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Troubleshooting

Merge codes from desktop templates aren't being populated in the webclient

The webclient does not support some of the custom merge codes that exist in desktop templates. If the document generator finds an unsupported merge code while creating a document from a template, the merge code will be replaced with an empty string.

Unsupported desktop merge codes:

  • All VBScript merge codes. E.g. <vbscript:Date()> will not work in the webclient
  • All merge codes using Eget
  • All merge codes using ActiveUser

Some properties render unexpected or missing values in the template

This could be cause by a number of different reasons, here are some of the scenarios that could lead to unexpected or missing values in templates.

Unsupported property types

Using merge codes with some specific properties are currently not supported in document templates and would in most cases result in the return of an empty string. Below is a list of unsupported limetype properties.

  • XML - not supported
  • User - not supported in current version
  • File - not supported in current version

Incorrect usage of limetype properties

  • Properties with Has Many relation: Best practice for rendering a has-many relation would be using a for loop.
  • Option and Set properties: Option and Set fields behave a bit differently in terms of expected output. You can find a detailed explanation here.

Pre-defined context variable

If the document limetype has a property with the name context it will not be accessible due to the presence of the pre-defined merge code variable context. More information about the pre-defined merge codes can be found here.

Invalid field code (DOCPROPERTY abc.xyz \* MERGEFORMAT)

If the created document contains unexpected information in the format of DOCPROPERTY deal.name \* MERGEFORMAT it is most likely caused by Word field codes that are missing from the document.

If a field code is missing from a Word document this could cause the raw data to be displayed.

To fix this, replace field codes with merge codes or remove them from the document and reupload the template. Since field codes are normally not visible in Word you need to show them first. To show field codes in Word press Alt+F9 on Windows or Option+F9 on Mac when inside the document to toggle their visibility.

The most common reason for this issue is text containing field codes being copied from another document. Another reason could be that the template has been migrated from a desktop template. This is due to the fact that the migration process does not support removing field codes.

The migration did not migrate my merge code

Detection of desktop merge codes is not perfect. Sometimes the merge codes are using a special Word field that is not properly parsed by our document parser. The best and easiest way to fix this issue is to download the migrated document, delete the desktop merge codes and any "field" section that Word has created in the document around the merge code, then insert the new Jinja merge code as just plain text.

After you have replaced the merge codes, reupload the template.

Merge codes in the Table of Contents are not updated when I migrate my template

A documents Table of Contents is generated and managed by Word from the headers of a file. In order to update the table of contents after a migration you will need to open the migrated file in Word, right-click on the Table of Contents and select Update Table of Contents at which point Word will regenerate the table of contents and it will contain the migrated merge codes.

After you have updated the Table of Contents, reupload the template.

My template contains HTML and the migration changes my HTML

Because of the similarities between the desktop merge codes and HTML tags, you will need to migrate the template manually if it contains HTML.

My template did not render correctly with images

Make sure the file format is supported and that the image is properly readable.