The Google Sheets add-on

The AutomaDoc add-on works in a sidebar next to your spreadsheet. Each tab of the spreadsheet has its own templates; every row below the header row is a record, and each column is a placeholder.

Install and open

1. Install AutomaDoc from the Google Workspace Marketplace, where it is coming soon. Until it is listed, connect Google Sheets in the Company Portal under Integrations and generate with the HTTP trigger or the document API.
2. Open a spreadsheet and choose Extensions → AutomaDoc → Open.

The first time, Google asks you to allow the add-on. It asks for little: to read the spreadsheet you have open (not your other files), to show its menu and sidebar, and to know your email address so it can sign you in.

The sidebar has four tabs: Generate, Template, Variables and More.

Signing in

You are signed in by yourself, with the Google account you use in Google Sheets. There is no separate password. Which AutomaDoc account you land in depends on that Google account:

• a Google Workspace account joins your domain’s AutomaDoc account (the first person from the domain creates it and is its admin);
• a personal Google account (such as Gmail) gets an email account of its own.

Google must have verified your email address, or AutomaDoc cannot sign you in. Logout, under More, signs you out of the add-on; Sign in again brings you back. See Sign in with Microsoft, Google or email for how accounts work.

Connect this spreadsheet

The add-on’s own permission only lets the sidebar read the open spreadsheet. Documents are made on AutomaDoc’s servers, which read the sheet with your Google permission, so each person connects each spreadsheet once before they create or use a template on it.

1. Click Connect this spreadsheet. A Google window opens. If your browser blocks it, allow pop-ups for Google Sheets and try again.
2. Sign in with the same Google account you use in Sheets, and leave the permission for the Google Drive files you select ticked.
3. Google’s file picker shows one file: the spreadsheet you have open. Select it.
4. The window says Spreadsheet connected. Close it and go back to Google Sheets.

The sidebar notices by itself. If it still waits, click I have finished.

This is Google’s drive.file permission: AutomaDoc can open the spreadsheets you select this way and the files it creates in your Drive, and nothing else in your Drive.

If AutomaDoc’s access ends later (you disconnected, your Google admin revoked it, or the sign-in expired), the sidebar shows Reconnect Google. Connect again the same way.

Create a template

Templates belong to the tab you have open. The picker at the top lists them under Templates for and the tab’s name; move to another tab in Sheets and the sidebar shows that tab’s templates.

1. Click New template (on the Generate tab, or New Template in the picker).
2. Give it a Template Name.
3. Set the Header row: the row that holds the column names. Records are the rows below it. It is row 1 unless your sheet starts lower.
4. Choose a Key column: a column whose values are unique, such as an invoice number. None: use row numbers names each record by its row number instead.
5. Click Create template.

Choose a key column whenever other people edit the sheet. AutomaDoc finds each row again by its key when it writes a status or a link back, so sorting the sheet or inserting rows while documents are made cannot put a result on the wrong row. Rows with an empty key are skipped, and a key found on more than one row fails that document: the sidebar warns you about both before you generate.

Import template, in the picker, creates a template for this tab from an .automadoc file. See Moving templates.

Upload the template file

On the Template tab, click Upload Template File and choose a Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx) or PowerPoint (.pptx) file. The file is checked as it is uploaded; if it has errors, the sidebar says so and you upload a corrected one with Replace file.

Placeholders are named after your column names, with the same syntax as on every platform. Spaces, dots and other symbols become _, and letters and digits of any language are kept:

Column name	Placeholder
Customer	{Customer}
Invoice No.	{Invoice_No_}
Unit price	{Unit_price}

A second column with the same name becomes {Notes_2}, a third {Notes_3}, so one never overwrites the other. A column with no name is left out.

What each kind of cell gives the template

Every cell prints what the sheet shows. Filters such as number, currency and date work on the value underneath.

In the cell	In the template
Text	The text
Number, currency, percent	A number, printed as the sheet formats it
Date, date and time	A date, printed as the sheet formats it
Checkbox	Yes or no, for {#if Paid}…{/if}
Dropdown	The option; a multi-select dropdown is a list
People chips	A list of people (name and email)
A link, or a rich link chip	The link
File chips, or links to Drive files	Files, for pictures and {ATTACH:…}
=IMAGE("https://…")	A picture

Data and write-back settings

The Data section holds the Template Name, Header row and Key column, plus a switch to make a PDF Document (.pdf) instead of the template’s own format. Click Save after a change.

Write back to the sheet puts the results into the sheet:

• Status column: the generation status of each row is written to this column.
• Link column: a link to each generated document is written to this column. When the cell already has a link, choose Replace it or Add a new line (the earlier links are kept, one per line).

The link column needs Pro, a trial, or a seat of your own. The status column needs Pro, a trial, or a Business seat. Without them, the sidebar says so and the settings stay off. See Plans, seats and packs.

Delete template, at the bottom of the tab, deletes the template. Your sheet is not touched.

Start from columns

Start from columns, next to Upload Template File (or Replace file), makes a Word template with a placeholder for every column of the tab, and the columns of its related tabs as loops, and stores it as the template’s file. Save your changes first: the starter is made from the saved header row and related tabs.

File name and documents per Generate

In the Data section, Output Filename Pattern names each file: column names in curly brackets are replaced by the row’s values, as in Invoice-{Invoice_No_}. Leave it empty for the template’s name and the row.

For a Word template, Documents per Generate chooses One document per record, or one document from all the selected rows: a list, the template repeated for each row, or a sheet of labels. See Combined documents.

Related tabs

Rows of another tab can go into each document: the lines of an invoice, a customer’s details. Under Related tabs, click Add a relation and set:

• Name in the template: the placeholder, such as Items;
• Rows from the tab: the tab that holds the rows;
• Its column to match: the column of that tab holding this row’s value, such as the invoice number;
• Matched with this tab’s column: the key column, or another column of this tab;
• Rows: Every matching row (a loop) for {#Items}{Description}{/Items}, or The first matching row for {Client.Name}.

Click Save. A relation follows its tab when the tab is renamed. A template takes at most 20 relations.

Variables

The Variables tab lists every placeholder of the template, read from the tab and its related tabs. Click one to copy it, then paste it into your template. A related tab’s columns are listed under its loop or nested record.

Select rows and generate

1. Open the Generate tab and choose the template in the picker.
2. Select the rows in the sheet: click a row number, and hold Shift or Ctrl (⌘ on Mac) for several. Selecting cells counts the rows they are on.
3. The sidebar counts the rows (1 row selected, 12 rows selected). Click Generate document or Generate {count} documents.

Up to 500 rows go in one Generate. If the sidebar stops following your selection (it pauses after a while without activity), click Refresh.

A progress card follows the documents. Each finished one has Download and Print; Cancel stops the ones not started yet.

If the template makes one document from many records, the sidebar offers Selected (n) or Whole tab, and makes one document from up to 500 rows.

Where the documents go

• Always: the progress card in the sidebar, to download or print.
• With a link column: the file is also saved in your Google Drive, in the same folder as the spreadsheet, or in My Drive when AutomaDoc cannot reach that folder. The row’s cell gets a link to it, named after the file. One document made from many rows is saved once and linked from each of its rows.
• With a status column: each row shows its status as the document is made.

Pictures and files

Because AutomaDoc reads only the files you selected for it, a picture must be one of these:

• a public link to a picture, in the cell or in =IMAGE("https://…");
• a Drive file AutomaDoc can open: one you selected for AutomaDoc, or one it created.

A Drive file AutomaDoc cannot open is left out of the document, with a warning that names the column. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings files are added to a PDF as PDFs by {ATTACH:…}; Google exports such a file as a PDF only up to 10 MB. A file may be at most 20 MB.

Disconnect

Under More, Disconnect Google Drive access removes AutomaDoc’s access to your Google Drive files: the grant is revoked at Google, your templates are kept, and Generate asks you to connect the spreadsheet again. You can also disconnect on the Connections page of the Company Portal (see Connecting your data).

To remove the add-on itself, use Extensions → Add-ons → Manage add-ons in Google Sheets.

Plan and help

Under More, Plan shows Manage plan to an admin: plans, seats and document packs are bought in the Company Portal, which opens in your browser. A member sees which admins to ask. Help and documentation opens these pages.