Document Generator Manual

Table of Contents

System Requirements

  • PhraseExpress Windows client v12 (Download). License reminders are added to the output if using the document generator without a license. No license reminders are shown if purchasing an Enterprise Edition license.
  • Microsoft Word/Office for Windows (installed version).
  • We strongly recommend to add our sample phrases to your phrase library to evaluate this feature.

Using the Document Generator

The Document Generator allows you to create complete documents based on a list of templates, that can you can create with drag & drop in a snap:

Generate document

The document generator is seamlessly integrated into PhraseExpress and implemented as a regular macro function.

Document Generator can paste generated document into a target program or alternatively generates a .txt/.rtf/.doc(x) document file.

As the document generator essentially is a PhraseExpress macro function, it is not necessarily restrict to "generate documents" out of a list of "phrases": Such phrases could consist of automation macros instead of text documents and you can also use the Document Generator to create batches of automation sequences for example.

Creating a Document

  1. Launch the desired target application which receives the final document.
  2. Call a phrase that contains the {#DOCGEN …} macro function, which opens the Document Generator. We strongly recommend to start with the sample phrases (download from here).
  3. Drag & Drop the desired phrases with the mouse from your text snippets inventory from the left to the list of phrases on the right. You can also navigate with the arrow keys.
  4. Click OK to insert the final document into the target application.

That's it!

Preview

Highlight the desired items in the list of phrases you wish to preview on the right side of the Document Generator and click Preview.

You can highlight all items by CTRL-clicking the Preview button.

Templates

You can save a template of created phrase list for later re-use.

Templates are stored in a regular phrase folder which is defined by its Autotext with the{#DOCGEN …} macro parameter -TEMPLATESFOLDER.

The Clou: The Document Generator saves its templates as regular phrases, consisting of a sequence of {#INSERT …} macro functions.

You can use those template phrases together also with other phrases and freely nest/link with other PhraseExpress macro functions.

The search feature allows you to quickly find phrases even in very large phrase libraries. The search result is narrowed down as you type.

Use ArrowRight to move search result items to the list of phrases. Press ESC to delete any search input.

Configuration

The Document Generator is opened with the macro function {#DOCGEN …} which allows you to combine the output of the Document Generator with all other macro functions in PhraseExpress.

  1. Create a new phrase.
  2. Insert the {#DOCGEN …} macro function into the phrase contents field via the menu Macro » Phrase Manipulation » DocGen.
  3. Optionally define a hotkey or Autotext that triggers the phrase. Alternatively, you can also execute the Document Generator by selecting the phrase form the task tray phrase popup menu.

Optional Parameters

{#DOCGEN -PHRASESFOLDER Autotext -TEMPLATESFOLDER Autotext -DEFAULTTEMPLATE Autotext -FILE TargetFile.doc(x) -FILETEMPLATE WordTemplate.dot(x)}

 

Parameter Description

-TITLE

Defines the title text of the Document Generator window.

-PHRASESFOLDER

Defines the phrase folder/-file by its Autotext which is displayed as the root on the left hand phrase tree, If this parameter is missing, all phrases of all phrase files are shown (except system folders, such as clipboard cache).

-TEMPLATESFOLDER

Defines the phrase folder that shall store the templates. If missing, the template feature is hidden from the Document Generator user interface.

-DEFAULTTEMPLATE

Pre-selects a specific template defined by its Autotext.

-FILE

If defined, Document Generator will write the generated document into a .TXT, .RTF or .DOC(X) file instead of pasting it into a target application. NEW

If only a path is specified, Document Generator will prompt you to enter a file name.

-FILETEMPLATE

If a .dot(x) Microsoft Word template file is specified, Document Generator will use that template to generate the document.

If only a path without a file name is specified, Document Generator offers a template selection drop-down with all templates found in the specified folder.

-SEQUENTIAL

Builts the document phrase-by-phrase instead of internally pre-rendering the complete output and inserting it in one single step.

Trouble-Shooting

Is the Template function missing?

If the template function missing from the Document Generator:

  • Check if the parameter -DEFAULTTEMPLATE with an Autotext of the desired template folder is defined.
  • Do you have write permissions to that folder?
  • Does PhraseExpress have general write permissions to that folder?

Table of Contents