JungleDocs for Office 365 | Using New & From existing rules

In this tutorial for JungleDocs 365 you will learn:

1. What New & From existing rules are
2. How to create New & From existing rules
3. How to configure New & From existing rules
4. How to use New & From existing rules to create documents

1. What are New & From existing rules?

New & From Existing rules let you create documents or list items from scratch. They also let you use the metadata of a selected list item to create a new document or list item. By configuring the rule settings, you can select which columns you would like to copy. The ability to copy field values between items and transforming them along the way is a feature we call Smart Copy.  

An example of a New & From existing rule would be Create a quotation.

What you can create with New & From existing rules:

• Contracts, Agreements, other Legal documents
• Populate different Forms
• Quotations,  Account Plans and Invoices
• Business proposals
• Project and deliveries documents
• Business Letters, Labels for envelopes
• HR documents and forms
• Presentations
• And many more...!

Frequently asked: What's the difference between New & From existing rules and Report rules?
A rule of thumb to remember how these rules differ is that New & From existing rules use multiple list items to create multiple documents, whereas Report rules use multiple items to create one document.

2. Creating a New & From existing rule

1. Navigate to the New & From existing tab in JungleDocs 365.
2. To add a New & From existing rule click New rule on the right of the screen.
3. A new window will now open, prompting the user to configure the new rule.
4. Configure your New & From existing rule (select the name, target location, template, naming automation, etc.)
   Note: Read more about the configuration option in the section below.
5. Once you have configured the rule, click OK to save it. You are now done and can select the rule in JungleDocs 365.

3. Configuration options

There are a number of options for configuring your  New & From existing rule. They are explained here.

Document target location

Select whether documents created using this Rule will be saved to a list or library or should be downloaded.

Load settings from another rule

Select this if you want to load settings from another rule. This makes it easier to create new rules.

Rule display name

Select a name for your new rule.

Select document template

Select the template you want to use for this new rule; edit an existing content type template or add a new custom template.
Learn more about creating document templates here.

Small Parts library location

Select the location of your Small Parts library if you want to use this feature. Small Parts let you merge different Word or PowerPoint files into your master template.
Learn more about Small Parts here.

Configure column automation (Smart Copy)

Decide what column values from the selected item(s) you want to copy or have inserted into the new document. Here you can configure exactly what data from which columns you want JungleDocs to export to the file which is created when you run the rule.

File naming

Configure the settings for  document naming automation. With this feature, you can let JungleDocs set document names automatically based on metadata fields, text, sequence, date value, etc. You can use this feature to streamline the naming process for all documents in your organisation and improve the overall usability of your SharePoint environment.
Read more about the best practices for document management in our blog series here.

Creation settings

Select Remove content controls & placeholders if you do not plan to update this document in the future. You also have the option to hide this rule from the list of rules displayed in the user interface. You can later re-enable the visibility from the Manage rules page.

4. Using a New & From existing rule

1. Navigate to the library or list where you want to create your new documents/list items. 
2. Select the documents/list items you want to use data from to create your new list items/documents.
3. Select JungleDocs 365 from the ribbon.
4. Click on the required New & From existing rule to run it.
5. There are several creation options when running your rule. 
   - Create
   This is the option that is selected by default. It uses the rule settings and the template assigned to this rule.
   
   - Copy Source
   You would choose this option when you want to update the placeholders / content controls / metadata of a document you created earlier.
   
   - Upload
   You would choose this option if you want to use a custom template while running this rule (i.e. not the template that is assigned to this rule).
   
6. In case you have selected a rule that includes Small Parts, the Small Parts options menu will open. Select the parts you want to be included in your document and click Generate document.
7. A new window will open. This window contains the metadata for the document, its name and any additional notes. Most of the fields will have been filled in by JungleDocs 365 already, as pre-configured in the rule. 
8. Click save and the new document will be generated and stored on your SharePoint Online (or downloaded, depending on the rule settings).

At EnovaPoint we use New and From Existing rules for:

• Quotations and invoice generation
• Smart Copy of SharePoint list items
• License certificate creation 
• Filling of Vacations Requests
• Contracts and forms generation