Creating and Editing Templates
Building a template, document, roles, fields, placeholders, options, and updating it safely.
Docshark → Templates → New template opens the template builder. The same field builder used for envelopes, with roles instead of people.
Building a template
Choose the document
Upload a file or pick one from your library. This becomes the template's body. Word and Excel convert to PDF.
Define roles
Instead of recipients, templates have roles. "Signer", "Approver", "HR". Each role carries its color, position in the routing order, and optional verification requirements. At send time you attach real people to roles.
Place fields
Drop fields exactly as in the envelope builder. Assigned to roles, configured with the same required/label/validation options. Mako placement and anchor tags work here too.
Add placeholders
Insert placeholders where per-send data goes. Company name, salary, dates. Each send (or bulk-send row) fills them.
Set defaults
Message text, expiry, reminder cadence, watermark. The options every send inherits, overridable per send.
Editing a template
Open it and change anything, swap the document, move fields, rename roles. Changes apply to future sends; envelopes already created from the template keep the version they were built with, a sent envelope never mutates under its recipients.
Template hygiene
- Name roles clearly. "Signer" and "Approver" beat "Person 1" when bulk-send columns must map to them.
- Prefer placeholders over free fields for data you know at send time. Bulk send fills placeholders automatically from your spreadsheet.
- Keep one template per agreement version. Editing a live template changes what the next send produces; versioning via duplicate templates keeps history legible.
Deleting
Deleting a template removes the blueprint. Envelopes already sent from it are unaffected and stay in your signatures list.