Merge Templates for Custom Proposals
You produce custom proposals using merge templates that you create with Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word.
Merge templates contain:
- The merge codes that represent the fields whose data you want to retrieve from an Info Center and include in a proposal section. For example, you select merge codes to add employee first name, employee last name, and title to a proposal.
- Your company's styles for proposals: page layouts, font settings, graphics locations, and other details This determines the appearance of the finished proposal.
- Graphics, such as your firm's logo.
You add custom merge templates to Vision in .
You can create merge templates before or after you create the custom proposal in the Custom Proposals application. Because the template must be attached to the proposal section with which it will be merged, you may find it more efficient to create merge templates before you create custom proposals in Vision.
Merge Templates Created with Adobe InDesign
When you create custom merge templates with Adobe InDesign (.indt files), InDesign is launched automatically from Vision Merge Templates Configuration. In the same step that you add the merge template to the Vision database, you also create the merge template. The Vision database tables and fields are available within InDesign when InDesign is opened in Merge Templates Configuration, so you can easily add merge codes to the merge template.
You can use InDesign merge template sample files to modify and create custom merge templates. You can download InDesign merge template sample files from the Deltek Customer Care Connect site. See Knowledge Base article # 73879 for more information.
Merge Templates Created with Microsoft Word
To create merge templates with Word (.rtf files), you download the Vision Word Macro (DeltekWordMacro.dot file) from Vision . This adds a Merge Code toolbar to your Microsoft Word software. Use the toolbar to insert merge codes into the merge templates that you create. The toolbar also contains the Graphics-Expand-Macro to expand linked graphics so that they display in finished proposal documents.
You create Word merge templates directly in Word. Then you add them to Vision in .
The Custom Proposals application is installed with a set of Word merge template sample files that you can modify to create your own custom templates. You can also create Word merge templates from scratch.