more information, see Preview document templates.
4. Tagging Elements group
The Tagging Elements group contains buttons for inserting various types of tagging elements into your template. Tagging elements are special markers that indicate where specific data from the Data Source should be inserted during document generation. They represent the dynamic content in a Document Template.
The group includes buttons for inserting Field, List, Group, Summary Field, Image, If, Var, Context, Chart, Hyperlink, Subdocument, Barcode, and Label tagging elements. When you select one of these buttons, the corresponding tagging element is inserted at the current cursor position in the document.
For more information about tagging elements and how to use them, see Tagging elements overview.