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Document generation

1: Word document add-in
2: Excel workbook add-in

Document generation refers to the use of Kianda Add-ins for Word, and also Excel, that you can use to generate reports within Kianda processes and populate the reports with data captured within each process instance. This could be useful, for example, for inspection reports where a report template can be used to show the information the engineer input to a Kianda form during his inspection. Each time an inspection is performed, a report is generated based on a Word template and the report shows the relevant information that was captured during that particular inspection.

Microsoft Word template with Kianda form fields

MS Word template containing Kianda form fields

In the example above, a report will generate data pulled from a Kianda process instance (record) that contains the date, company and location data within an ‘Inspection Form’ and a ‘Request Form’. To create this kind of template, you can use a Kianda Add-in in Word to link your document to your Kianda process.

Installing Kianda Add-in to Word or Excel

The example below steps through how to install the Kianda Add-in for Word, however the same steps apply to get started with the Kianda Add-in for Excel.

Create a template outline in Microsoft Word.
Click on the Insert tab > Get Add-ins
Search for Kianda.
Click on Add, then Continue and click on the Home tab. The Show Kianda Taskpane should be added to your ribbon.
On the right-hand side of the Home tab, click on the Kianda Add-in.
In the Kianda pane log in using your Kianda username and password.
From the drop-down list under Login to Kianda, select your Kianda subscription and press Continue. Note that all of your subscriptions will be available in the drop-down. Make sure to select the correct one when creating you template.

Before you begin using the Kianda add-in for Word or Excel

When you want to use Kianda add-in for both a Word or Excel template, you need to have created a process with one or more forms. The forms need to have different types of fields within them, for example a text box field or a table field. Those fields are used to create smart tags using the Kianda add-in within a Word or Excel template. Smart tags are created when a field is selected from a process using the Kianda add-in task pane, and then inserted into the document. See the image below for a presentation of a smart tag in Excel:

Smart tag explanation

Before you get started, you also need to have the outline of a template ready so that you can import data from your process by using the smart tags. For each instance of a process the smart tags will pull values from that a specific process instance, but the outline of the template will stay the same. For example, if you create a Health & Safety checklist process, the outline of the checklist is always the same but the values may differ for each time the checklist is filled out. A template outline represents the generic outline of what data will be needed in the final generated document, for example, you need the date, the company, location and relevant checks that need to be performed. See image below for an example of a template outline:

Template outline

We have briefly introduced the concept of document generation in Kianda. Now let’s look at the following areas in more detail:

What’s next

1 - Word document add-in

Introduction

You can generate reports within Kianda processes and populate the reports with data captured within each process instance. This could be useful, for example, when performing a health & safety check on a building site. A template can be used by an inspector to have a generic outline of what needs to be completed when preforming the check. Each time a check is performed, the generated report may contain different data. This data is pulled directly from the each individual check when performed by an inspector.

Before you get started

In advance of creating a template, you need to install Kianda add-in for word. Go to Installing Kianda add-in for Word or Excel and follow the steps of installation. You also need to create an template outline before starting, to learn more about what a template outline is, go to template outline.

Using the Kianda Add-in for Word

On the right-hand side of the Home tab, click on the Kianda Add-in.
In the Kianda pane log in using your Kianda username and password, select your subscription and press Continue.
Click on the process link button to get a drop-down list of Kianda processes that you have access to.
Select a relevant process and a relevant form that you want to create a template for.
Position your cursor in the Word document at the point where you would like to add in form fields.
Select the Kianda form field you would like to add to the Word template. For example Company field in the Request form as shown below.
Click on at the bottom of Kianda task pane to add the form field into the template
Repeat steps 9 - 11 for as many form fields as needed and format the document as necessary.
Save the template. You can then add in the template as a File field within the process in Kianda.

List of field types accessible by Word add-in

You can use different types of input controls when creating your template for an Word document, the images below represents the value pulled from the form into a Word document for each of the input controls that are available in Kianda:

Example form with all input controls in Kianda.

Example form representing all input controls of Kianda

Word template used to represent all values from the above form.

Excel template

Word document result for the example values from the above form.

Excel workbook result from a process instance

Text box control - retrieves the value from the text box into the place that the smart tag was inserted.
List control - retrieves the value from the list field into the place that the smart tag was inserted.
Number control - retrieves the value from the number field into the place that the smart tag was inserted.
Date control - retrieves the date from the date field into the place that the smart tag was inserted.
Table control - retrieves the values for each row inside of the table. Note that when the smart tag is inserted, extra rows will appear with the same smart tags, as shown in the image below:
You need to delete all extra rows that appear and only leave one, as shown in the image below:
File control - retrieves the hyperlink to the file that is stored in the file field. When you click on the file, it will open it in browser.
User picker control - retrieves the name of the user as a value.
Toggle control - retrieves a No value when the toggle is turned off, and a Yes value when the toggle is turned on.

What’s next

With Kianda word add-in you can create templates which can be then used to generate dynamic word documents from the created template, to learn more how to generate a word document go to Generate word document.

There is a Kianda Add-in for Excel that is added in the same way as the Kianda Add-in for Word. Usage is very similar allowing you to connect an Excel spreadsheet to Kianda processes to create a template that can be used within processes. To learn more about adding Kianda to excel go to Excel workbook add-in.

2 - Excel workbook add-in

Introduction

You can generate excel workbooks within Kianda processes and populate the workbooks with data captured within each process instance. This could be useful, for example, when working with a lot of table data within Kianda. The add-in will automatically populate excel cells with the data from a table within your process. Each time value changes inside of a table, those values will be reflected in the Excel workbook every time you generate a new workbook.

Before you get started

In advance of creating a template, you need to install Kianda add-in for word. Go to Installing Kianda add-in for Word or Excel and follow the steps of installation. You also need to create a template outline before starting, to learn more about what a template outline is, go to template outline.

Using the Kianda Add-in for Excel

On the right-hand side of the Home tab, click on the Kianda Add-in.
In the Kianda pane, log in using your Kianda username and password, select your subscription and press Continue.
Click on the process link button to get a drop-down list of Kianda processes that you have access to.
Select a relevant process and a relevant form that you want to create a template for.
Select a cell in the Excel workbook that you want to use to store the data from your process.
Select the Kianda form field you would like to add to the Excel template. For example Population table field in the Generate Excel form as shown below.
Click on at the bottom of Kianda task pane to add the form field into the template. Note that when you select a Table into the template, only the Title columns appear. This is because the add-in will look for all rows with the specific column name and insert the values into the excel workbook. See below for an example:
When you add in the above table into Excel as a template smart tag, it will look as follows:
The resulting excel workbook of the above table and template is shown below:
Repeat steps 9 - 11 for as many form fields as needed and format the workbook as necessary.
Save the template. You can then add in the template as a File field within the process in Kianda.

List of field types accessible by Excel add-in

You can use different types of input controls when creating your template for an Excel workbook, the images below represents the value pulled from the form into an Excel workbook for each of the input controls that are available in Kianda:

Example form with all input controls in Kianda.

Example form representing all input controls of Kianda

Excel template used to represent all values from the above form.

Excel template

Excel workbook result for the example values from the above form.

Excel workbook result from a process instance

Text box control - retrieves the value from the text box into the cell that the smart tag was inserted.
List control - retrieves the value from the list field into the cell that the smart tag was inserted.
Number control - retrieves the value from the number field into the cell that the smart tag was inserted.
Date control - retrieves the value from the date field into the cell that the smart tag was inserted.
Table control - retrieves the values for each row inside of the table. Note that when the smart tag is inserted, only the column name is presented.
File control - retrieves the name of the file that is stored in the file field, not the actual file therefore you cannot view any files that are retrieved from file fields.
User picker control - retrieves the name of the user as a value.
Toggle control - retrieves a No value when the toggle is turned off, and a Yes value when the toggle is turned on.

What’s next

With Kianda Excel add-in you can create templates which can be then used to generate dynamic Excel workbooks, to learn more on how to generate a Excel workbooks go to Generate excel workbooks.

There is a Kianda Add-in for Word that is added in the same way as the Kianda Add-in for Excel. Usage is very similar allowing you to connect a Word document to Kianda processes to create a templates that can pull data from specific process instances. To learn more about adding Kianda to excel go to Word document add-in.