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How to use the Carbon PDF templates
How to use the Carbon PDF templates

How to create Carbon documents and manage their content by either dragging and dropping content items or using autofill.

Chris Bowyer avatar
Written by Chris Bowyer
Updated over a week ago

For Extralight and Light users, Carbon PDF templates simplify document creation. You can choose from 2 different families of templates, each containing seven different templates, in four different languages:

  • Evening Menu

  • Activity Program -portrait format

  • Activity Program - landscape format

  • Notice - portrait format

  • Notice - landscape format

  • Morning Mail

  • Wine Menu

πŸ’‘Tip: You can think of the Carbon PDF templates as composed of building blocks, which can either be automatically or manually filled with your existing pieces of information.

A) How to create a Carbon PDF Document

You can create a Carbon PDF easily by following these steps:

  1. Go to the Carbon feature on the Data Management Hub

  2. Click on New Document

  3. Select the template family and individual template that suits your needs
    Each template family is named A or B. Within this family, you will find seven templates with a consistent design.

  4. Give your document a name

  5. Select the applicable date

  6. The document is automatically filled with content you have prepared accordingly Alternatively, you can fill it manually as shown in the video below.

B) How to use the autofill feature

You can autofill your Carbon PDF templates by tagging the content you want to show in your Carbon PDF. Using the tagging method below will automatically notify the system to display specific Activities and Hotel information items in your templates.
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We created cheatsheets showing you how to fill the blocks in each template with Activities and Hotel information. There are two types of blocks, represented in the cheatsheets by colored boxes:

  • The green boxes represent Activity blocks, these blocks will be filled by selected Activity items happening on the publishing day of the document.
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  • The blue boxes represent Hotel information blocks, these blocks will be filled by Hotel information items.
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πŸ’‘For the rest of this article, we will use the example of the Evening menu cheatsheet below.
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​Please note that this process is the same across all Carbon templates, and can be reproduced regardless of the chosen template.

I) How to autofill Activity blocks

In the cheatsheet above, the menu itself, showing the different dishes on offer, is composed of an Activity block represented by a green box.
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Step 1: Create an Activity in the Data Management Hub

Go to the Activity feature in the Data Management Hub and create a new activity to use for the Carbon template autofill. In our example, the text in this activity will be the menu you are offering. Make sure to write it in all the languages you wish to have your template in.

Step 2: Tag the activity

Scroll down until you reach the Tags section. By tagging the activity, you will notify the system to display it in the Evening menu template. For this case, you can add two tags:

  • carbon_standard_menu will notify the system to display this activity in the according block of the Evening menu template.

  • hide_on_app will hide this activity from your Apps, so that it only appears in your Carbon template.

πŸ’‘Tip: Your Carbon templates will automatically reflect changes made to the tagged Activity.

Step 3: Enter a recurrence rule for rotating menus (optional)

If you are rotating your menus, you can create a recurrence for this activity (for example, set up a recurrence every Monday and Friday). You can then repeat the process for your other rotating menus.
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II) How to autofill Hotel information blocks

In the example cheatsheet, the footnotes, namely the list of allergens and your Hotel's address, are composed of Hotel Information blocks.
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Step 1: Create a Hotel information item in your Data Management Hub

Go to the Hotel information feature in the Data Management Hub and create a new Hotel information, which will be used for the Carbon template autofill. Just as for Actvitiy blocks, make sure to write it in all the languages you wish to have your template in.
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Step 2: Tag the Hotel Information item

Scroll down until you reach the Tags section. By tagging the Hotel information item, you will notify the system to display it in the Evening menu template. In this case, you can add two tags:

  • carbon_standard_menu_allergenes will notify the system to display this Hotel information item in the according block of the Evening menu template.

  • hide_on_app will hide this Hotel information item from your Apps, so that it only appears in your Carbon template.

πŸ’‘Tip: Your Carbon templates will automatically reflect changes made to tagged content.

C) How to hide Activities and Hotel information items from your Apps

By default, the Activities and Hotel Information you created for the Carbon autofill are visible on the Apps. Give them the tag hide_on_app to make them invisible on the Apps.
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For Hotel information items, you can also create a specific folder containing only content items created for Carbon templates. Use the tags hide_on_app to make this folder invisible on Apps.
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