General Templates

A general template is one that is not associated with any subject but which contains general information that needs to print once only for a student.

Often, at the beginning of or interspersed within a student report, a school may want to insert text that is not subject-specific, eg the heading section of a table that is to contain a summary of results for each subject. Such a table heading does not apply to any particular subject and is only required once, before all of the subject-specific data is printed.This is the function of general templates.

General templates are usually used with part page reports, in conjunction with a Layout template, for the text that is to print at the top of a page, or a signatures section at the end of a report, after all subjects have printed. They are also used for full page cover pages or back pages.

General templates that are associated with a part page portion or full page portion with a common layout should not contain headers and footers. If they do, these are ignored in the print process and only body text prints.

General templates are displayed in the Report Templates table as a different type to subject templates, with a G icon appearing in the Type column.

SRP GeneralTemplateCreateIcon

General templates are created in a report template slot – whether a slot specifically designated for it, or one in which subject templates are also to be created.

Where a slot contains general and subject templates, the general templates always print first. However, it is more common to have a slot specifically for general templates in order that their position is clear and they are not intermingled with subject templates. In addition, if you want text not associated with a subject to print last, it must have its own last slot.

The decision flowchart will help you decide on your layout needs and whether you need a general template or not for a particular portion.

Each general template has a condition under which the template is printed. There is a dropdown box in the Condition cell for each row from which three selections are available.

SRP Step11B

•	Include Always means that the general template will always be included in the print run for each student, when the portion is selected for printing in the Print Report Run window.

This option is usually selected for cover pages that have their own portion, without any subjects.

•	Include If Portion Enrolment Exists will result in the general template printing only if the student is enrolled in a subject found in the portion.

This option is most often used for part page reports where a table heading or generic text must precede the subjects of the portion and the general template never prints unless there is at least one subject.

It is also used where subsections of the school have different cover pages and each subsection has its own portion. Therefore, the correct cover will print based on the portion in which the student's subjects are found.

•	The Include If Slot Enrolment Exists option means that the general template will only print if there is a subject, in the same slot as the general template, in which the student is enrolled.

This would only be used if you have very specific needs for particular subjects. For example, you may have a Music slot in which all of the instrumental music subjects have been added, as well as a general template containing introductory text for the music subjects.

•	Click the correct portion and slot in the Report Structure pane.

•	Click the Add general report template icon at the bottom of the Report Templates table and a new row will appear in the Report Templates table.

SRP Step10

•	Select the condition that applies to the particular general template from the dropdown list in the Condition column.

SRP Step11B

•	Click in the new general template row and then click the Create templates icon.

SRP PrepareCreateTemplateIcon

•	In the Create new general template file box that appears:

➢	Accept the selected option and suggested name or choose another name that clearly identifies the general template.

➢	Select one of the other other two options.

➢

If the new general template is to be based on a template that has already been created, tick the Initialise checkbox and click the Browse button to select the already existing template on which the new template is to be based. The content of the template selected will be copied into the newly created template.

➢	Click the OK button.

SRP Step15

•	With the general template highlighted, click the Open template in Word icon at the bottom of the Report Template table.

•	In Microsoft Word:

➢	Setup the general template, inserting text, tables, and other Word formatting as required.

Remember that any text in the header or footer will be ignored unless the layout type for the portion is Full Page Unique layout.

➢	Insert Accelerus fields in the locations where you want replacement data to print, eg the student’s name, the report run name, etc, keeping in mind that no subject-specific fields are available in general templates.

➢	Save and close the general template when finished.