V8 - Form templates

SOS Inventory includes a wide variety of form templates in the software. The templates are used to create PDFs that can be downloaded or printed by you or sent as attachments to email recipients. The templates can be used "as is"—or you can create customized versions with the form-building techniques and merge fields available in Microsoft Word. In either case, SOS generates a PDF of a transaction, barcode label, etc.,  according to the template you designate for that record type.

Form templates list and Template library

The Form templates list (Company menu > Miscellaneous > Form templates) contains the default system templates, as well as any templates you have modified and uploaded into the SOS Inventory.

Also located on the Form templates list is a link in the upper right corner called Template library, as shown in the screenshot below.

The link will take you to the Template library list, which contains all predesigned form templates available in SOS Inventory. The Get action for a record in the Template library will copy the selected template “as is” and add it to your Form templates list.

If you wish to modify a template stored in either the Template library or in the Form templates list, select Download from the Actions dropdown. Refer to Editing a form template and Form template merge fields for information on modifying a template and uploading the new version to the Form Templates list.

Downloading, printing, and emailing PDFs of transactions and other records

To download, print, or email a record, locate it on the appropriate list and choose PDF (to download or print) or Email (to send a PDF attachment via email) on the Actions menu. Choose from the dropdown list the form template you want to use for the PDF. If only one template exists for that record type, SOS will not show you the menu but will generate the PDF.

Editing a form template

All form templates downloaded from SOS Inventory use the .docx file format. Modified templates must be in the .docx file format when uploaded back into the system.

To edit a form template, locate the desired template in the Form templates list (Company menu > Miscellaneous > Form templates) or in the Template library (Company menu > Miscellaneous > Form templates > Template library). On the template’s Actions menu, choose the Download option.

When editing a form template, observe the following rules:

1. The form definition must stay between the «TableStart:Main» and «TableEnd:Main» delimiting merge fields.
2. The repeating row in the line-item table must have a «TableStart:Lines» at the start of the first cell in the row and a «TableEnd:Lines» as the last field in the last cell of the row.
3. You may rearrange the tables that make up the form.
4. You may add background graphics.
5. You can let SOS pull in your company logo, or you can add it to the form.
6. You may modify the fonts used within the form on merge fields (type and size) if you edit the merge field and uncheck the option to preserve formatting during updates.
7. The available form fields are dependent on the type of form you are editing, such as an invoice.
8. Instead of inserting brackets manually around field names, use Microsoft Word's built-in capabilities to edit fields. Word will automatically insert the double chevrons («») which surround the merge field name. The «» characters are called merge delimiters.

When finished making your edits, save the template. If you have more than one version of a form (such as multiple templates for an invoice), you must give your .docx file a unique name.

Uploading a modified form template into SOS Inventory 

To upload a form template into the system:

1. Go to the Form templates list (Company menu > Miscellaneous > Form templates) and select the Add new button.
2. Choose a unique name for the form, provide a description of it, and select the form type for which the template will be used.
    
   warningIMPORTANT: If you use an existing template name and matching form type, SOS will overwrite the previous version.
3. Choose the .docx file you want to upload and select Save and close.

For more information, please view our Customizing form templates video tutorial. You may also register for our customer training course on form templates at sosinventory.com/customertraining.

Form template merge fields

You can obtain merge field codes for templates in a couple of different ways:

• To see the merge fields available on each form template, download the sample template (system template). If a template lacks fields that you need, you can find in the Template library form templates that include all possible merge fields. If you wish to use custom fields in your template, the merge field is simply the name of the custom field.
• You can view or download Customizing form templates with merge field codes. This document explains how to change fonts and add new fields to a form template. The document includes an exhaustive list of Microsoft Word merge field codes that are available for use in form templates.