How to Create a PDF Document Template to Merge from LawMaster

This article outlines the steps to create a PDF Document Template to merge from LawMaster. 

Step-by-step guide

From Workflow Development > Document Templates

1. Add and Upload the PDF to Document Templates. 
2. Register your new document to the relevant template e.g. ZZZZ 
3. Once you have added and registered your PDF document templates > right click > modify, you will see another tab called "Mapped Variables".
   
   
   
4. From the document templates screen > right click > Edit the PDF document in your PDF Editor e.g. Nitro. Find the Fields tab and select e.g. Edit All Fields
   
   
   
5. This will show all of the available fields in the document e.g.
   
   
   Note: This will vary with your PDF editing software. Some software may require you to select field types, so you may only be able to show text fields or check boxes.
   
   
6. Go back to LawMaster and modify your document template, go to the Mapped Variables tab. From the Context Menu > Add.
   
   
   
7. In the Add Document Template variable screen, you will need to map each of the LawMaster variables to the Document Form variables. In the LawMaster Variables field, you can select F5 to show the Script Wizard, where you can select your variables. Ensure that you also select Export.
   
   
   
8. Complete any pre-merge task to populate the variables as you normally would and re-register the document accordingly.

 For PDF Fields that are not text fields

Text fields will map across in the same way you would expect with Word merges. The field will be filled with the content of the LawMaster variable. 

For other types of PDF fields you will need to ensure that the values exported from LawMaster match the value that the field type expects. 

Radio buttons are linked groups of options, usually allowing selection of only on item in the group. When mapping to radio buttons in your PDF form, you will need to review their properties to determine what value the form expects for each item. Radio buttons are linked in groups by sharing the same name, and the value assigned to them determines which is checked. 

In the following example, the radio buttons are linked because they are all named “S2”.

When you view the properties of each in your PDF editor you will find something like he following, showing that to cause the item to be checked, you must set the value to “Choice1”

Therefore the LawMaster variable that you map through to the “S2” field in the PDF will need to have a value of “Choice1” for that item to be checked. 

Checkboxes are another type of control that may appear on PDF forms. These will have a value to set to check or uncheck the box in a way similar to radio buttons, however the value you will need to set will be referred to as something like an “export value”. The LawMaster variable mapped to a checkbox will need to match the export value for the checkbox to be checked. Other values will result in the checkbox being unchecked. 

Secured PDF files 

PDFs may have security settings applied to them that prevents form filling or other actions that might be required to merge data into them. If you do not have the password to unlock such secured forms, you will not be able to merge data into them.