Template editor (quotation PDF)
The template editor determines what the quotation PDF your customer receives looks like. You design the pages yourself — logo, headings, lines, boxes, and the configuration block that fills in the chosen options and prices. A template is linked to a configurator through a submission; every quotation that comes out of it is generated with that design.
Where to find it
Manager → Design → PDF.
You see an overview of all your company's templates, each with a thumbnail of its first page. Click a thumbnail to open the editor.
You need the edit templates permission for this. See Getting started with Manager.
Managing templates
| Action | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Add default | Button top right | Creates a template with one empty page and no styles yet. |
| Add empty | Button top right | Creates a template with one text layer and a base set of styles (1 box, 1 line, 2 text styles) — the more practical starting point. |
| Duplicate | Copy icon on a template | Creates a copy with the same pages and styles, with Copy appended to the name. |
| Rename | Pencil icon | Changes the name the template is listed under in submissions. |
| Delete | Trash icon | Deletes the template permanently, after confirmation. |
Give a new template a recognisable name right away — you pick it back out of a list later when setting up a submission.
The editor at a glance
At the top is a ribbon with Back to templates, undo / redo and the tabs Home, Page, Styles and Template. On the right of the ribbon you can switch to another template, pick the language you are editing (only when your company has more than one language) and Save.
Below the ribbon the editor has three columns:
| Column | Contents |
|---|---|
| Left | Pages (thumbnails of every page) and below that Objects on this page (all objects on the selected page). The divider between the two is draggable. |
| Middle | The canvas: an A4 page at actual size, with rulers in millimetres along the top and left edge. |
| Right | The properties of your selection, with buttons to duplicate, lock or delete it. With nothing selected it shows Nothing selected. |
The canvas is not an approximation: it is the real PDF, re-rendered live after every change. What you see is what the customer gets.
The status bar at the bottom shows which page you are on, how many objects it holds and the zoom (50 to 200%). You can also zoom with Cmd/Ctrl + scroll wheel.
Pages
Click a page to open it on the canvas. Drag a thumbnail to change the page order. Below the thumbnail list is a New page button; the Page tab in the ribbon has the same actions:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| New page | Adds a new page with a single text object. |
| Duplicate page | Inserts an identical page directly next to the current one. |
| Delete page | Deletes the current page. The last remaining page cannot be deleted. |
A template can hold at most 50 pages. At that limit New page and Duplicate page are no longer available.
Adding objects
The tools are on the Home tab of the ribbon. Pick a tool and place the object on the page.
| Tool | Shortcut | How you place it |
|---|---|---|
| Select | V | The arrow: click to select, drag to move. |
| Text | T | Drag the text frame open on the canvas. |
| Box | B | Drag the frame open on the canvas. |
| Line | L | Drag from the start point to the end point. |
| Image | I | Placed immediately; filled with your company logo by default. |
| Configuration line | — | Places the configuration block with lines and prices (see The configuration block). A page can hold one configuration block. |
Text, box and line stay active after placing, so you can draw several in a row. Escape (or V) leaves an active tool without placing anything.
Selecting, moving and snapping
- Click selects an object; drag moves it. The corners and edges of the selection have handles for scaling; on a line you drag the start and end points independently.
- Double-click a text to type it directly on the canvas, without going through the side panel.
- Drag a frame across an empty part of the canvas to select everything you touch. Shift-click adds an object to the selection or takes it out.
- With multiple objects selected you move them all at once; the properties panel then shows a shared X/Y and Align buttons: align left, centre or right, top, middle or bottom, and distribute horizontally or vertically.
- Arrow keys nudge the selection: 10 mm per press with Snap on, 1 mm with Snap off.
- Snap (on the Template tab) locks positions and sizes to a 10 mm grid. It is off by default.
- Backspace or Delete removes the selection.
Cmd/Ctrl+CandCmd/Ctrl+Vcopy and paste an object, slightly offset. You can also paste it on another page or in another template.
Above a selected object a floating bar appears with the actions you need most often: lock, duplicate, delete (click twice to confirm), switch style and — on images — change the source.
Layers and stacking order
The Objects on this page list shows the objects on the current page, topmost layer at the top. Drag a row to change the stacking order. The padlock icon locks an object: it can then no longer be clicked, dragged or nudged on the canvas, so you will not move it by accident. To select a locked object, click it in the list.
Properties panel
What you see here depends on the selected object.
Size & position
Width, Height and X/Y position in millimetres, measured from the top left corner of the page. A line has a start point and an end point instead. Every value can also be typed by hand — handy for getting objects exactly aligned.
Content (text)
Text layers have a content field in which you can put both fixed text and variables. A variable is replaced by the real value when the PDF is generated. You pick them from the list in the field; which ones are available depends on where the text sits.
Available everywhere:
| Group | Variables |
|---|---|
| company | name, address (street, zip code, city, country, apartment), phone, email, tax ID, bank account, company ID, BIC, logo URL |
| customer | full name, first name, last name, address, phone, email |
| quotation | quotation number, quotation date, total price, total excl. VAT, VAT amount, discount title, discount code, discount value, discount amount, product name, language, image URL |
Only inside a configuration block:
| Group | Variables | Where |
|---|---|---|
| product | product name, quotation info, description | All zones except top and bottom |
| configuration | total price of this configuration | All zones except top and bottom |
| step | name, index | The feature > top, feature, subfeature and feature > bottom zones |
| feature | name, value, price, price without currency, info, form info, subfeatures, feature index, step index | The feature > top, feature, subfeature and feature > bottom zones |
| subfeature | name, info, price, price without currency | The feature > top, feature, subfeature and feature > bottom zones |
The top and bottom zones of the block only have the general variables.
A new text object starts with the text Your text here.... In the preview that text is shown as filler text so you can see where it sits, but in the real PDF it is printed as is, so always replace it.
Images
An image layer has three quick buttons: Logo (the logo from your company settings), Choose image (pick a file or upload one to your company storage) and Configuration (the product image from the quotation itself). The Fit to image size button in the floating bar resets the image to its own aspect ratio.
Styles
Colour, font and line width do not live on the object itself, but in styles shared by the whole template. Every object references a style from the palette for its kind: Box, Line or Text. Adjust a style and everything using it changes — that is how you keep a ten-page document consistent in one move.
In the properties panel you choose the style of the selected object and adjust its settings directly. The Styles tab in the ribbon shows all styles per kind as swatches; text styles appear there once they are in use or selected.
| Kind | What you set |
|---|---|
| Box | Background colour, border colour, border width, border radius |
| Line | Colour, width, and style (solid, dashed, dotted, double) |
| Text | Colour, font size, font family, alignment, bold/italic/underline, line height, letter spacing |
For colours you can pick white, black, your brand colours or a basic colour, set a custom colour, or pick a colour from the screen.
Styles are numbered (#1, #2 …). On the Styles tab, the + next to a kind creates a new style; the copy icon duplicates the selected style — the selected object then switches to that copy immediately, so you can adjust freely without touching the rest. Deleting a style always asks for confirmation; objects still using it fall back to style #1. When you place a configuration block, it adds its own styles to the palette.
The configuration block
The configuration block is the only object that grows with the content of the quotation: it repeats itself per step, per feature and per subfeature. Select it and the Objects on this page list expands into eight zones. Each zone has its own + to put text, a box, a line or an image inside it.
| Zone | How often | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| top | Once per configuration | Heading above the block |
| configuration > top | Once per configuration | Product name and product image |
| feature > top | Per step | The step name as a subheading |
| feature | Per chosen option | The line itself: name, value, price |
| subfeature | Per subfeature | Sub-choices belonging to an option |
| feature > bottom | Per step | Closing rule or whitespace below a step |
| configuration > bottom | Once per configuration | Subtotal, discount, tax and total |
| bottom | Once per configuration | Footnote below the whole block |
A few things to know:
- Children inside the block are positioned in percentages of the block width, not in millimetres. That keeps the layout correct when you make the block wider or narrower. The editor shows this with a
%on the X and width fields. - The height of the block determines when it breaks to the next page. If a line no longer fits, the PDF automatically starts a new page with the same layout.
- If a quotation contains multiple configurations, each next configuration starts on a new page.
- A page holds at most one configuration block, and the block itself cannot be duplicated.
- Skip (sub)features without information under configuration settings leaves out lines whose info is empty. Use it when the block shows the info variables as an explanatory appendix rather than a price list.
The preview: which data do you see?
The editor fills your template with real data, so you can see how your layout holds up against realistic text lengths:
- If the template is linked to a submission, the preview takes the most recent quotation of a product using that submission.
- If there is no quotation yet, or the template is not linked to a submission yet, the preview uses a sample quotation, so all variables are filled in anyway.
The preview data follows the language you are editing. The preview changes nothing about the real quotation — it is purely a rendering.
Languages
If your company works with more than one language, pick the language you want to edit at the top right. The first time you choose a language, the editor creates a separate copy of the layout for it, which you can then adjust and translate independently. Quotations in that language are generated with that version.
Saving
Click Save or press Cmd/Ctrl + S. The button confirms briefly with Saved and a checkmark. There is no autosave, so save before you leave the editor.
Undo remembers the last 30 steps. Saving is also the new zero point of your history: undo does not go back past the saved version afterwards. Changes apply from that moment on to every new quotation generated with this template; PDFs generated earlier stay as they were.
Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
V / T / B / L / I | Arrow / text / box / line / image |
Escape | Leave a tool or clear a multiple selection |
Backspace / Delete | Delete the selection |
| Arrow keys | Move by 10 mm (Snap on) or 1 mm (off) |
Cmd/Ctrl + Z | Undo |
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z or Cmd/Ctrl + Y | Redo |
Cmd/Ctrl + C / V | Copy / paste an object |
Cmd/Ctrl + S | Save |
Cmd/Ctrl + scroll wheel | Zoom in or out |
| Double-click | Edit text on the canvas |
| Shift-click | Add an object to the selection or take it out |
Tips
- Work with styles, not with one-off formatting. Two text styles (line and total) and one line style cover most quotations, and one adjustment carries through everywhere.
- Lock the fixed elements. Lock the logo and the footer as soon as they are in place; then you will not shift them by accident while moving the configuration block around.
- Test with a long quotation. Pick a preview with many options and check that the page break in the configuration block lands somewhere sensible.
- Account for the printer's margins. Do not put anything essential within 10 mm of the page edge.
Further reading
- Submissions & outputs — linking the template to a configurator
- Quotes pipeline — the quotations generated with this template
- Company settings — the company details printed on the quotation
- UI editor (configurator design) — the design of the configurator itself