Navigation:  Publishing > How to Build a Master Document (Template)

Breakdown and Call-Outs

The master document contain two parts:

1.Settings: general ones, patterns, conditions

2.Structure: boilerplate, titles, bookmarks.

 

Bookmarks in the second section indicate where the various chunks of information take place.

Each bookmark in section 2 fetches the linked pattern in section 1:

 

A Pattern for Minutes has no bookmark of its own, as a Minute results from the parent task in the WBS. There are two variants to embed Minutes:

1.A sectional way where each section of Minutes takes place in its own table after a task heading (Pattern for Minutes); the bookmark STARTCHAPTERS, in the beginning of the Technical specifications, implicitly invokes the WBS chapters and fetches the Pattern for Minutes

2.A tabular way where tasks and Minutes take place in one table (Pattern for WBS with Minutes)

 

In conjunction with Using Global Variables in Word, bookmarks are also used to spot a conditional text in the structure.

The bookmarks are not retained in the resulting document.

REMINDER No spaces are allowed in bookmark names; they are not case sensitive

 

Compiling the Resulting Document

The figure below shows how the resulting document is built from a typical structure (second part of the master document) under the control of the first part:

 

General Settings

The following settings define how the document behaves when called from QDV7:

▪Which language must be used?

▪Which parts of the estimate and which external documents must be inserted?

▪Which style must be used for titles, which layout?

▪Will the values of the global variables be used?

The row colors in the table correspond to the color in the schematic above (green rows apply to deep yellow and blue documents).

 

APPENDICES

The appendices allow you to insert once documents invoked several times. QDV7 creates links in both directions: to appendices, and from appendices to invoking rows.

There are two ways to insert appendices:

1.Using only the general settings in blue; this applies to documents and images; the appendices are referenced in row and can be accessed through hyperlinks OR kept in place

2.Through in-row documents (deep yellow in the schematic); see below

Way #1:

You need to create a new section in the master document only where a different width is required or to indicate to which section the appendices must be appended.

The section number is the count of sections starting from the Offer, not the number indicated in the Word header.

By default, the return hyperlink is right after the title; to add another link anywhere, insert in the external document a bookmark whose name starts by REFERENCES_TO_MAIN; the text of the bookmark will be removed at merger. The Multi-languages sample estimate illustrates this (to reach the bookmark in the resulting document, click Insert>Bookmark).

In both ways, to inhibit the insertion (e.g., for estimate review), put AddAppendixes to No.

 

 

Neither variable names nor values are case-sensitive.

This table is sufficient to create simple documents. Patterns enable you to tailor the documents to your needs.

As the styles are imported with the documents, the size of the resulting document may largely increase. Do not to use too many different styles in documents to import.

 

Pattern for Minutes

The following table is the pattern to insert details from the Minutes. It can be adapted to your needs.

The pattern includes 4 through 6 lines (the 3 first lines will not be inserted in the resulting document):

1.Header

2.Attribute (see below)

3.Header mnemonics (no space, fetch them in the Minutes, Administration>Fields Manager>Natives Columns)

4.Final header (option)

5.Data pattern

6.Total line pattern (option)

 

Several attributes can be set.

RemoveBorders can take various values depending on which borders of the table must be REMOVED (regardless the way they are defined under the template):

▪All: all borders

▪InsideVertical: vertical borders inside

▪InsideHorizontal: horizontal borders inside

▪InsideBoth: horizontal and vertical borders inside

▪No: none

 

UnBoldHeadOfGroups:

When IncludeMinutes is set to Groups, it makes sense to show a regular row in place of a bold row, so that the customer doesn’t see it is a group.

▪Yes: removes bold, if any

▪other values: keep format as defined

 

RepeatHeaderRow:

▪Yes: when a table doesn’t fit in one page, the header row is repeated on the next pages

▪other values: no repetition

 

DocumentsStayInTables:

▪Yes: the documents merged with the master document are shown in the table cells

▪No: the table is split and interspersed documents take the page entire width (recommended if they contain page breaks)

If Yes, MergeColumns=n-m, e.g. 2-6 requests to merge 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th columns when inserting a document into the table (if missing, it is inserted across all the columns; if n=m, it is  it is inserted in one column).

 

PlaceImagesInColumn=<target column number>

When it is present, it places the image specified in the "Path to appendix" column (preceded by {KeepInPlace}) into the target column below its value (the title does not show); this column must not belong to the range of merged columns.

 

Example:

 

which results in:

 

Never merge cells in lines 3 through 6.

The formats of cells are retained.

NOTE The Overhead Task is not taken into account.

 

Pattern for WBS

The following table is the pattern to insert WBS. You can insert various WBSs in the same document by creating several patterns.

The pattern includes 4 through 6 lines (the 3 first lines will not be inserted in the resulting document):

1.Header

2.Attributes (see below)

3.Header mnemonics (no space, fetch them in the context menu>Properties: Unique Identifier)

4.Final header (option)

5.Data pattern

6.Total line (option).

The table can be adapted to your needs.

The attributes include:

▪BookmarkName: space-free name of the location where the WBS will be inserted; it can be used several times

▪IndentationLevel: outline level to insert (like the general setting InsertWBSChapters)

▪InheritFormats: Yes to insert the formats as they are in the WBS, No to insert them as in the Data pattern (line 5)

▪InheritFormatsButAlignment: Yes, to insert the formats as they are in the WBS except for the alignments (especially vertical), which must be the ones of the template; this does not apply if the preceding attribute value is Yes    

▪Area: Core/Option (see below)

▪RemoveBorders: see above

▪RemoveTitleRows: if set to No, the WBS general title will not be inserted

▪HeightOfSeparators (0 thru 100 points, 8 by default): height of blank rows between tasks

▪ForceAllBlankRowsToHeight (1 thru 100 points, to ignore the attribute, set it to 0): height of all blank rows whether they are in the WBS or in the Minutes view

▪IncludeDocuments: WBS to insert in-row documents attached to the WBS nodes, NONE otherwise

▪RepeatHeaderRow:  see above

▪MergeColumns=n-m, e.g. 2-6 requests to merge 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th columns when inserting a document into the table (if missing, it is inserted across all the columns; if n=m, it is  it is inserted in one column)

▪IgnoreMissingBookmark: if set to No, an error message pops up when a table in Part 1 refers to a bookmark removed as per Using Variables in Word; if set to Yes, the publishing moves on, with WBS not being inserted.

 

Example:

 

which, when documents are interspersed, results in:

Notes:

- In case of dubbing in the estimate, the columns Task and U will take the content of the columns in the language specified in the General Settings

- If the global quantities equals 1, put nothing in the cells Total chapter - Price (unit)

- In the last row, the Description is imposed by QDV7; to show a fixed text, especially for localization, enter your custom text between straight brackets

 

OPTIONS SECTION

To insert the Options section, add a table similar to the following:

 

NOTES

- The total line, if any, is ignored in this case

- If the estimate contains no option, the corresponding bookmark is hidden (but not removed). This way, a document created from a WBS without option can still receive options later

 

MONO-LEVEL WBS EXAMPLE:

As there is one level, it makes sense to use the format in the Data pattern line:

 

Pattern for WBS with Minutes

Two settings are implicitly set: IndentationLevel to 8, InheritFormats to Yes.

To include in-row documents directly into the frame of such a WBS, set IncludeDocuments to WBS, MINUTES, WBSANDMINUTES or NONE.

 

The pattern includes 6 through 8 lines (the 4 first lines will not be inserted in the resulting document):

1.Header

2.Attributes (see above). Extra attribute: CollapseGroups= Yes (the Minutes show only group head) or No. If missing, the general setting IncludeMinutes applies

3.WBS column mnemonics (no space, fetch them in the context menu>Properties: Unique Identifier)

4.Minutes column mnemonics (no space, fetch them in the minutes/Administration>Field Manager>Native, Material or Workforce)

5.Final header (option)

6.Minutes pattern

7.WBS Task total pattern (content and format): the text will be displayed “as is” and can include references to columns of the WBS in the pattern (provide the mnemonic of a column between brackets, e.g. [WBS_Item]); when a cell contains {MoveToTotal}, the value at the WBS level is moved to the total row  

8.Total footer pattern (option)

 

 

which results in:

NOTES

- The WBS Chapter total row content and format are inherited from the WBS

- In case of dubbing in the estimate, the columns Task and U will take the content of the columns in the language specified in the General Settings

- PlaceImagesInColumn=<target column number>

When it is present, it places the image specified in the "Path to appendix" column in the Minute (preceded by {KeepInPlace}) into the target column below its value (the title does not show); this column must not belong to the range of merged columns.

 

Syntax for the general amount in words:

▪Num2Words(cell reference) returns the value in the current language; the separator between units and tenth is rendered with "point" in English, "virgule" in French, "komma" in Dutch ...

▪Num2Words(cell reference,language code) returns the value in the language code if it exists (the language is hard-coded, but SYS_Lang_UI is allowed as well, not SYS_Lang_Report);  

▪Num2Words(cell reference,language code,Currency singular,Currency plural,Singular of hundredth,Plural of hundredth) adds currency units and hundredth of unit in words (the separator between units and tenth is rendered with "and" in English, "et" in French, ... and a period is automatically appended)

▪Num2Words(cell reference,language code,Currency singular,Currency plural,Singular of hundredth,Plural of hundredth,Gender of currency,Gender of hundredth) adds the gender of currency unit and hundredth when the language requests so (allowed values are M for Masculine, F for Feminine, N for Neutral).

 

For the options, the table can be as follows:

[WBS_Item] is a reference to a WBS column

which results in:

 

To sort the WBS + Minutes according a field with discrete values (e.g., Family), add its exact mnemonic in SortByKey.

Options:

▪To insert totals for each sorting key value, add ShowSortingTotals=Yes and in the column with totals {Total_Sorting_Key} after the field name

▪Add the introductory text (e.g., \Total Family:); the color of the total is always black

▪To hide rows which are comments or head of groups or sets, add IgnoreEmptyRows=Yes; QDV7 hides the rows that have no value in the columns identified by {Total_Sorting_Key}

▪To have identical (i.e., all cell contents are identical except Quantity and columns filled with sums) rows merged, add MergeDoubloons=Yes; they are merged in one row where the quantity and the values being in columns with total (LineSellingTotalPrice in the example) are the sums of the components

▪To sort further according to secondary (Description) and tertiary (Unit) keys, add SortFields=Description+Unit ASC (DES for decreasing order).  

 

which results in:

 

To show apart the documents attached in or invoked by Minutes, add, below the WBS table, a table like the following. The third row is empty as no used data is reserved to the WBS.  If few columns are used, the header row is not mandatory and borders are useless.

The documents show separated by single rows (the fifth row in the pattern). In this example, the WBS Item and Description are used as a reference to the main table:

 

which results in:

As described above, {KeepInPlace} is put ahead of the appendix path. Refer to the sample Multi-languages_Sample_with_Documents.

 

Appendices in Way #2

It is possible to automatically append documents referenced outside QDV7 to the resulting document. The calls for appendices are done in in-row documents thru a table.

An appendix table must contain 3 columns with:

▪the word APPENDIX

▪the chapter name to insert in the appendix with the format defined thru AppendixHeadings (general settings)

▪the full path to the document to be inserted (use \).

Several rows are allowed to refer to several documents dealing with the same item.

Example:

The in-row document may begin with a cross-reference followed by the table. The two sections are bookmarked by LANGUAGE_EN or LANGUAGE_FR.

 

 

NOTES

- QDV7 automatically places a page break before each document merged as part of the appendix

- Even though there is more than one reference in the estimate to the same appendix file, it is only inserted  once anyway.