Template Best Practices

Keep the following set of best practice recommendations in mind when creating templates:

• Use the Base Templates Provided from Sopheon - Each Accolade release contains a group of base templates on the Base Templates Reference Page. Use these base templates as starting points for templates specific to your organization.
• Use Descriptive and Unique Template Names - Users need to be able to clearly distinguish the different template types and their uses. For example, Process Designers building models need to distinguish between templates used for files and those for online forms, and the difference between a Master Template such as the Excel Master template and other Excel templates available.
• Use Categories to Help Identify Templates - In addition to descriptive and unique template names, place templates of similar usage in categories to help users identify the correct template to use. For example, you may consider grouping templates by their base functions such as reporting or marketing analysis. Create and assign templates to categories when adding the template to the Template Library.
• Use Template File Name Extensions - Users who download a file deliverable from a project can easily save it by mistake to a temporary folder where it may be difficult to find again. If you ensure that file templates have the file extension of a template of the related application (such as .dotx for Word documents or .xltx for Excel documents), then users are prompted to save the file to an accessible location when they save the downloaded template locally.
• Verify Field Codes in Templates Prior to Adding Templates to the Library - When you upload a template containing field codes to the library, mistakes in the name, such as {*MD:PorjectNam*} generate errors. However, mistakes in the pattern or source, such as {*ProjectName*} or [*MD:ProjectName} simply display the field code itself in the template rather than displaying the relevant data when opened in a project.
• Specify Which Worksheets in an Excel File Contain Field Codes - Accolade keeps track of documents using custom document properties that are created automatically when the template is first downloaded in an Accolade project. To improve the refresh speed of some Excel templates, use the SGM_RefreshFieldsOnWorksheet custom document property to specify which worksheets within the file contain Accolade field codes. Refer to Microsoft's online Help for information about adding custom properties to files.
• Use the Template Library for Templates Beyond Accolade - Use the Template Library to store not just templates used within Accolade, but also for templates used for documents not associated with the work you complete using Accolade. Add these types of documents to the library using the Other type.
• Use Access Groups to restrict templates to subsets of Accolade users - Using access groups, templates can be configured to only be accessible to a subset of users.

Sopheon recommends that you store the master Excel template (Report - Excel <version>.xltx) in a separate category in the Template Library.