Importing Templates

The Template option is integrated with the Add and Edit commands on the Specification Form and appears when you select either of these commands. It is used to fill in the specification you are currently adding or editing with the contents of a Library record that has been marked as a "prototype template." To aid in identifying the desired template, some of the text fields (such as the "Add'l Descr") and its image (if any) are shown. To use the Template function, either create a new, blank specification with the Add button or select an existing spec and Edit it. Since you can also access the Specification screen's Add command through a New button on another editing form (branching to the Specifications screen as part of a larger procedure), that will also produce this option.

These command buttons appear after you select the Add and Edit commands (respectively) for Specifications

The Template command is actually a very specialized version of the general Import option, but only accesses the FF&EZ Library and only displays library specifications that have been marked as "prototypes." This makes it easier and faster to copy a template into your current spec (and the reason there are no search tools in this command). Clicking on the Template command will produce a screen on which you can select the desired source template:

One you select the desired template, you have two options for how to use it:

Append description only

This option does exactly one thing: Appends (adds) the contents of the template's "Add'l Descr" field to the end of the current contents of the same field in your spec. Although there may be several ways to use this (including building text from multiple specialized templates) the most common use is to add boilerplate to the end of existing descriptions.

Import entire template

This is the "main" option, which copies all the fields of the template to the corresponding fields in your spec, but only if those fields are blank. That is, it will enter text into blank fields, but leave any entries you have already made.

To make it even more flexible, if this version of the command finds that your current "Add'l Descr" field is not empty, it will offer to either replace the field or only append the template text to the end of the current contents (similar to the first option above).

Note: To keep the use of templates simple, no numeric fields except "Lead time" are imported as part of a template (i.e., no pricing). If you need to import a library item that includes cost and pricing information, use the regular Import option instead, which includes more flexible controls to help you avoid accidentally overwriting existing information.