How to use Document Merge?

DecisionVault can fill in your Microsoft Word templates with the information captured on the questionnaire and design sheet. You build a Word template with placeholders, upload it once, and from then on you can generate a filled-in document from any matter.

How does it work?

This video shows the whole flow, from building the template to the merged document:

Download our Sample Microsoft Word Document from the video.

How to set this up?

Step 1 - Build the Word template

Define "placeholders" in your Word document - using the following notation:

{{placeholder-name}}

This is normal text - don't use Microsoft Word "fields" functionality
Placeholder names can contain letters, numbers and the dash and underscore ("-" and "_")
Placeholder names (excluding the curly brackets) can be up to 40 characters long
Placeholder names are case sensitive:

{{client-name}} and {{Client-Name}} are seen as 2 different placeholders

This results in a document that's full of these "placeholders":

Step 2 - Upload the template to DecisionVault

1) Go to Settings > Integrations > Document Automation, find Document Merge, and turn it on.

2) Give the template a description and upload the Word file.

3) Verify that the fields got loaded in:

The "edit template" screen will list the placeholder/fields that were found in the Word document:

Step 3 - Map information from the matter

Open the matter, click the Integrations dropdown on the Matter Details screen, and choose DecisionVault Document Merge:

Pull the fields for the template, then map these fields to information present on the matter:

The first time you go through this you will need to make lots of selections. DecisionVault remembers your choices and pre-fills these dropdowns on the next matter.

For each field you first pick the type of info, then the exact value to merge. The Type of info dropdown offers:

None (clear mapping): removes the mapping for that field.
Matter Info: details of the matter itself.
Specific Person: one specific person from the matter.
Contact: information from one of the matter's contacts.
Role: the contact assigned to a role on the matter, for example the agent's name or address.
Question/Answer: the client's answer to a question on the questionnaire.

Finally, process the template. DecisionVault merges the information into a Microsoft Word file, which you can then customize like any other Word document:

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I map a placeholder to?

Matter Info, a Specific Person, a Contact, a Role, or a Question and Answer from the questionnaire. Choose None (clear mapping) to remove a mapping from a field.

Do I have to map everything again on the next matter?

No. DecisionVault remembers your choices and pre-fills the dropdowns on the next matter.

Can I edit the merged file afterwards?

Yes. The result is a normal Word document that you can customize like any other.