Generating a Microsoft Word Contract from Laserfiche Forms Data

It is well known that Laserfiche Forms is typically used to capture data and other information directly from users. But, many of our clients have extended the functionality of Laserfiche Forms by leveraging Laserfiche Workflow to accomplish many things Forms cannot provide on its own. One of these extended capabilities is the insertion of information into a MS Word document. To accomplish this, users continue to use Forms to capture contract details like the parties involved, dates, and amounts. Then, with the help of workflow, have those contract details automatically inserted into a Word document for review and printing.

In this month’s article, CDI’s Software Trainer, Kyle Knebel, will walk us through how to accomplish the insertion of information into a Word document. In this example, we’ll fill out a Contract document. The instructions below are broken up into three main steps:

Step 1: Create your MS Word contract document

Step 2: Creating the Laserfiche Contract e-Form and Business Process

Step 3: Creating the Workflow to Generate the MS Word Contract document

Let’s begin!

Step 1: Create your MS Word contract document.

a. Get your contract document setup in MS Word; along with the Replacement Token text that will be replaced by the information coming from the Form.

Replacement Token Text examples:

Company Name = 1CompanyName1

Contract Effective Date = 2EffectiveDate2

Expiration Date = 3ExpirationDate3

*We will later use the Find-Replace function to replace the replacement token text with the actual data and dates.

b. Save the new MS Word document to a windows folder. Later, you will upload this document as a Master Document within the Update Word Document Workflow activity.

Step 2: Creating the Laserfiche Contract e-Form and Business Process

Next, you’ll want to build your Laserfiche Forms Business Process, which really is a pretty simple design. You gather some information on the e-form, and then upon submission, the data is used by Laserfiche Workflow to create the filled-out MS Word Contract.

Open Laserfiche Forms and click on the Manage tab.

a. Create a New Business process in Laserfiche Forms Designer (you can create one from scratch or pick a pre-built template)

We’ll create a Blank process for this example. Give the process a name and then press Create.

b. Once in the Design screen, skip down to the Forms section and create a new form. Click on the Create New Form link and give it a name, for example, Contract Submission Form.

c. Insert a Single Line Field for the Company name, insert date fields for the Effective Date and Expiration date fields.