Microsoft Word Add-In

Introduction 

The Template function within BigChange already allows you to create custom-branded emails, Financial documents and Job cards through a clever combination of dynamic Keywords with static elements, such as logos and boilerplate text.  So how could this fantastic feature be bettered?  By the creation of our Microsoft Word Add-in!

Once loaded, our ingenious Add-in allows you to enjoy the purpose-built array of Microsoft Word features, whilst still harnessing the power of JobWatch Keywords.  The Keywords will draw all of the information, seamlessly from your own CRM in JobWatch, resulting in beautiful, fully customised documents.

The Add-in can be found in the Microsoft store by clicking here.

Installation & System Requirements

System Requirements

The high level of functionality behind the Add-in demands that we use version 1.3 of the Microsoft application programming interface (API), meaning that it cannot be made to work with earlier versions.  This means that you need either:

• Mac/Windows – Word 2019 or later
• Word through an Office 365 Subscription (Source)

Installation

The add-in can be installed in one of two ways: 

• Via the Office365 Admin portal – this distributes the add-in to selected tenant machines and is likely to be the preferred route for those companies with their own IT department.
• Locally through Word –  this option is more suitable for companies that do not have an in-house IT department.

1.  Installation Via Office365 Portal 

For information on how you can remove, update and edit add-ins using the Admin portal, visit the following support page on the Microsoft website: https://bigchan.ge/ms365-addin-deployment.  

2.  Installation on a Local Machine 

1. Open Word and click (1) Insert and (2) ‘Get Add-ins’:
2. Once the Microsoft Store opens, type ‘BigChange’ into the search box and then click ‘Add’ to select it:
3. Now click ‘continue’:
4. You will now receive confirmation that the Add-in has downloaded and you will see that the Add-In is now showing on the right of your menu:
5. Click on the Add-in and you will be asked to enter your Username and Password and then click ‘Login’ to register

Using the Add-in 

The BigChange Microsoft Word Add-in allows you to take full advantage of Word’s comprehensive suite of editing features, eg watermarks, embedded images, tables and combine them with the benefits of JobWatch.  The Add-in allows you to simply insert BigChange Keywords directly into any document in Word and then import the document into JobWatch. Your new document will behave as though it were created in JobWatch, with all the mail-merge type benefits you are used to having.

For example, you could use a ready-made Word invoice template and include JobWatch Keywords such as ‘Contact Name’ and ‘Reference Number’.  To do this, open an Invoice template in Word and select Insert from the ribbon.  You will now see the BigChange Add-in:

Click on the Add-in and choose Insert Keyword or Formula:

Now move your cursor to the desired location within the template, (1) click to position or highlight it if there is existing text and (2) select the desired Keyword from the menu:  

The Keyword will now have appeared within the text as:

Please note that whilst you can apply formatting to them,  ie change the text colour or font, you cannot change the text of Keywords. Attempting to do so will cause the template to malfunction.

After you have added all the desired Keywords, it will look something like this:

 Next, validate the Template to ensure that there are no errors:

Now save your document, as usual.  

When this is imported into JobWatch and a Financial Document is generated, it will automatically pull through the correct information from your CRM.

Uploading the Document To Use as a Template 

When logged into BigChange as an Administrator, navigate: My Account → Administration → [quick links] Templates → Add and give the Template a name. 

• Click on ‘template type’ and select ‘Word Document’. You will now be prompted to attach your Word document, either by dragging and dropping, or clicking on the button and selecting the file in your file manager.
• Once the file has been uploaded, save and close.
• Re-open the Template and add the correct usage from the Usage tab on the top right. In this example, we created an invoice and so will select:
  • Financial Document
  • Any type
  • Invoice.

Note the format will be PDF by default:

This process can be repeated for JobCards as well as Financial documents.  

When an invoice is raised using this template, the finished document will look like this:

Use of Sub-Templates with Word Add-In

When building templates using the Word add-in, you can also make use of the sub-template feature. Sub-templates can be taken from either existing Word templates or templates created online. It is not possible for an online template to use a sub-template created in Word.

Further Information & Support 

Thanks to the success of our BigChange Microsoft Word Add-In, it is now possible to create fantastic, design-led documentation.  However, performance errors can be created when users try to paste HTML code from MS Word into the editor instead of using the Add-In.

To ensure error-free performance, users will be prevented from creating new templates using this type of HTML, or from making changes to existing templates which contain it.  Where users attempt to do so, one of the warnings below will display:

Existing templates which are not edited will continue to perform.

For further information on how to use templates, please read the separate Template article.

For more information on the BigChange system in general, please visit our Help Centre, which is accessible from the RoadCrew menu.