Creating the season's programme booklet from the offers

Ferienpass Elmsbrück also distributes its programme in printed form at schools and in the town hall. Until now the team has copied the offers into a Word document by hand. You design the booklet once as a Word template with markers, and fepli fills it with the season's offers on every export. For the template you need about 45 minutes, for every later export about 5 minutes.

What you need

An account of the account type Admin.
The season “Summer holidays 2027” with published offers, among them the canoe trip.
Microsoft Word or another program that saves files in the DOCX format.
A few days' lead time before the print deadline. Support sets up the template before you export the first booklet.

Step 1 – Create the booklet in Word

Everything that stays the same in every booklet is fixed in the template: page size, title page, greeting, headers and footers. That leaves little to rework after the export. Elmsbrück prints the booklet in A5.

Open a new document in Word.
Select the page size A5.
On the first page, enter the title Ferienpass Elmsbrück – Summer holidays 2027.
On the second page, enter the greeting.
Start a third page for the offers.

The document now has a title page, a greeting and an empty third page.

Step 2 – Design the section for an offer with markers

A marker is a placeholder like ${name}, in whose place fepli puts a detail of the offer on export. You design the section for a single offer, and fepli repeats everything between ${BLOCK_ANGEBOT} and ${/BLOCK_ANGEBOT} for every offer of the season. The formatting of a marker applies to the text that replaces it.

On the third page, enter ${BLOCK_ANGEBOT} in a paragraph of its own.
In the next paragraph, enter ${name} and format it as a heading.
In the next paragraph, enter ${date} and format it bold.
In the next paragraph, enter ${description}.
In the next paragraph, enter ${block_tab}.
Below it, insert a table with 1 row and 2 columns.
In the left cell, enter ${tab_label} and in the right cell ${tab_value}.
In the paragraph below the table, enter ${/block_tab}.
In the next paragraph, enter ${/BLOCK_ANGEBOT}.
Save the document as Programme-booklet-Elmsbrueck.docx.

The third page now shows the section of an offer, with markers where title, date, description and key data go.

Reference · ExportWord template

Step 3 – Send the template to support

A Word template with these markers is part of the set-up of the instance; it cannot be uploaded in the tab Export. Support stores your file and sets up the format you select on export. The same applies to every later change to the template.

Write an email to support@fepli.de.
Name the address of your instance, https://beispiel.fepli.eu.
Attach the file Programme-booklet-Elmsbrueck.docx.
Send the email.
When support has confirmed the set-up, open the season “Summer holidays 2027” in the admin panel and switch to the tab Export.

Under Format there is now an entry with the abbreviation DOCX.

Step 4 – Export the booklet

Only offers that are also on the website belong in the printed booklet, so Published offers only stays turned on. The preview shows the first offers of the selection as an Offer overview. fepli fills your template only in the file.

Under Format, select the entry with the abbreviation DOCX.
Make sure that Published offers only is turned on.
In the Preview, make sure that the canoe trip is among the offers.
Select Create export.

The page reports Export is being created with the note “Arrives under Notifications in a few minutes.”

Step 5 – Download and finish the booklet

fepli creates the file in the background and places it under the bell for 24 hours. The file is an ordinary Word document. So you take care of page breaks and final corrections in Word before the booklet goes to the printer as a PDF.

In the header, open the bell and switch to the tab Exports.
At the finished export, select the button with the file type.
Open the downloaded file in Word.
Find the section of the canoe trip and look at date and meeting point.
Set page breaks where an offer runs over 2 pages.
Save the document in Word as a PDF.

After the title page and greeting, the booklet shows one section per published offer. For the canoe trip there are title, date and description, below them the table with one row each for details such as “Meeting point”, “Fee” and “Organizer”.

What you have achieved

The programme booklet of Elmsbrück now arises from the same data as the website. If an offer changes, you create the export again and get the booklet up to date. The template stays set up for every further season.

If your case is different

If you are a super admin and want to upload the Word file yourself, create a template of the type DOCX under Settings > Exports. There the placeholders ${offer}, ${offer.name} and the others of the list apply instead of the markers of this tutorial. The template then appears under Own templates: Export templates.
If the booklet is to be ready to print without rework, fepli designs a print template for your instance. For that you send support a booklet from the previous year as a model. Super admins can create a PDF template themselves instead: Export templates. Afterwards you select the entry with the abbreviation PDF under Format; the preview then shows the print layout. If an offer runs over its page, check the export in the PDF studio first: Fix overflowing offers in the PDF studio. A print template also appears in every offer's proof as a view of its own: Offer list and offer view.
If custom properties are to appear in the booklet, e.g. “Accessible”, turn on Print in the booklet at the property. This applies to a print template as a PDF: Settings.
If the booklet goes to print before publication, turn off Published offers only. Then make sure in Word that no draft and no cancelled offer is in the booklet.