Tips for Designing Microsoft Word Templates in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

Much has already been written about the flexibility and convenience of using Word Templates for customer-facing documents in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Users can replace the standard Report Writer formats with slick looking Invoices, Statements, POs, and more. We can email these attractive documents directly from Microsoft Dynamics GP. And, we can dynamically determine which format (read: change logos, wording, messages) by customer or customer class, or vendor or vendor class. But, there are a few caveats to the process of design and deployment that should be considered. Here are a few “Gotchas” we have discovered.

• The process for getting the information onto the Word Templates starts in Report Writer. Each time you must add a new field or formula to the Word Template, you must first add it to the modified Report Writer report and then recreate the Word Template in the Report Template Maintenance window. You don’t have to start completely from scratch each time, but it is a very iterative approach. This can be further compounded if you have multiple versions of the report for different customers, customer classes, etc. So, the best practice here would be to completely finalize the report requirements and design in Report Writer before you ever begin to build the Word Templates.
• Another thing that we found out the hard way is that there are Word bookmarks that must be in place for certain aspects of the Word Templates to work. So, the best thing to do is to make sure that they are exposed so that you don’t accidentally move or delete them. In Word, go to Options>Advanced and make sure Show Bookmarks is checked.
• A common trick with Report Writer is to clone similar reports from one another (for example, copying the SOP Blank Invoice report package to the Historical SOP Blank Invoice report for consistency purposes.) This saves time with Report Writer, but unfortunately doesn’t play well with Word Templates.

Hopefully, these recommendations will save you time and effort in not having to learn  the hard way. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at AIM Technologies.

By AIM Technologies, Louisiana Microsoft Dynamics GP Implementation Experts