Create PDF documents from DOCX template in Zapier or Power Automate

This article demonstrates how to generate PDF documents from a DOCX template with the help of Plumsail Documents processes. We will use a DOCX document as a template. And with the help of Processes, we will receive the result file in PDF format.

The Processes are a user-friendly intuitive interface for creating documents from templates, converting them, and delivering to different systems for further management.

In this article, we will generate a PDF invoice based on some data. This is how our final PDF file looks:

create PDF from DOCX template

Here is a step-by-step description on how to create such a process of generating PDFs from a DOCX template.

Configure Process

First, register or login to your Plumsail account.

Create new process

Click on the Add Process button.

add process button

Give a name to the Process to recognize it later. As we’re going to generate PDF invoices from a DOCX template, select DOCX for the template type.

create PDF from DOCX template

Upload the template you want to use. Here is the link for downloading the template we use in this example.

Configure template

Once you’ve created the Process and submitted the template, you’ll proceed to the next step - Configure template, which has two substeps:

  • Editor;

  • Settings.

In Editor, you can compose the template from scratch or upload a pre-made one. It’s also possible to modify the uploaded template online.

Feel free to download an invoice DOCX template we have already prepared. Then upload it to the process.

upload template file

Templating syntax

When creating your own templates, mind the templating language. Plumsail Word DOCX templates use a different approach than most other templating solutions. It uses a minimal amount of syntax to make your work done.

To learn more about the templating engine, check out the documentation article.

In short, the templating engine thinks that everything between such curly {{ }} brackets is variables where it will apply your specified data. In our case the most basic example would be {{invoiceNumber}} and {{date}} tags. They let the engine know that we want to render the invoice number and its date.

But, of course, we can implement a more complex scenario. In our template, we refer to properties inside a collection of products. For that, we use nested tags with a dot operator:

  • The {{product.name}}, {{product.price}} tags get the name, description, and price properties in the product’s object.

The templating engine is smart enough to identify what content to duplicate. It will iterate through all objects in the array to render them and add the rows automatically.

tables in DOCX templates

You can learn more about table rendering in the tables section of the documentation.

Test template

To check how the document will look at the end, click on the Test template button. You will see the dialog where you can fill in the auto-generated testing form. Form fields are created based tokens from your document template. You can adjust the look of the testing form by changing token types.

create docx from template

Once the template is ready, and you’re satisfied with the result, press Save&Next to proceed further - to the Settings substep.

There you can set the parameters as described below the picture.

configure DOCX2PDF template

Template mode

It is Testing by default. It means you won’t be charged for this process runs, but result documents will have a Plumsail watermark. Change it to Active to remove the watermark.

Output filename

Use tokens to make it personalized. They work the same way as in the template. For instance, we use the following tokens to define the output file name - {{invoiceNumber}}. As a result, we’ll receive an invoice marked with its number - Invoice 432.

Output type

By default, it is the same as your template’s format. In this particular case, it’s DOCX. We’re changing it to PDF to create PDF documents from a DOCX template.

Test template

You can test the template from the Settings as well - to check how the customized settings will appear in the resulting document. The procedure is the same as we’ve already described above.

Delivery

The next step is delivery. For demonstrating purpose, we’ll store the result file in OneDrive. But there are other options.

You need to connect to your OneDrive from the Plumsail account. After that, set the folder’s name where to save the ready document. Here you can use tokens as well.

create docx from template

You can configure as many deliveries as you need.

Start Process

Now everything is ready, and you can start generating PDF documents from a DOCX template. The step Start process will show available options with a description for each.

start process to create PDF from Word template

You can start the process :

Use Power Automate Flow and Zapier to connect the process with other apps. It enables you to gather data from one app and pass on to the process to populate a DOCX template. Thus, you can populate the DOCX template from various web forms, CRM systems, SharePoint lists, and thousands of other web applications.

Hint

You can create a fillable PDF and use it as a template to create PDF documents with the help of Plumsail Processes. It supports this type of templates as well.