Automating your first document

Automating your first document is not difficult. Many tools exist to make it as straightforward as possible. The key is to find the right one for your use case. This class will teach you how to automate a simple document on Docracy. The goal of the class is to provide you with the framework of how to automate documents. By the end of it, you should understand the core principles of document automation and the next steps of how to automate your own document.

Equipment used

Alternative equipment

Video tutorial

A video version of this class exists on Udemy. If you prefer an audio-visual format, the Udemy course covers a large amount of what is covered here. Some students have found having both the written and video materials have helped their understanding of the topic. Click here or the button below to access.

Introduction

“I can’t believe I forgot to change the name of the client in that letter,” my mentor said. “I bet she thinks I’m an idiot for calling her Norman.” My mentor was a barrister who ran his own chambers. Walking into his mahogany office always felt like I was walking into the set of “The Firm,” starring Tom cruise. He was passionate about the law and could expatiate for hours about a case he was was working on. However, his technological prowess left much to be desired.

He would search endlessly for a folder on his cluttered PC desktop. Then, open it, edit it then and there; changing clients’ names, and manually review the document before sending it. (Thinking about it now, if a hacker ever held his desktop files for ransom, he would probably have a very hefty bitcoin payment to make.) That was why in his letter, he called his client Hannah, Norman. Being quite green to the profession, I thought that was how every lawyer did it – and I later found out that many did and still do it!

Since then, I’ve had many managers and mentors, and they’ve shown me a very similar way to create documents – open a similar word file and edit it to fit the new scenario. If you think about it, that is basic document automation at work! It was not until I worked for a government agency that I saw a more sophisticated document automation implementation. They had a custom CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, and it was a bit finicky to use. The UX (User Experience) was terrible, ran unoptimised, and frequently crashed due to server instability. But, what it did have going for it, was its automatic population of predefined fields.

Why automate?

“What’s wrong with editing old word documents and manually reviewing them?” you ask. Well, there isn’t anything wrong with it. In the past, when I spoke to clients or colleagues about automating parts of their document drafting, they immediately got defensive. It’s as if they feel they are cheating or not doing it the right way by automating their documents. But you shouldn’t think like that. There are immediate benefits like:

• reducing costs, resulting in less time spent on drafting and reviewing;
• minimising errors;
• assisting in training new staff;
• happier clients.

You can free your time, and do more interesting tasks. If you’re drafting the same document over and over for tens or hundreds of times with minor changes, you’re not doing much thinking, and that can make your job stale. Keep yourself interested in your role and use automation to facilitate your growth!

Docracy demonstration

Docracy is a simple template automation website. It can be used for private and public documents. We’ll start by creating a simple letter to a recipient.

First, go to Docracy.com, and click Login/Sign Up.

Next, fill in your chosen details to create an account or log on if you already have an account.

Press Upload a document on the bottom right and then Start with a blank document. If you want, you can also upload an existing document to save yourself time.

The default setting of a document is set on private. Keep this setting unless you want everyone on Docracy to see your created document.

Write your document. Use the format [variable-name] to name your variables.

Once you have your variables, press the button just below the Document Text * button. It’s a red checkbox that allows you to name a variable.

You can also select an Auto-fill-in function. This means, every time you create another document using this template, it will autofill with known details, such as your name as Sender’s Name.

In the end, your document should look a bit like this. With the variables highlighted in dark yellow.

Once you save your document, your page should look like this.

To complete your first download, press the download download button and click Customize and Download. Your page should look like this.

You can begin to fill out the textboxes with whatever information is suitable for each variable. You can also press the Edit Full Document Text tab if you wanted to make any further changes.

Once you are finished, press download as Word Doc or PDF. Word documents allow you to make further edits, such as adding your header, styling and removing the watermark.

Congratulations! If you followed along, you would’ve automated your first document.

Here’s the raw output from the text editor of Docracy. You can copy and paste this into your editor but it won’t have the exact styling.

[sender-name]

[sender-organisation]

[sender-address]

[receiver-name]

[receiver-address]

Re: [short-topic]

Dear [short-name-receiver],

Congratulations on [full-topic]. With this, you are also entitled to a cash prize of $[prize]. To claim, please sign the bottom of this letter and return it to [sender-address]. I wish you the best of luck with future ventures!

Yours sincerely

[sender-name]

[sender-organisation]

Limitations of Docracy automation

If you have a keen eye, you probably see what limitations there are for this kind of system. How would it work with complex documents? This won’t suit my particular contract! This is too basic! And you’re right – to some degree. This sort of simple automation style is suited to documents with little to few customisations, think casual employment contracts, confidentiality agreements and basic letters. More complex systems let you choose variables to appear, thereby causing paragraphs and terms to appear/disappear. But this class is focused on getting your first automation; advanced tutorials will be available later. As you already saw, Docracy isn’t super refined. It missed the document’s bolding when it converted to PDF, and the editor doesn’t give the best representation of what the final look will be.

It is also important to keep in mind that automation probably can’t meet every document’s needs. It is meant to supplement your drafting and not completely replace it. Once you have a base document, you can edit fields that you want. And you will get the benefits of document automation as stated above. So automate as many documents as you think is helpful!

Exercise – Create your own document on Docracy

Using what you have learnt, create your own document from scratch. Make sure to create variables and name them so you can have context to what they are.

Summary

Docracy is a great way to learn the document automation process, but if you want something more advanced, I suggest looking at the Pandadoc class. Pandadoc can give you a lot of control and is suited for cost agreements/invoices with clients. It is a good second step in getting simple letters/documents automated. It also has some customer management and other tools on top of basic document automation.

Hopefully you enjoyed automating your first documents. For more classes, please have a look on the classes linked at the top bar.