Previewing and Publishing a Template

A template is not available to a quote until you publish it. This article covers checking a document with Preview PDF, clearing the overflow refusal that blocks a save, and freezing a version that quotes can build documents from.

Before you begin

You need a template you have built and saved. See Designing a Template.

Previewing the Real Render

Click Preview PDF in the editor header. A PDF preview window opens with the document rendered exactly as it will print, and it carries Re-render to build it again and Open file to open the PDF itself.

The preview renders the draft you are editing, so you do not have to save or publish first.

The canvas is a layout surface; the PDF is the truth

Where pages break, how a flowing section paginates and how text fits are all decided by the renderer. The editor says as much — “Preview PDF is the real render.” — so check anything that depends on pagination here rather than on screen.

Where your organization has quotes to draw on, Which quote to preview against lets you choose one, so the preview shows real values rather than stand-ins.

When a Box Holds Too Much

If content does not fit inside a box, the Save button counts the boxes — it reads Save · {number} over — and the save is refused rather than performed.

Hovering the button explains it, in the form “{N text boxes} hold more than fits — trim or resize before saving”. The refusal itself names each box, suggests what to do — make the box taller, or move it up the page — and says what the alternative would cost.

This refusal is protecting you from silent data loss

A clipped box prints with the overflowing text deleted — there is no mark on the page to show that anything is missing, and a clipped picture prints with its bottom cut off. That is why the save is refused rather than saved.

To clear it, do any of the following to the box the refusal names:

• Trim the content it holds
• Make the box taller, or move it up the page
• For a picture, choose a Fit in the inspector — Crop to fill keeps the picture’s shape and cuts what does not fit, and Fit inside shows all of it

You can render anyway, deliberately

Render with overflow visible produces the PDF with the overflowing content shown rather than removed — “Nothing is removed — this is the alternative to cutting it.” Text that runs past the bottom of a page carries on to the next sheet, over what is already there. It applies to that render only, so it is a way of seeing what is spilling, not a way of shipping past it.

Publishing a Version

Publishing takes a snapshot of the template and makes it available to quotes.

1. Click Publish in the editor header.
2. If the draft has unsaved changes, they are saved first — so the version you freeze is the one on screen.
3. Confirm at “Publish this version?” The dialog explains what you are committing to: “A published version is frozen and cannot be edited. Presentations pin the version they were built from, so publishing never changes a document that has already gone out.”
4. Click Publish. The badge in the header becomes published v{number}.

A published version can never be edited

Keep working on the draft and publish again when you are ready — that creates the next version and leaves the previous one exactly as it was. There is no way to change what has already been published, and that is the point: a proposal already sent to a customer must not change under them.

The draft and the published version are separate

Editing after publishing changes nothing a quote sees until you publish again. So it is safe to keep improving a template that is in daily use.

What a Quote Does With It

Once a template has a published version, an estimator can pick it when generating a document from a quote in Quote Generator. The document pins the version it was built from, which is what makes a sent proposal stable.

A template that has never been published shows draft only on the templates list and cannot be chosen.

Troubleshooting

Publish is refused

Solutions:

• An archived template cannot be published. Restore it from the templates list first — see Getting Started with Presentation Template Builder.
• If a save failed on the way — because a box holds more than fits — clear that first. Publishing saves the draft before it freezes it.

Save says a number of boxes are over

Solutions:

• Hover Save to see how much is spilling, then open the box the refusal names and trim it, make it taller, or move it up the page.
• Use Render with overflow visible to see exactly what is spilling if the box is hard to identify on screen.

The PDF doesn’t look like the canvas

Solutions:

• The PDF is the accurate one. Pagination in particular cannot be shown exactly on screen, because where a page ends depends on the renderer.
• If a typeface differs, check Body font on Page setup — only faces the renderer has installed are offered, so a face chosen elsewhere would substitute silently.

The render failed

Solutions:

• The preview names why it failed rather than only reporting that it did. Read the message before changing anything.
• If the document carries a lot of pictures, check the image budget — past its cap a render is expected to fail. See Adding Images and Managing Assets.

Related Articles

• Designing a Template — Building the document you are previewing
• Getting Started with Presentation Template Builder — Draft and published states on the templates list
• Creating Quotes with Quote Generator — Generating a document from a published template
• Sending a Quote for Signature — What happens to a finished document after it is generated