Excel add-in

The AutomaDoc add-in for Excel makes a document from each row you select in an Excel table, without leaving Excel. It runs in Excel on Windows, on the Mac and on the web.

Install it

Your Microsoft 365 admin deploys AutomaDoc to your organization from the Microsoft 365 admin center, or you try it yourself in Excel on the web: Deploy the add-ins for your organization has both, with the add-in’s manifest. Once it is installed, an AutomaDoc button appears on the Home tab. Click it to open the pane.

The pane signs you in with the Microsoft 365 account you use in Office when it can. Otherwise it shows Sign in to AutomaDoc with three choices:

Sign in with Microsoft, for your work or school account;
Sign in with Google, if your company uses AutomaDoc with Google Workspace;
Use another Microsoft account, when Office is signed in with a different one.

Personal Microsoft accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live) cannot sign in here. If your organization requires an admin to approve AutomaDoc, the pane says so and offers Open the approval link to send to your admin; see Admin consent for Microsoft 365.

The More tab shows your account, company and plan, with Sign out.

Make your data a table

AutomaDoc reads rows from Excel tables (the kind made with Format as Table). If the workbook has none, the pane shows Make your data a table: select your data with its column names and click Format as Table. The first row becomes the column names, and each column name becomes a placeholder.

The pane follows your selection: click into another table and it moves to that table. You can also pick one from the Table list at the top.

The pane stores a small link in the workbook so it finds the same templates next time, wherever the file goes (OneDrive, SharePoint, a local copy, an email attachment). A Save As copy keeps the link. Until a new workbook is saved, the pane reminds you to save it, because the link is lost otherwise.

Create a template

Templates belong to a table. To make one:

Click New template (or create one from the template picker). The Template tab shows New template for your table.
Enter a Template Name.
Choose a Key column: the column that identifies each row, such as an invoice number. It is optional but recommended. Without it a row is known by its position, which changes when the table is sorted, and AutomaDoc cannot find the row again to write back to it.
Click Create template.

Then give the template its file, under Template File:

Upload Template File takes a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) with placeholders named after your columns. Replace file swaps it later.
Start from columns makes a Word template with a placeholder for every column, ready to edit. On a template that already has a file, it asks first, because it replaces that file.

The Variables tab lists every placeholder the table offers. Click one to copy it, then paste it into your template. To write the template in Word with the fields at hand, use the Word add-in. The placeholder reference covers the syntax.

Template settings

The rest of the Template tab, saved with Save:

Section	What you set
Data and output	Template Name, Key column, PDF Document (.pdf) to convert the document to PDF, an Output Filename Pattern (column names in curly brackets, such as `{Invoice_No}`), and Picture columns.
Documents per Generate	Word templates only: one document per row, or one document from all the rows (a list, a page per row, or labels). See One document from many records.
Related tables	Rows of another table of the workbook in each document, such as invoice lines under an invoice.
Write back to the table	A Status column, and Save documents next to the workbook.

Delete Template at the bottom removes the template.

Picture columns

Tick the columns that hold links to pictures. A public web link works as it is. A OneDrive or SharePoint link needs Microsoft 365 connected and the template bound to the workbook’s file (see Save documents next to the workbook). Then place the picture in the template through a picture’s Alt Text, as on every platform.

Each relation brings rows of another table into the document. Click Add a relation and set:

Name in the template, e.g. Items: the name you use in the template.
Rows from the table: the other table.
Its column to match, and Matched with this table’s column (the key column by default). A row of the other table belongs to this row when the two columns hold the same value.
Rows: Every matching row (a loop), which you print with {#Items}…{/Items}, or The first matching row, which you read as {Customer.City}.

Generate documents

On the Generate tab:

Select the rows to use in the table. Hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) to pick rows that are not next to each other. Selected rows outside the table are left out, and the pane says how many.
Check the count under Rows. If you changed the selection without the pane noticing, click Refresh.
Click Generate document, or Generate 5 documents (with your count) for several rows.

The pane reads the selected rows itself and sends only those rows. That is why generating from a selection needs no Microsoft permission beyond signing in.

A template that makes one document from many rows offers two choices: the selected rows, or Every row shown. Rows hidden by a filter are left out.

Limits:

500 rows per Generate, and 500 rows in one combined document.
On the Free plan, 2 generations a minute.
Each table sent may have up to 50,000 rows and 500,000 cells, and everything sent at once up to 1,000,000 cells. A related table is sent whole, so a large one counts in full. The pane checks this before sending and says which table is too large.

With a key column, every selected row needs a value in it, and no two selected rows may share one. The pane names the rows to fix before anything is sent.

Get the documents

A progress card follows the job. When a document is ready, its Download button opens it in your browser, where you save it. You can cancel a job while it runs.

Status written back

Pick a Status column under Write back to the table, and each row’s progress and result are written into it:

⏳ Processing (ID: …) when the job starts;
✅ Completed (ID: …) - <file name> or ⚠️ Completed with warnings (ID: …) - <file name> followed by the warnings;
❌ and the reason when a document fails, ⏹️ Cancelled (ID: …) when you cancel it.

The pane writes these itself, so keep it open until the documents are done. It finds each row again when it writes, by its key, so sorting or filtering meanwhile is safe. Without a key column it finds the row by its contents; a row changed or removed meanwhile is skipped, and the pane says how many were missed.

Writing a status back is included with Pro and Business seats. Only the template’s owner or an account admin can change where a template writes.

Save documents next to the workbook

When the workbook is saved in OneDrive or SharePoint, you can bind the table’s templates to the file. AutomaDoc then reads the workbook in Microsoft 365 itself instead of the rows the pane sends: pictures stored in OneDrive or SharePoint are filled, and statuses are written to the file by AutomaDoc, whether or not the pane is open.

Sign in with a Microsoft 365 work account.
Under Save documents next to the workbook, click Connect Microsoft 365 and approve the request. This asks for access to files you can reach, which most organizations let only an admin approve: if so, the pane shows Open the approval link to send to your admin. See Admin consent for Microsoft 365.
Click Bind to this file.

Binding needs Excel on the web or the Microsoft 365 version of Excel; an older Office cannot look the file up. You can also connect Excel workbooks on the Connections page of the Company Portal; see Connecting your data.

The More tab also has:

Export this template (.automadoc) and Import a template (.automadoc), to move a template between tables, workbooks or accounts (see Moving templates);
Documentation and Contact support;
Unlink this workbook: the workbook no longer shows its templates and starts afresh. The templates stay in your account and in the portal.

Plans

Documents made in Excel count like any other: see Plans, seats and packs. An admin gets Manage plan, which opens the portal’s billing page in your browser; anyone else is asked to contact an AutomaDoc admin in the company. Nothing is bought inside the add-in.