Author Document Templates

After you download and install the Blueprint document template authoring add-in, you can begin creating document templates for Blueprint immediately.

The Blueprint template authoring add-in works with:
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Microsoft Office 2010
- Microsoft Office 2013
- Microsoft Office 2016
- Microsoft Office 2019
- Microsoft Office 2021
The add-in looks slightly different in Office 2010 compared to Office 2007 but the features are the same.

Blueprint AutoTag is an add-in for Microsoft Office that facilitates the authoring of document templates in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. After you author a document template and add it to Blueprint, users can export documents and reports that convey critical, up-to-date information from Blueprint artifacts in a visually impressive format.

You may be interested in downloading the Sample Word and Excel Document Templates prior to creating your own.

Components of Template Design

There are two main components of template design:

  1. Design:
    Design includes layout, fonts, static images, colored text, headers, footers, and many other design features. With a few exceptions, design elements are created and edited using Microsoft Office's built-in tools.
  2. Data:
    Data placeholders, known as tags, are inserted into document templates. When a document is generated in Blueprint, the tags in the template are replaced with actual data from your Blueprint project. In other words, templates contain tags and reports contain data. In your document template, each tag is contained within angle brackets so you can easily distinguish tags from regular text.

Blueprint AutoTag User Interface

Blueprint AutoTag adds two tabs: Blueprint and Blueprint Manager, to Microsoft Word and Excel. On the Blueprint tab, you create and edit tags. In the Blueprint Manager tab, you perform miscellaneous tasks. 

Understand the Blueprint AutoTag Features on your Microsoft Office Ribbon

After Blueprint AutoTag is installed, two new tabs are displayed on your Microsoft Office ribbon:

The Blueprint tab and the Blueprint Manager tab are all part of the Blueprint AutoTag add-in. The primary tab is the Blueprint tab where you can create and edit any tag.

The Blueprint Tab

The following table describes each feature available on the Blueprint tab on the ribbon:

Icon

Name

Description

Pods

Pods contain pre-defined groups of tags that you can drag and drop into document templates.

Data Bin

The Data Bin contains all the data that is accessible from a particular document template. You can drag and drop items from the Data Bin into your template.

Tags

The reports allow you to insert a variety of data types, including single pieces of data, images, tables and more. Each type of data is associated with a tag type. When you click the Tag icon, a pop-up window shows you all the tag types.

Validate Tags

You can check to make sure tags are formatted properly by using this icon.

Select Tag

This selects the tag you have your cursor on. It is especially useful when working with text tags.

Delete Tag

When you place your cursor on a tag and click this icon, the tag is deleted.

Next and Previous

Use these icons to quickly jump from tag to tag in a template.

Output

To run a report, you click this icon and then choose the desired output format (DOCX, XLSX)

Select box

This contains the select statement, also known as a call or a query to a data source, that tells the template what data to retrieve when the report is run.

Evaluate

When you select a tag and click the Evaluate icon, a pop-up window shows you the real-time data associated with that tag.

Wizard

The wizard walks you step by step through selecting a subset of data to use in a report.

The Blueprint Manager Tab

The following table describes each feature available on the Blueprint Manager tab on the ribbon:

Icon

Name

Description

New Template

The New Template wizard walks you through connecting a blank template to a data source.

Parameters

Useful when working with a template containing variables, parameters let you find undetermined variables and enter default values and types.

Data Sources

This lists all the data sources a template is connected to, and allows you to add new data sources.

Load Pods

This icon lets you load groups of tags (pods) into a template.

Create Pods

Create Pods lets users create groups of tags that can be used in other templates.

Edit RDLX

This lets you edit pod files.

Clean Template

This tool cleans your template by creating a new template that scrubs the file, closes your existing template, opens the new scrubbed template, deletes the old file, and renames the new file to the name of the original file.

Replace

This tool lets you find and replace text in tags throughout a document.

Options

AutoTag's options control how tags are read and how they display in your template.

License

You can update and view your license key via this icon.

Website

This links to the Blueprint website.

About

Basic info about AutoTag, such as version number and license expiration date (if any).

Help

This links to the template authoring help on the Blueprint documentation website.

Start Here

Links to resources.

For information on how to insert data into AutoTag so you can customize formatting, see the Data Sourcing article.